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cs4_0reads's review
dark
funny
mysterious
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.75
narniaru's review against another edition
2.0
I far prefer the prequel to this book. I feel that it was written to make some money rather than to tell a story. Rather relieved there isn't a third book.
zhy's review against another edition
challenging
dark
funny
lighthearted
mysterious
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
1.5
lowlandsbeach's review against another edition
4.0
I didn't realise this was a sequel! Fluffy writing about nastiness. Almost Dickensian coincidences, and writing almost reminiscent of Faye Weldon and Iris Murdoch. Set in the 1980s and with a definite English 1980s vibe. I would have preferred a more cut and dried ending, but maybe there will be a third Axon book?
bookpossum's review
3.0
This takes the reader to some very dark places indeed, and asks uncomfortable questions about what happens to the people turned out into the world from the old asylums. If the system was no longer able to support them there, how could it possibly support them when they were set adrift? And without support, what might a person like Muriel Axon do to herself and others?
A clever and unsettling book.
A clever and unsettling book.
nadia_g's review against another edition
5.0
Absolutely wicked. Farcical, demented. In short, perfect.
nadiasfiction's review against another edition
5.0
Absolutely wicked. Farcical, demented. In short, perfect.
jayshay's review
4.0
A Jacobean changeling revenge play, a ghost haunted world, an institutionalized world where Brits are dehumanized and alienated all in the effort to 'care' for them in way that is deeply uncaring. Muriel Axon is the monstrously wonderful axle around which this story of the destruction of a family rotates. She toys with the other characters in a dreaming, musing, vengeful way.
A disturbing book, which clings to my mind like some vicious animal, raking my brain with its claws. It doesn't even let the screams tail off, but cuts off mid-way -- so they never end.
A disturbing book, which clings to my mind like some vicious animal, raking my brain with its claws. It doesn't even let the screams tail off, but cuts off mid-way -- so they never end.