francesmthompson's Reviews (976)

I think the moral of this story is trust no-one, and suspect everyone... Quite a rollercoaster of a suspense story that primarily tackles a brilliant concept; if a woman is guilty of adultery, is she also guilty of more?

This novel did not go where I expected it to and I am kind of reeling from the final twist, almost in a "I wish I hadn't read that" kind of way... I'm fairly new to this genre so found the near constant inner dialogue quite hard to get used to (I definitely prefer showing, not telling) but I can't deny the characters were suitably menacing when they needed to be and I was keen to know what was really going on from the outset.

This book is about so much more than the actual choice Sophie must make. It's wild in its slightly unhinged jumping and jolting narrative, and is steeped thick in research of the Second World War. I found it fascinating how close the author placed himself to the narrator Stingo, including references to other books he wrote, and was a little surprised by how dominant a theme sex was. My one discomfort with the book that left me scratching my head more than anything was

Spoiler

how Sophie's pivotal children weren't mentioned until close to the revelation of what her soul-shaking choice would have to be. At first no children were mentioned in flashbacks, then only one, and finally the second child popped up just in time. I sense this was deliberate but it didn't help me see her as a mother, which would then maybe distanced hers and my emotions from the key heart-shattering event.

But I would recommend this book to many, as much for the other storylines as the one everyone already knows about...

I feel the same way about this novel as I do the author's first. It was easy to read, and I enjoyed doing so, but I didn't fall in love with the book in any real way. I felt distanced from the characters, I felt unsure of motives and meanings, I wanted more depth to the story, the issues, the people and their relationships.

About a quarter of the way into this story I didn't know if I could continue. I'm 25 weeks pregnant with my second son and I fell into a sobbing well of sorrow thinking how tragic Leon's situation is, and yet how many Leons in the world there are.... and how no child should experience what he does. But I continued because that was a miniscule ask compared to what such kids would have to face. Needless to say his plight and his love for his mother and brother pulled at all my heartstrings and made me go check on my sleeping three-year-old more times than I usually do at night. There were times when I really did want a bit more depth to all of the characters but maybe this was deliberately not the case because the story is told from Leon's perspective, but as hard as I think some of the conversations could be, I am adding this book to stories I will read to my sons when they're older... and I have less hormones flowing through my body.

Loved the concept (time travel back to the summer and place Saturday Night Fever was made - I'll jump on that multi-coloured dance floor!) but the writing (including more than a handful of typos!), the v v v obvious twist (that actually didn't make sense), and the pace, and the overall too big-a-leap-of-faith all left me feeling a bit sober and like I wasn't wearing my best dancing shoes...

While the characters and writing was convincing and solid (as you'd expect from Queen Joanne Harris) I found the setting of a boys school a bit odd and dated and in the end just plain sexist/misogynistic (

when it was revealed which teacher sexually assaulted boys it was sort of overlooked or ignored or dismissed as no longer being worth punishment which in today's climate felt very backward - and rightly so!

) so I couldn't really fully enjoy the plot that was interesting and dark and engaging, but just not what I personally enjoy in a novel, I guess.

Learnt a lot reading this but still feel the most significant take-aways could have been easily condensed into an article. Still will definitely pick it up and read again as my boys get older.

One of those books I nearly didn't pick up because of the mixed bag of reviews, but goodness me I'm glad I did. So well put together, only feeding us really what we need to know in terms of characters, dialogue and plot, I just loved how real the people felt, and how raw their feelings were felt. Yes, it focuses on mostly third world problems happening (or caused by!) a group of well-to-do pseudo intellectuals and creatives who are all varying levels of self-obsessed, but that is obviously what I relate to - a fact I'll have to reconcile another time because I'm off to read the author's second book now!