The Seasonal Reading Challenge discussion
WINTER CHALLENGE 2024
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Group Reads Discussion - The Moonstone
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I had thought that I had previously read this or had seen a version of it on television, but the plot didn't seem familiar at all so I must have confused it with something else.The book was longer than I expected, but held my interest. The notes explained that it was originally a serialized novel which explains the length. (Dickens and Dumas also had their novels published as serials.)
I enjoyed the story being narrated by different people, and I felt that the voices were distinct. I preferred Mr. Betteridge and appreciated that he got to sum up at the end.
The opium part of the plot seemed farfetched. Could this really happen? Or did it fit more with the understanding of drugs in the 19th century and not current medicine?
I am not going to lie, this book almost killed the challenge for me! I am happy I went through it and finished it but it took way longer than I had hoped.I found myself getting frustrated by the endless dialogues and plot delays. At the same time, I didn't care about the character and what happened to the moonstone. I also agree with the previous comment that some parts of the story seemed farfetched, even unrealistic.
On the positive side, I am happy I finished this for the history of literature value this book has and how it lays out some of the mystery and detective story tropes that we see that are being followed even in today's works in the genre.
I have owned a copy of this book for awhile, and its length always had me going on to something else. However it being a Challenge group read presented the right opportunity to pick it up. At its heart it is a mystery, with a rotating cast of characters who tell the story from their own point of view. This is an interesting technique, but it does lengthen the story by quite a bit. It does get bogged down in descriptive details at time, but it has a few quite interesting twists and turns.
In the end the reader is still left with a bit of a mystery, which works ok with this one,
The requirement for task 20.10: You must participate in the book's discussion thread below with at least one post about the contents of the book or your reaction to the book after you have read the book.