octavia_cade's Reviews (2.64k)

This is very much a book of two halves. The first half was nicely written, atmospheric in the threat and conflict of burgeoning war, but slow as a wet week. Then at about the halfway point, a plot appeared! Actually giving the characters something to do made such a difference.

Look, I'm all for atmosphere, but a book can't survive on that alone. And when you're padding out the intro to the midway point, you've rambled on for far too long. It should have moved beyond the molasses of minutiae a good hundred pages earlier - especially as the effects of war were shown so much more clearly in the second half than in the first, which pretty much negates the reason for the whole sad drag to begin with.

Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, from the point of view of his young household servant, Mary Reilly. Mary herself is the high point of the book - cool, collected, most deliberately not a whiner even though her life is a harsh one. (Martin doesn't glamourise servant life as anything but hard labour and long hours.) It's very easy to feel for her, to get caught up in her confusion even though, being familiar with the originating story, I knew what was happening and how it would end.

It's one of those books that's very easy to read - the writing flows nicely, carrying you along. I'm not sure that the conceit of "these are the real diaries of!" in the final pages is necessary, though. Granted, it provides an excuse for the unlikely level of literacy, but that could have been done equally well with a publisher's note or even nothing. We're already suspending disbelief, after all...

Well-written and sharply observed. There is, it must be said, a fantastic ending. Yet it's Atwood's first novel, I believe, and I wonder if the pacing isn't a little off - the book can feel glutinous, as if there's not a lot of forward momentum. That's potentially by design of course: the main character, Marian, is being slowly eaten away at by the conventions of her very normal life, and plots are lost.

I should feel sympathy. Social conventions can be very restrictive, I understand... but I wanted to tell her "Get a hold of yourself, for God's sake!" I suppose at least I'm aware she deserves some sympathy, even if I don't feel that inclined to give it.

Technically proficient. The writing is crisp and clear and observant, and that writing on its own would I think deserve a higher rating than I've given the book as a whole. I'd certainly be interested in giving Mandel another go (I've heard fabulous things about "Station Eleven").

It's just this book... I'm sorry, but I simply couldn't get into it. Honestly I thought it was pretty dull. I didn't connect emotionally to any of the characters, and I saw the "surprise" towards the end a mile away. Competent writing doesn't make up for that.

Well-written, with some lovely passages, yet I couldn't warm to it. The characters are nearly all mildly unpleasant, but I think my real disconnect from the book lies with the main character.

I don't have to like a protagonist but I need to find something interesting about them, and that need is even more crucial when a story's written in the first person, as this is. Claude, our hero, is rather flabbily self-indulgent and absolutely devoid of humour. I simply didn't care what happened to him, and couldn't understand why any of the other characters did. That's a problem that can't be surmounted, to my mind - quite different from the wonderful Mary Reilly, also written by Martin. Hard to believe they're from the same author.

Closer to three and a half stars, I think, but I'm rounding up.

The back cover has a quote from a review comparing this to The Turn of the Screw, and I think that's an accurate comparison. Not in subject, but in a sort of sinister muddling of reality, as the main character adapts to life as an un-person, essentially, in a repressive religious environment. She sees truths and half-truths both, and can never quite get anyone to take her seriously - even her husband and fellow expatriates start slowly treating her as less-than, though they'd honestly deny it.

Quietly horrifying, and informed by the author's own experiences of Jeddah.

A quick, readable overview of the purpose of human myth. Possibly too quick - there's a lot to cover and an overview is really all that can be managed. I'm not entirely sure that I agree with all of Armstrong's inferences and conclusions, but I was certainly interested.

A quick, enjoyable read, if a trifle predictable. I very much liked the heroine, however - Alanna is a total Hufflepuff, prepared to work her arse off to get what she wants and that's a trait I really admire so good for her. I'm not so enamoured of the magic side of the plot, and I would have liked to see more of whiny brother Thom, but I expect the latter at least will turn up more in later books.

The least interesting book of that beloved series of my childhood, The Dark is Rising. I mean, Over Sea, Under Stone is enjoyable and I've read it quite often, but the kids aren't nearly as interesting as Will and Bran. They're very goody-goody and Jane in particular is a bit of a wet blanket here, which is a little disappointing as she's the main female character in the series. But the whole treasure hunt and map thing caught my imagination wonderfully as a kid, and I still enjoy that aspect of the story today.

Enjoyable romp through the underbelly of Victorian London. I liked the character Dodger quite a bit, but as a whole the book didn't rise to the heights of some of the later Discworld books for me. I'm not quite sure why, except the more famous (or even notorious) people Dodger ran in to (lots and lots, by the end of the book) the less seriously I took it. It just seemed a bit too much crammed in all together, with perhaps not enough exploration of what was actually there. A bit like ticking off a list. But Pratchett is still Pratchett, and I'll happily read anything he writes.