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A Secret Alchemy Emma Darwin
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Misfit
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Jul 09, 2009 05:16AM
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I would be, since I've actually read it!
I have just started reading this (having got a brand new perfect copy dirt cheap) and I'm impressed by the writing. It's very well written. I'm a bit less keen on the mixing of periods, but that's me, I prefer straight medievals! Elizabeth doesn't seem overly witchy up to now, in fact the medievals seem to believe in medieval Catholic Christianity, which is a bit unusual in novels I find. I think this is going to be good...
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I did not really like it. I liked the Medieval parts okay but the rest just didn't "click" with me. The present day characters, to me, were not interesting or engaging. I really just didn't care what happened to them and I could never figure out why the two time periods were mixed, except for the fact that the main character was going to write about the Woodvilles. I would've preferred it to be all about the Woodvilles.
SOME SPOILERS HERE!!Yes, it was interesting to read the 'mixed' reviews. The more I have got into it the less I seem to like it. At a technical level the writing is good. Very polished indeed, and the book itself is nicely produced. I think it may even have been edited. These are not qualities to despise nowadays.
However, well, there's a lot of howevers. Elizabeth comes over as surprisingly placid - about the only time she stands up for herself is when she refuses to become Edward's mistress. I longed for her to get her teeth into someone or plot someone's destruction. I think she shouted at her ladies once, that was about it.
The 'Antony' part was best, but essentially he's retrospecting on his life during his last 24 hours on earth, and this is a bit restrictive.
The modern story did nothing for me at all. It didn't really link in at any obvious level, and the modern narrator's 'discovery', such as it was, had me thinking 'big ******* deal'. I was expecting some real break through here.
Oh, and for me there were too many flips between the characters. I was just getting into Antony and we suddenly slipped into one of the others, and I was just getting into her when...
Finally, I think anyone who didn't know the era would be all at sea. This is hard to judge (I probably know the Yorks' history better than my own) but I felt that it was really helpful to have that knowledge when reading this.
Just to add, this is one of those books I want to re-read before doing a review. I will give it a month or two and see what I think of it at second reading. (This is an honour I usually reserve for the likes of Dorothy Dunnett.)
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