Reviews

I struggle with reading Hilary Mantel’s work, mostly because of her writing style. I’m sure that in a technical sense, she’s brilliant, and it’s different and quirky but I do feel that it detracts from the stories.

There were some brutal, sad moments in this book, and I feel for the Giant, but I would have liked more from it really.

terese_utan_h's review against another edition

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dark medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.0

maddiekinsp's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional funny sad slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes

3.25

jameskeates's review against another edition

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3.0

Odd fairy-tale of a novel about an Irish giant and a Scottish anatomist, based (loosely) on some real personalities in eighteenth century London. As well written as you would expect from Hilary Mantel, it almost seemed like a short story after the length of some of her books! Atmospheric, but a bit too arty at times for my taste, and I found the plot harder to engage with than her excellent historical novels.

maxxreads's review against another edition

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dark sad medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

bluestarfish's review against another edition

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4.0

Is this supposed to be horror? Hilary Mantel does float around that area with this (and some of her other books I've read), but there is more to it including storytelling within the story, surreal streaks, hedgerow wisdom versus scientific enquiry, poetry, and giants. Giant O'Brien and his rag-tag band run away from famine and poverty and violence in Ireland to, well, famine, poverty and violence in London. This is the era of freakshows and the credulous as well as John Hunter who is after as many corpses as he can get hold of to cut them up. Slowly, slowly the paths of these two men cross, but there is more going on than just a story about how the giant came to London and how John Hunter wanted his bones for his collection. Hilary Mantel has an amazing ability to create characters that hang around in your mind forever...

kathrinpassig's review against another edition

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4.0

Vor allem der Anfang war großartig, irische Helden im Schlamm. Ich kannte diesen Stil bisher nur von Flann O'Brien, aber vielleicht ist es ein verbreiteter irischer Stil und ich lese nur zu wenig aus der Gegend. Fünf Sterne für den Anfang, es bleibt aber auch danach noch sehr gut. Nach fünf oder sechs Büchern von Hilary Mantel kann ich allerdings sagen, dass Frauen bei ihr generell nur als Randfiguren vorkommen, und aus ihrer Autobiografie weiß ich auch, warum. Es ist fast unredlich, mit Mantels Büchern meine Bücher-von-Frauen-Statistik aufzubessern.

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