The Monday agenda 4/15/2013

Posted in The Monday Check-In by

MondayAgendaNot a lofty, ambitious to-be-read list consisting of 100+ book titles. Just a simple plan for the upcoming week — what I’m reading now, what I plan to read next, and what I’m hoping to squeeze in among the nooks and crannies.

How did I do with last week’s agenda?

Lady of Ashes by Christine Trent: Done! My review is here.

Not on last week’s agenda, but I read it anyway: The Love Song of Jonny Valentine by Teddy Wayne. Terrific read; review to follow.

Fresh Catch:

New acquisitions, both purchased and borrowed from the library — here’s what joined my collection, permanently or temporarily, this past week:

What’s on my reading agenda for the coming week?

I plan to start with The River of No Return by Bee Ridgway. It’s a bit on the big side, so I may not have time for much else — but if I do, I should probably dig into some of the library books I have sitting in a pile here, before the nice library folks demand them back. Waiting to be read are Attachments by Rainbow Rowell, A Natural History of Dragons by Marie Brennan, and The House Girl by Tara Conklin.

Don’t even ask me about all the unread titles on my Kindle…

So many book, so little time…

That’s my agenda. What’s yours? Add your comments to share your bookish agenda for the week.

Book Review: Lady of Ashes by Christine Trent

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Book Review: Lady of Ashes By Christine Trent

Lady of Ashes

Violet Morgan is a respectable wife in Victorian London, who also happens to be London’s only female undertaker. Married to a puzzling man who inherited his family’s business, Violet is the one who truly has a passion for making sure the deceased are treated with honor, that their families are supported and guided, and that each funeral is arranged and managed in accordance with the deceased’s station in society. Mustn’t skimp on funeral plumes, glass carriages, or professional mourners!

As the Civil War erupts across the pond, the ripples extend to the United Kingdom as political interests and financial scheming impact all levels of London society, from Windsor Palace all the way to Morgan Undertaking. Violet’s husband and brother-in-law become entangled in seemingly nefarious dealings, and as her husband starts to come unhinged, Violet must find a way to maintain her dignity and her business reputation despite the disintegration of her marriage.

Lady of Ashes is crammed full of plot, so much so that it feels a bit overstuffed. In and of itself, Violet’s establishment in the male-dominated undertaking profession would have been quite interesting. However, the books constantly shifts focus, bringing in US and British politics, the foibles of the monarchy, an orphaned waif, a romantic plot line, and a murder mystery. Ultimately, it’s really just too much.

Which is a shame, as there is much to enjoy in Lady of Ashes. Violet is an interesting character, strong and assertive and committed to her profession at a time when society — and the Queen — made clear that a woman’s place is in the home. Seeing Violet navigate her way against the current, stand up for herself, and carry out her undertaking duties with compassion and grace is quite compelling, and if that had remained the chief focus of the book, I think it would have worked much better.

Instead, a great deal of space is devoted to the politic maneuvering of the US ambassadors to the court of Queen Victoria, the high seas dramas involving blockade runners and naval ships, and the marriage of Victoria and Albert. Even Violet’s story is not smooth, as we jump from her marital woes to a train wreck to her adoption of an orphan without much in the way of transition, and each new development in the narrative feels like an abrupt change in the point of the storyline.

Still, I did come away from Lady of Ashes with some interesting new tidbits of historical data. For example, who knew that embalming became more widely practiced in the US during the Civil War, when the bodies of battlefield casualties had to be preserved for their long train journeys home for burial? I also learned a great deal about royal funeral rites, societal rules regarding mourning fashion, and plumbing and foundation problems in Victorian London. The author has clearly done a ton of research for this book, and provides a comprehensive bibliography of historical sources for further reading.

Do I recommend Lady of Ashes? Yes, but with reservations. Violet is a terrific character, and the portrayal of funerary rites in Victorian England is morbidly intriguing. Much of Lady of Ashes is quite fascinating, but overall, I believe it would have been a better book with a tighter focus. As it is, there’s just too much crammed into the plot for it to feel cohesive, and sadly, the end result is that the story feels scattered.

 

Flashback Friday: Brazzaville Beach

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Flashback Friday is my own little weekly tradition, in which I pick a book from my reading past to highlight. If you’d like to join in, here are the Flashback Friday book selection guidelines:

  1. Has to be something you’ve read yourself
  2. Has to still be available, preferably still in print
  3. Must have been originally published 5 or more years ago

Other than that, the sky’s the limit! Join me, please, and let us all know: what are the books you’ve read that you always rave about? What books from your past do you wish EVERYONE would read? Pick something from five years ago, or go all the way back to the Canterbury Tales if you want. It’s Flashback Friday time!

My picks for this week’s Flashback Friday:

 Brazzaville Beach

Brazzaville Beach by William Boyd

(published 1990)

From Goodreads:

In the heart of a civil war-torn African nation, primate researcher Hope Clearwater made a shocking discovery about apes and man . . .

Young, alone, and far from her family in Britain, Hope Clearwater contemplates the extraordinary events that left her washed up like driftwood on Brazzaville Beach. It is here, on the distant, lonely outskirts of Africa, where she must come to terms with the perplexing and troubling circumstances of her recent past. For Hope is a survivor of the devastating cruelities of apes and humans alike. And to move forward, she must first grasp some hard and elusive truths: about marriage and madness, about the greed and savagery of charlatan science . . . and about what compels seemingly benign creatures to kill for pleasure alone.

I remember exactly where I was when I read this book about six or seven years ago: on a family vacation, hiding away in an air-conditioned room, shushing everyone who dared talk to me (how rude!), and basically refusing to go act like a social creature while I still had pages left in this engrossing book. Interestingly, what I can recall most vividly about the plot of the book is not the human drama, but the animal drama. The chimpanzees at the heart of the scientific research in Brazzaville Beach are fascinating, and while the people parts were great too, it’s the chimp saga that has really stuck with me.

I’m surprised, actually, that I haven’t read more by William Boyd, despite friends who love his works and have highly recommended other of his books to me. Clearly, this is a situation I must correct! Meanwhile, I definitely recommend this book for its evocative African settings and its hard look at human — and animal — behavior.

So, what’s your favorite blast from the past? Leave a tip for your fellow booklovers!

Note from your friendly Bookshelf Fantasies host: To join the Flashback Friday fun, write a blog post about a book you love and share your link below. Don’t have a blog post to share? Then share your favorite oldie-but-goodie in the comments section. Jump in!

Wishlist Wednesday

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Welcome to Wishlist Wednesday!

The concept is to post about one book from our wish lists that we can’t wait to read. Want to play? Here’s how:

  • Follow Pen to Paper as host of the meme.
  • Do a post about one book from your wishlist and why you want to read it.
  • Add your blog to the linky at the bottom of the post at Pen to Paper.
  • Put a link back to Pen to Paper somewhere in your post.
  • Visit the other blogs and enjoy!

My Wishlist Wednesday book is:

 Shadows

Shadows by Robin McKinley
(to be released September 2013)

From Amazon:

A compelling and inventive novel set in a world where science and magic are at odds, by Robin McKinley, the Newbery-winning author of The Hero and the Crown and The Blue Sword, as well as the classic titles Beauty, Chalice, Spindle’s End, Pegasus and Sunshine.

Maggie knows something’s off about Val, her mom’s new husband. Val is from Oldworld, where they still use magic, and he won’t have any tech in his office-shed behind the house. But—more importantly—what are the huge, horrible, jagged, jumpy shadows following him around? Magic is illegal in Newworld, which is all about science. The magic-carrying gene was disabled two generations ago, back when Maggie’s great-grandmother was a notable magician. But that was a long time ago.

Then Maggie meets Casimir, the most beautiful boy she has ever seen. He’s from Oldworld too—and he’s heard of Maggie’s stepfather, and has a guess about Val’s shadows. Maggie doesn’t want to know . . . until earth-shattering events force her to depend on Val and his shadows. And perhaps on her own heritage.

In this dangerously unstable world, neither science nor magic has the necessary answers, but a truce between them is impossible. And although the two are supposed to be incompatible, Maggie’s discovering the world will need both to survive.

Why do I want to read this?

Robin McKinley is the author of some of my very favorite books, among them The Blue Sword, Deerskin, Sunshine, and Beauty. She’s absolutely one of the tops when it comes to world-building, particularly when magic and mystery are involved. I love the sound of Shadows — the idea of a truce between science and magic is so intriguing! I really can’t wait to read this book.

Meanwhile, if magic, fairy tale retellings, and mythology appeal to you, then I definitely recommend checking out any or all of Robin McKinley’s books.

Quick note to Wishlist Wednesday bloggers: Come on back to Bookshelf Fantasies for Flashback Friday! Join me in celebrating the older gems hidden away on our bookshelves. See the introductory post for more details, and come back this Friday to add your flashback favorites!

Top Ten Tuesday: Top Ten Favorite Books I Read Before I Was A Blogger

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Top Ten Tuesday is a meme hosted by The Broke and the Bookish, featuring a different top 10 theme each week. Top 10 Tuesday new

This week’s topic is Top Ten Favorite Books I Read Before I Was A Blogger. As usual, I’ll put my own spin on it. For my list, I decided to take the “before” part of the topic to mean “immediately before”, and so I went back through my Goodreads books read prior to the birth of Bookshelf Fantasies last summer. Because I’m a number-crunching geek at heart, I took a quantitative approach to putting together this list. Moving backward from July 2012, I looked for any books that I rated 5-stars, and picked the first ten I encountered. I excluded graphic novels this time around, because otherwise my entire list would consist of Buffy, Fables, and Bone. (Check ’em all out, by the way! They rock.)

For your reading pleasure (?), I’m including snippets of my Goodreads review for each book. Without further ado, my top ten favorite books, read mostly in 2011 and 2012, from my pre-blogging days:

fevre-dreamThe Drawing of the Three (The Dark Tower, #2)Timeless (Parasol Protectorate, #5)The Fault in Our StarsAll Men of GeniusThe Weird Sistersscottish-prisonerThe Winter Ghosts11/22/63wonderstruck

1) Fevre Dream by George R. R. Martin:

Written in the early 80s, Fevre Dream is as much historical fiction as it is horror. I loved the atmosphere of this book. Martin lovingly details the world of riverboatmen and their steamboats. With the main action occurring in 1857, Fevre Dream paints a gorgeous picture of an historical time full of adventure, competition, beauty, and corruption. 

P.S. — It’s also a vampire book!

2) The Drawing of the Three by Stephen King:

This book, the 2nd in Stephen King’s The Dark Tower series, is a stand-out. Apparently, I didn’t write a review of it at the time, but I’ll say now that this book moves the series forward into seriously complicated territory and introduces the key characters who will remain central in the ensuing books. A gunslinger, an abandoned child, a junkie, a woman with no legs — to say that these four make odd traveling companions is an understatement. This book is powerful, and the concept of the doors is magnificent. I really, really, really need to get back to this series.

3) Timeless by Gail Carriger:

A fittingly fabulous end to a wonderful series, “Timeless” wraps up all the major plotlines of the Parasol Protectorate series with panache. Replete with all the delights of London society, hive and pack politics, dirigible and steamer travel, and adding in a journey to mysterious Egypt, “Timeless” delivers all the whimsy, humor, adventure, and romance of Gail Carriger’s earlier entries in the series.

4) The Fault in Our Stars by John Green:

Here’s what I wrote in the immediate aftermath of reading this book:

This book killed me. Just killed me. I haven’t cried this much or this hard over a book since… well, I have no idea since when. The Fault In Our Stars is beautiful and brutal and honest and funny. Perhaps when I am less emotional and more coherent, I’ll come back and write a proper review. For now, I’ll just say that this story of love and death truly deserves all the attention it’s been getting. I found it impossible to put down, except for those moments when I had to get up to take some deep breaths and fetch some more tissues. Wow.

So, yeah. I guess you could say it had an impact on me.

5) All Men of Genius by Lev AC Rosen:

I kept my comments brief on this one:

LOVED this book. A delightful mix of steampunk and Shakespeare, with action, adventure and romance thrown in as well.

That totally does not do justice to how fantastic this book is — what was I thinking? Strong female characters, gender-bending shenanigans, quippy dialogue, and evil automata… what more could you want?

6) The Weird Sisters by Eleanor Brown:

Oddly, I didn’t write a review of this one, despite the fact that I loved it so very much. A terrific book about sisters, family expectations and disappointments, plus: Shakespeare! Book love! Academia! Lots of good stuff.

7) The Scottish Prisoner by Diana Gabaldon:

Off I go again on an Outlander-related rant:

Jamie Fraser. If those two words send thrills up and down your spine, then you will undoubtedly want to read The Scottish Prisoner. If, however, that name means nothing to you… well, it’s not that I wouldn’t recommend The Scottish Prisoner anyway; I just don’t think you’d enjoy it as much as we rabid fans do.

8) The Winter Ghosts by Kate Mosse:

Another one that I loved but didn’t review. Part ghost story, part love story, this haunting tale — set in the Pyrenees shortly after World War I — is beautifully written, and the superb woodcut illustrations are an added bonus.

9) 11/22/63 by Stephen King:

Well, I had quite a bit to say about this one:

Stephen King’s mastery of suspense, plotting, and character development is once again on display in 11/22/63. I thought I knew what to expect before I started; I found that I was wrong. King does remarkable things with a story I expected to be rather dry. After all, the bulk of the story takes place in the late 50’s and early 60’s, winding its way through well- and lesser-known historical events. How exciting could that be? Very exciting, it turns out. Once the story picked up steam, it was hard to put down. I want to avoid spoilers, but I will say that I was shocked to discover what a romantic story this was at its core.

And finally:

10) Wonderstruck by Brian Selznick:

Beautiful, beautiful book. “Wonderstruck” by WonderstruckBrian Selznick is described on the title page as “a novel in words and pictures”, but that doesn’t really do it justice… I’ll just say that I was moved, much more so than I expected to be, and really relished the experience of reading this lovely book with my 9-year-old son. I’d recommend it for parents and children to read together, but also wouldn’t hesitate to recommend it to adults to read on their own.

Writing this blog post was actually a nice reminder of all the terrific books I’ve read in the last couple of years. What fun — it’s a bit like catching up with old friends.

Have you read any of my top 10? And what books are on your list this week?

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The Monday agenda 4/8/2013

Posted in The Monday Check-In by

MondayAgendaNot a lofty, ambitious to-be-read list consisting of 100+ book titles. Just a simple plan for the upcoming week — what I’m reading now, what I plan to read next, and what I’m hoping to squeeze in among the nooks and crannies.

Sometimes I ask myself, why bother with a plan? After all, I just end up reading whatever strikes my fancy, 9 times out of 10. Or so it seems. Anyway, in my own probably futile attempt to control the chaos, here goes:

How did I do with last week’s agenda?

Dreamers of the Day by Mary Doria Russell. Finished last week, and finally wrote a review. Plus, my book group discussion about Dreamers of the Day was terrific. And now I can say that I’ve read everything written by Mary Doria Russell — and can only sit back and wait for her to finish the next book.

The Uninvited Guests by Sadie Jones. Finished! My review is here.

Not on last week’s agenda, but I read it anyhow: Stranded by Jeff Probst and Chris Tebbetts. My son finished this middle grade book, then insisted I read it as well. Our take on Stranded is here. Short version: If your kids are Survivor fans, this kids’ book by the Survivor host is a great choice.

Also in kids’ books: My son abandoned me midway through our read-aloud of Down the Mysterly River by Bill Willingham, so I finally decided to finish it on my own. My review is here.

Fresh Catch:

New acquisitions, both purchased and borrowed from the library — here’s what joined my collection, permanently or temporarily, this past week:

Bought or received:

Plus, I went to hear Cheryl Strayed speak this past week (she was fantastic!) and I finally bought myself a copy of Wild, since the copy I read a few months back was borrowed from a friend. And look! She signed it!

I also picked up a few books from the library. Why do all my holds come in all at once??? I may not get to read them all before they’re due again, but here’s what came home with me this week:

So yeah. My book habits are out of control. Like that’s a surprise.

What’s on my reading agenda for the coming week?

I actually have a clean slate at the moment. I’m not in the middle of anything! So what to read?

I intend to start with Lady of Ashes by Christine Trent. A Victorian lady undertaker! Sounds like something I’ll love.

Next, I’m really looking forward to reading the review copy of The River of No Return by Bee Ridgway, which just arrived in the mail yesterday. Time travel + historical fiction = something I can’t wait to read.

Meanwhile, I really should get to one of the new, biggish novels that have come my way, but I’m trying not to overcommit — so no promises for what’s next!

So many book, so little time…

That’s my agenda. What’s yours? Add your comments to share your bookish agenda for the week.

Book Review: Down The Mysterly River by Bill Willingham

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Book Review: Down The Mysterly River by Bill Willingham; illustrated by Mark Buckingham

Down the Mysterly River is the first children’s book written by storyteller extraordinaire Bill Willingham, the man we can thank for the beyond-words-awesomeness of the Fables comic book series. Joined by illustrator Mark Buckingham, Bill Willingham has created an adventure story that’s also meta-fiction about the world of story creators, their creations, and the naysayers who try to make creative works conform to “modern” ideas of what’s in and what’s out, what’s fashionable in fiction, and what’s too old-school to be tolerated.

The story begins with Max the Wolf:

Max the Wolf was a wolf in exactly the same way that foothills are made up of real feet and a tiger shark is part tiger, which is to say, not at all.

Max is a twelve-year-old Boy Scout of the Wolf Patrol pack, who is always prepared… but is still discombobulated when he wakes up in a strange land with no idea how he got there. Besides his Boy Scout skills, Max is a gifted detective, and so he sets about solving the mystery of where he is, and more importantly, why he’s there in the first place. Max soon encounters three strange traveling companions: Banderbrock the warrior badger, Walden the brown bear, and McTavish the Monster, who is not an actual monster but rather a fiercely feral barn cat. Strangest of all is the fact that these animals can talk to Max. None of them can explain it, and none of them has any memory of how they landed in this particular place.

There’s no time to ponder, because the chase is on! A mysterious group of cloaked fighters, known as the Blue Cutters, is on their tail, and this menacing bunch means business. Their goal is to catch any and all new arrivals and to “cut” them with their powerful blue swords, so as to give them a more pleasing and appropriate shape. Once cut, the new version is unrecognizable to all, and in fact, believes him or herself to always have been as he or she is now. Naturally, Max and his gang want to avoid the Blue Cutters at all costs, and so set out to seek shelter far down the Mysterly River, where they’ve heard a sanctuary for their kind can be found.

Because I’m a Fables fan, I had to grab this book and give it a try. I originally thought it would be a fun read-aloud to share with my 10-year-old, but after reading it in fits and starts, he lost interest and *cough* gave me permission to finish it on my own. As a result, my reaction to this book has two parts:

First, as a book for children, I’m  not sure that I’d consider it a total success. The adventure scenes are exciting and sometimes even frightening, and the writing is funny and engaging. My son liked a lot of it — but the overarching “meta” context eventually became too much for my son, who gave me a blank stare and a big “huh” whenever we came across clues about this aspect of the book. I think he might have ended up liking it quite a bit if he’d stuck with it, but in point of fact, he just got tired of it after a while. I think Down the Mysterly River might be a better choice for slightly older kids. While it’s listed as recommended for ages 10 and up, I think older and more experienced readers might get the bigger story more easily and appreciate it at the higher level, not just as an adventure tale.

My second reaction, though, is that for me, I had a great time reading this book. The cleverness of the dialogue, the funny twists of phrasing, the unique characters — all combine to make a story that’s fun to read, and smart enough to engage adult readers who enjoy fantasy settings, wide brushstrokes of the improbable, and a sly commentary on writers, editors, critics, and the book world at large.

Q&A with the kiddo: A kid’s-eye view of Stranded by Jeff Probst

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Book Review: Stranded by Jeff Probst and Chris Tebbetts

From Amazon:

A family vacation becomes a game of survival!
It was supposed to be a vacation–and a chance to get to know each other better. But when a massive storm sets in without warning, four kids are shipwrecked alone on a rocky jungle island in the middle of the South Pacific. No adults. No instructions. Nobody to rely on but themselves. Can they make it home alive?

A week ago, the biggest challenge Vanessa, Buzz, Carter, and Jane had was learning to live as a new blended family. Now the four siblings must find a way to work together if they’re going to make it off the island. But first they’ve got to learn to survive one another.

Proudly presenting Q&A with the kiddo, courtesy of my 10-year-old son, in which I ask my kiddo to describe a book he’s enjoyed recently and he gives his opinions, more or less unfiltered by mom.

Without further ado:

Q: What book do you want to talk about?

A: Stranded

Q: What was it about?

A: It’s about these kids who get stranded on an island. They were on a boat and there was a boat wreck. The adults were gone, so there were just four kids on an island surviving for themselves.

Q: Who was your favorite character?

A: Carter and Jane. They’re the most adventurous and outdoorsy and fun and not scared.

Q: What was the best part?

A: My favorite part is when they get sucked in [by strong currents in] the water. They’re in the water and they finally pop out and Carter catches Jane and they swim back to shore.

Q: Would you recommend this book?

A: Yes. I’d recommend it for adventurous kids and kids who like stories with cliffhangers.

Q: Do you want to read the rest of the series?

A: Yes! I want to read the next book when it comes out.

Q: Do you have anything else to say about this book?

A: It’s funny, it’s fun to read. You should read it or it’s your loss.

Mom’s two cents:

My kiddo and I are big fans of Survivor on TV, and so when I heard that Survivor host Jeff Probst was writing a book series for kids, I knew we had to get it! My son read Stranded on his own, and thought the reading level was perfect. He like the book so much that he pretty much insisted that I read it as soon as he finished. Stranded is really a lot of fun, with a good solid lesson in there as well (although without any preachiness or heavy-handedness). The four children in the book are step-siblings who are being treated to a sailing adventure while their parents are on their honeymoon. While my son mostly focused on the adventure aspects of the story, I liked the portrayal of two sets of brothers and sisters forced to figure out how to redefine their family and accept one another’s quirks, talents, and weaknesses. When the two adults on board are separated from the kids during a sudden storm at sea, they have to rely on themselves, their bonds, and their skills and knowledge to figure out how to survive — and hopefully, how to get themselves rescued.

The blended family aspect provides a nice layer of complication to the high-adrenaline disaster and adventure story. Stranded is the first in a trilogy, and ends — as my son mentions — with a big cliffhanger. We’ll both be back for the next installment!

Stranded is a good choice for middle grade readers, especially those just gaining comfort with reading chapter books on their own. It’s not very long, but it’s certainly engaging and exciting. Any time my kiddo asks for “5 more minutes!!” while he’s reading, I know we have a hit on our hands.

My only complaint? Nowhere in the book does anyone say, “The tribe has spoken.” Maybe in the next book? One can only hope.

Stranded 2: Trial By Fire will be released in June.


 

Flashback Friday: Replay

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Flashback Friday is my own little weekly tradition, in which I pick a book from my reading past to highlight. If you’d like to join in, here are the Flashback Friday book selection guidelines:

  1. Has to be something you’ve read yourself
  2. Has to still be available, preferably still in print
  3. Must have been originally published 5 or more years ago

Other than that, the sky’s the limit! Join me, please, and let us all know: what are the books you’ve read that you always rave about? What books from your past do you wish EVERYONE would read? Pick something from five years ago, or go all the way back to the Canterbury Tales if you want. It’s Flashback Friday time!

My picks for this week’s Flashback Friday:

 

Replay by Ken Grimwood (published 1987)

From Goodreads:

Jeff Winston was 43 and trapped in a tepid marriage and a dead-end job, waiting for that time when he could be truly happy, when he died.

And when he woke and he was 18 again, with all his memories of the next 25 years intact. He could live his life again, avoiding the mistakes, making money from his knowledge of the future, seeking happiness.

Until he dies at 43 and wakes up back in college again…

And from Amazon:

Jeff Winston, forty-three, didn’t know he was a replayer until he died and woke up twenty-five years younger in his college dorm room; he lived another life. And died again. And lived again and died again — in a continuous twenty-five-year cycle — each time starting from scratch at the age of eighteen to reclaim lost loves, remedy past mistakes, or make a fortune in the stock market. A novel of gripping adventure, romance, and fascinating speculation on the nature of time, Replay asks the question: “What if you could live your life over again?”

I loved this book. I’m always intrigued by a good time-twisting tale, and this one is a doozy. Given the opportunity to essentially live your life again, knowing everything you’ve already done the first time around and how it all worked out, what would you change? And would changing things make them better? Or just set you off on a completely different path?

I featured Replay in a “timey-wimey” blog post about six months ago, which you can see here. This books ranks up at the top of the list of terrific time-related weirdness in books. Check it out!

(Note: The Amazon synopsis above actually has it a bit wrong, but I’m not going to go into specifics. Read the book — then let’s talk!)

So, what’s your favorite blast from the past? Leave a tip for your fellow booklovers!

Note from your friendly Bookshelf Fantasies host: To join the Flashback Friday fun, write a blog post about a book you love and share your link below. Don’t have a blog post to share? Then share your favorite oldie-but-goodie in the comments section. Jump in!

Book Review: The Uninvited Guests by Sadie Jones

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Book Review: The Uninvited Guests by Sadie Jones

To say that The Uninvited Guests was not what I expected is an understatement. Based on the cover (gorgeous, right?) and the four pages of blurbs at the front of the books, six of which compare the book to Downton Abbey, I thought I’d be reading a comedy of manners or a genteel but gently critical view of the Upstairs, Downstairs dynamics of early 20th century classism. Instead, what I experienced was a bizarre tale of a wealthy family on the brink of financial disaster that — BOOM — suddenly became a ghost story full of decay, mad hauntings and vengeful spirits, and a house that literally falls to pieces overnight.

At the heart of The Uninvited Guests is the Torrington family, about to celebrate daughter Emerald’s 20th birthday. (Think of Emerald as the Mary Crawley of the piece, if you will). Mother Charlotte is remarried to the reliable, loving Edward Swift, who in turn is resented by Emerald and her brother Clovis. Alas, the manor house bought decades earlier by their late father Horace is on the verge of financial collapse, and so Edward travels away from home for a night in a last-ditch effort to save the family estate by securing a loan from an unpleasant business acquaintance.

Invited guests — a wealthy neighbor and some dear friends — come to Sterne for the birthday celebration, but unfortunately, so do quite a few uninvited guests, victims of a train derailment somewhere nearby, now stranded and in need of shelter until the railroad can make other arrangements. As the family attempts to carry on with the birthday feast, they neglect their unwanted guests until guilt and unanticipated chaos further disrupt the evening. As events spiral out of control, baser, crueler natures emerge. As the night turns wilder and wilder, the house itself is slowly destroyed from the inside, as filth, rot, rain, and mud overtake it inch by inch, and the family must come together to defeat the elements, both natural and supernatural.

I suppose you could read The Uninvited Guests as an allegory for the rot at the heart of the class system, or an indictment of the type of stiff-upper-lip social demands that keep children at arm’s length from parents and demand propriety at the expense of feeling. I see all that in this book, and yet it just doesn’t work for me. The characters are not sympathetic or even particularly well-defined, the events veer all over the place, and the supernatural elements come and go in ways that feel forced and out place. The weirdly cheerful and sunshine-filled ending was quite dissonant with the rest of the story, and I didn’t feel like this awkward, cold family earned the easy resolution that came their way.

The Uninvited Guests is full of interesting language choices and passages of quite lovely writing. Still, I found the whole to be disjointed and rather unsatisfying.

Ending thoughts: I will acknowledge that perhaps it’s me, not the book. The endless blurbs for this book are completely glowing, and my city’s public library system has chosen The Uninvited Guests as its city-wide read this month. Perhaps I missed something that everyone else saw in it. In any case, all I can offer is my own opinion: While I was never bored, and was even intrigued by certain developments, on the whole, this book just did not work for me.