Kitty
Goed geschreven, uitgebreide reportage. Een wat vaag portret van een boekhandelaar in het linkse Wageningen die in de loop van haar leven gaat denken dat ze recht heeft op geld en succes - en die in plaats van de Privedomein titels Ayn Rand gaat lezen. En die valt voor n psychopaat. Veel blijft suggestie uit de tweede hand. De zin van dit boek is.. eh..?
A fun book, placed in Britain in the 1950s, at the start of the decline of the power of the Roman Catholic Church. The story,set in that milieu, is pretty unpredictable. Well written, nicely observed with well-rounded characters, down-to-earth yet fantasy at the same time. Not a page turner, but an interesting read because it keeps you in the dark about what is going to happen next all the time. No laziness or sloppiness here -as compared to many contemporary bestselling authors - but a writer who seemed to really enjoy herself in the world she created. Will definitely read more of Mantel.
I hesitate about the amount of stars. The beginning of this book was very witty, I kept laughing out loud. Towards the end is lost a lot of momentum, and it got less funny. I do not think that great books lose momentum ever.
Nonetheless, the hilarious so-called autistic inner dialogue of the protagonist was most enjoyable. For that alone the book deserves four stars.
This book was great at the start, but got distasteful towards the end. The evolvement of the relationship between the two sisters was interesting and well done. But the crimes in the book were so horrific they sort of turned me off. Give me a great psychological thriller anytime, but spare me the gruesomer and gruesomer things the villains do. You can write really good books without them, too.
Fossum has a very pleasant writing voice. Mild and warm. She dives deep into the thoughts and details of every character's lives. There is relatively little suspense, no blood curdling horror, or endlessly proteacted action scenes: she writes psychological portraits of people in difficult situations.
Stopped reading at 4/5. Interesting experiment, small book. Chapters of the story mixed with discussions between writer and protagonist. Some of those discussions offer some insight in the process of thinking up the story, but they are so few and unremarkable that as an editor I would have cut those chapters.
I liked the protagonist - and his thoughts - and the way the story unfolded, up until where the disaster starts to unfold. The relationship between the 2 main characters was the center of the book: once that ended I lost all interest in the last bit, especially since it then changes over to a whole ‘nother genre. From a psychological novel to a crime story.
Anyway. I like Fossum a lot and this book shows she can write in other genres, too.
Stopped reading this book at 2/3 of the way. Wanted to try it because Ann Patchett said it was heartbreaking. I disagree. While I understand that compulsive eating or not eating can be a way to cope with severe mental trauma - and feel for people who have to go through this, I found the book intolerably shallow. It only describes, it does not analyze or teach or help.
The authors opinions are never surprising. Her writing lacks wit and depth. I don't understand why she is so well known for her writing.
I am reading the Will Trent series in the summer holidays, while pulling weeds and watering cucumbers. I was very enthousiastic about the first book. The others, I feel, are OK. It's like a tv-series you keep following because it's entertaining.
Plot's OK, emotionally - the developments go really slow. Sarah doubting Will all over in every book, for instance, gets a bit boring. The Angie-angle in this sequel is over the top.
I came late to this much praised book: a love story of teenagers dying from cancer. It strikes me as pretty true. Romanticized and over-adjectivized,and the kids seem too nice to their parents, yet the feelings feel truthful.
Anyway, I loved it. It is, I am told, very hard to write for teenagers. Green can do it. I know I would have loved it back when I was 16.
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Reread in 2025, at the same time as my son, who has terminal cancer. For him, it is almost too confronting. He thinks the teenagers in the book are miniturized grownups. As a mom in this position, thus time, I like it. Everything is compressed an upwittied, to make it palatable. Still, that is how parents behave, these are the questions young cancer patients have.
A very disappointing read after the first of the series. Halfway through the book falls flat: the riddle's solution is totally unbelievable and the plot shakey after that. I lost all interest even in the characters I liked so much in the first book. Hard to understand how Ward could be such a bad judge of het own work after In Bitter Chill.
The neurological part of the amnesia in this book seems utter nonsense to me, and the final neurological developments a convenient but rather lazy solution. Hence, the outcome of the plot was a little thin.
But the characterization and the buildup of the story was very nice. Interesting main character. A good read, even if the plot could have been better.
