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routergirl's review
4.0
What a lovely tale. There were times I thought it was veering into implausible mysteries, and I started to get worried, but then it came back around. This is a tale of mistakes made, through three generations of women. It's the tale of a woman who may just be falling apart, but is held together by her sister. It's the story of loving a sibling, or a father, or a grandmother, even when their choices have left you wounded.
Definitely recommend.
Definitely recommend.
wendoxford's review against another edition
3.0
I read this in a day from which my conclusions are implicit. It was a thought provoking layered family story that skilfully seep into each other. The three generational voices throw the reader into the individuals very convincingly and the details which mark all our lives are so well drawn in that their significance neither jars nor makes you wonder why they are there.
My huge disappointment which overwhelmed the 99% great stuff, was the ending. Felt imposed to create a conclusion rather than the natural segues in the rest of the novel
My huge disappointment which overwhelmed the 99% great stuff, was the ending. Felt imposed to create a conclusion rather than the natural segues in the rest of the novel
kba76's review against another edition
3.0
Thanks to NetGalley for the ARC of this.
Telling the stories of three different women-Una, Laura and Kate-we are invited to explore their feelings about key events in their lives. This is narrated in a very straightforward manner, but it took me some getting used to before I felt I'd worked out who was who and how they were related.
There was nothing particularly complex about the style of this. It was quite engaging, but not quite as much I'd hoped it would be be.
Telling the stories of three different women-Una, Laura and Kate-we are invited to explore their feelings about key events in their lives. This is narrated in a very straightforward manner, but it took me some getting used to before I felt I'd worked out who was who and how they were related.
There was nothing particularly complex about the style of this. It was quite engaging, but not quite as much I'd hoped it would be be.
saarahn's review against another edition
3.0
Three journeys woven into one.
A book intended for serious people, the tale follows the lives of three women: Kate, Laura and Una. We are introduced to them as separate people, but as the tale develops we see the nature of their relationship.
We follow them, we see their lives as they spiral out of control - from their happier moments (falling in love) to their worst (losing someone). We see it all. As a reader this is what I most appreciated, Saint's characters are explored in depth, we are able to see more than what is at the surface. There were characters like Ken who I had a number of opinions about- all of which conflicted.. I can't say I loved any character. When you see someone at their worst, you require a sort of equilibrium with their good moments and I don't think that was the case for any of the characters. Though, I feel Laura came close, not earlier on whilst in her innocence and naivety, but later when she discovered her independence.
Speaking (or rather, writing) of Laura, I desired to know more about her, and her willingness to commit the all-important action seemed foolish since she had no actual plans in regard to using her 'new' or 'potential degree'.
In the same way, the secrets Kate discovers were a huge let down. We learn that maybe there's hope for her. The suspense built up by Una's letters was huge...but the result didn't fulfil its potential. I wished for scandal, but what we got was heroism. I simply can't see the prospect of a mother very much in love with her family giving them up.
Though this theme of loss (especially the loss of love is consistent throughout the novel, broadening on a range of other characters' experiences. This is another style of Saints' that I liked, she refused to keep any character on the sidelines. Only too often do we read books where there is a far more interesting character (than the protagonists) who are ignored or mentioned briefly. In spite of this, I did want to know what pushed Jimmy to be unfaithful to his wife, believe me I know (in huge detail) her bad traits, though I feel these fail to justify his actions satisfactorily. Oh well, like Kate, perhaps we will not find an explanation. Additionally, I'd have liked to know of Ken's childhood....I understand that the tale was not about him but the heart wants what it wants...
I recommend this to anyone looking for a long read, there is no humour or comedy. Though I do recall smiling at the American tourist looking for Elton John. We may be English but that doesn't mean we can give you the address to any other Englishman! I have not yet had this experience, but I've heard of it before.
I'm afraid the reasoning behind the title escapes me, I cannot connect the title to the tale told. Though, I do like the cover: it's very fitting. In the book we are given mere glimpses of the characters and it's up to us to connect the dots. And we also quickly begin to understand that there is no 'true' picture pf anyone. Our tales and memories can become distorted.
I received this novel through NetGalley.
A book intended for serious people, the tale follows the lives of three women: Kate, Laura and Una. We are introduced to them as separate people, but as the tale develops we see the nature of their relationship.
We follow them, we see their lives as they spiral out of control - from their happier moments (falling in love) to their worst (losing someone). We see it all. As a reader this is what I most appreciated, Saint's characters are explored in depth, we are able to see more than what is at the surface. There were characters like Ken who I had a number of opinions about- all of which conflicted.. I can't say I loved any character. When you see someone at their worst, you require a sort of equilibrium with their good moments and I don't think that was the case for any of the characters. Though, I feel Laura came close, not earlier on whilst in her innocence and naivety, but later when she discovered her independence.
Speaking (or rather, writing) of Laura, I desired to know more about her, and her willingness to commit the all-important action seemed foolish since she had no actual plans in regard to using her 'new' or 'potential degree'.
In the same way, the secrets Kate discovers were a huge let down. We learn that maybe there's hope for her. The suspense built up by Una's letters was huge...but the result didn't fulfil its potential. I wished for scandal, but what we got was heroism. I simply can't see the prospect of a mother very much in love with her family giving them up.
Though this theme of loss (especially the loss of love is consistent throughout the novel, broadening on a range of other characters' experiences. This is another style of Saints' that I liked, she refused to keep any character on the sidelines. Only too often do we read books where there is a far more interesting character (than the protagonists) who are ignored or mentioned briefly. In spite of this, I did want to know what pushed Jimmy to be unfaithful to his wife, believe me I know (in huge detail) her bad traits, though I feel these fail to justify his actions satisfactorily. Oh well, like Kate, perhaps we will not find an explanation. Additionally, I'd have liked to know of Ken's childhood....I understand that the tale was not about him but the heart wants what it wants...
I recommend this to anyone looking for a long read, there is no humour or comedy. Though I do recall smiling at the American tourist looking for Elton John. We may be English but that doesn't mean we can give you the address to any other Englishman! I have not yet had this experience, but I've heard of it before.
I'm afraid the reasoning behind the title escapes me, I cannot connect the title to the tale told. Though, I do like the cover: it's very fitting. In the book we are given mere glimpses of the characters and it's up to us to connect the dots. And we also quickly begin to understand that there is no 'true' picture pf anyone. Our tales and memories can become distorted.
I received this novel through NetGalley.
oczerniecka's review against another edition
1.0
It was so bad! It hurts me how bad it was. I really didn't enjoy my time with this book, I forced myself to get to a half, and then I just was skimming the pages. There are great books waiting for me, so there was no point on focusing on this one.
What can I say? Book is split on Lauren's and Kate's chapters, and sometimes there is a chapter dedicated to Una showing her letters or diary entries. All the characters seem to always overreacting or underreacting, their dialogs are full of clichés and just seem fake. Some parts just made me cringe there we that bad. Laura at the beginning it portrayed as if she had a mentality of a 12 year old girl, but she's in fact 18 year old and just had to face a huge tragedy in her life. And I just feel annoyed with her. The same with Kate. I just was feeling annoyed. They way all the evens were shown did not make me feel for her at all. Some parts of dialogs are trying to convince us how much bad stuff happened to Kate, but it is not convincing. I'm sorry that I have to be convinced, but word created in the book does not look convincing, and not for a moment I felt bad for anyone, I was indifferent to it all.
Don't read this book. It's not worth your time.
And I now need to binge on a good book or else I go mad!
What can I say? Book is split on Lauren's and Kate's chapters, and sometimes there is a chapter dedicated to Una showing her letters or diary entries. All the characters seem to always overreacting or underreacting, their dialogs are full of clichés and just seem fake. Some parts just made me cringe there we that bad. Laura at the beginning it portrayed as if she had a mentality of a 12 year old girl, but she's in fact 18 year old and just had to face a huge tragedy in her life. And I just feel annoyed with her. The same with Kate. I just was feeling annoyed. They way all the evens were shown did not make me feel for her at all. Some parts of dialogs are trying to convince us how much bad stuff happened to Kate, but it is not convincing. I'm sorry that I have to be convinced, but word created in the book does not look convincing, and not for a moment I felt bad for anyone, I was indifferent to it all.
Don't read this book. It's not worth your time.
And I now need to binge on a good book or else I go mad!
kali's review
3.0
Poignant. I enjoyed the dual narrative points of view, and the intertwining of question and answer posed by each one. Questions such as what might compel someone to leave their loved ones, and how those behind cope.
jaironside's review
4.0
This was a different book than I would normally go for but that did not stop it being enjoyable, thought provoking and beautifully written. I saw a little of this in it's very early stages and was thrilled when I heard the author had got a publishing contract as I would get to read the rest. Love and loss are strong themes in this novel, and underpinning it all is the sense of interconnectedness we find in novels such as Isabel Allende's House of Spirits- our lives are not our own but spiral and twist and part, interconnecting and affecting each other. I agree with another reviewer that there were aspects of second and third tier characters I wanted to know more about but as a novel that was at least partially about secrets and ho they can both poison you and set you free, it made sense that some back stories were kept in the shade. This was a wonderful debut - one I expect I will get more from on a reread.
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