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A review by ashleylm
The Other by Matthew Hughes
2.0
I think of Matthew Hughes as a very civilized, very dry author. His characters always seem to be on the brink of drinking tea or discussing the etymology of various adverbs. No one seems to break a sweat, panic, punch--they might do all those things, but they don't seem to. I quite like him--his books are the opposite of visceral, and I'm not a huge fan of visceral.
His best are charming satires, in my opinion, with likable characters thrust in absurd situations. In The Other the main character is less likable, the situation less absorbing, the satire less pungent, and the overall sense of a polite carrying-out of the plot failed to grab me.
But this is unusual for me--I usually really enjoy his books. Basically I'd suggest you give him a try, but start with Fool's Errant, just in case, and work your way over to this one much later. If you don't like Fool's Errant, you'll hardly care for this.
I actually started it years ago, and failed to complete it. I picked it up again last week and finished it off--I'm making a huge attempt not to buy new books until I've finished reading my stash! But it certainly wasn't compelling enough for me to finish it the first time, even though I'd got myself 3/4 of the way through.
(Note: 5 stars = rare and amazing, 4 = quite good book, 3 = a decent read, 2 = disappointing, 1 = awful, just awful. There are a lot of 4s and 3s in the world!)
His best are charming satires, in my opinion, with likable characters thrust in absurd situations. In The Other the main character is less likable, the situation less absorbing, the satire less pungent, and the overall sense of a polite carrying-out of the plot failed to grab me.
But this is unusual for me--I usually really enjoy his books. Basically I'd suggest you give him a try, but start with Fool's Errant, just in case, and work your way over to this one much later. If you don't like Fool's Errant, you'll hardly care for this.
I actually started it years ago, and failed to complete it. I picked it up again last week and finished it off--I'm making a huge attempt not to buy new books until I've finished reading my stash! But it certainly wasn't compelling enough for me to finish it the first time, even though I'd got myself 3/4 of the way through.
(Note: 5 stars = rare and amazing, 4 = quite good book, 3 = a decent read, 2 = disappointing, 1 = awful, just awful. There are a lot of 4s and 3s in the world!)