The Invisible Hour

[SarahKat, Buddy Reads]

This thread is to discuss The Invisible Hour by Alice Hoffman.

Pages: 272 pages

Length: 1 month (May)

Participants:Michelle1, Rebecca

Everyone reads at their own pace during a Buddy Read. Because participants can be at different parts of the book at different times, it is extremely important to mark spoilers so that the book is not ruined for someone who is not as far along as others!!!

Mark spoilers by placing {spoiler} before the text and {/spoiler} after the text but use the < and > instead of the { and }.

[Michelle E]

I am waiting for this from another library, so I will be reading toward the latter part of the month.

[Michelle E]

I am about 30% into the book and am enjoying it. (view spoiler)[

Her writing is so lush I can picture The Community and it's inhabitants. I live in southeastern New Hampshire and western Massachusetts is about 2 hours away, so it's familiar for me, which is a plus. :^)

Ivy has died and I am intrigued by what Mia is going to do now that she no longer has a protector. Also, she has the magical Nathaniel Hawthorne's Scarlet Letter book with an inscription seemingly written to her.



(hide spoiler)]

[Michelle E]

I am about 70% into the book.
(view spoiler)[
The part where Mia has managed to escape the Community and has a chance to go to college and to work in the New York library was good. I really thought Joel was going to kidnap her and bring her back.

The love story between Mia and Hawthorne felt a little unbelievable. Maybe it's core to the story--there's still 30% left of the book.

Any idea why the color red is so often mentioned? I noticed it in another book I read by Hoffman: Blackbird House--with a pair of red boots on the cover--and the boots are mentioned over and over in both books.

I adored Blackbird House. I was hoping this book might be somewhat similar in tone.

(hide spoiler)]

[Michelle E]

Well, a thunderstorm went through last night and knocked out my internet service, so I'm typing this on my phone... I have finished the book.

(view spoiler)[OK, I see where the relationship between Hawthorne and Mia was necessary. The second time they meet is better than the first. I liked the way the Scarlet Letter disappeared from Mias's book, as Hawthorne wrote.

The ending of Mia and Joel's relationship felt anticlimactic. (hide spoiler)]