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RW Book Group August 2004
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Comments
Ok do we know what we are reading in September yet? I'm gagging at the bit for the next read!
So do you know which book is next BB?
I don't know what has been decided.
I've just finished a good old bonkbuster by Fiona Walker, but I'm not sure it would warrant serious discussion. Maybe a queastion about the accuracy of the sex!!!
For info: ASDA sell top 30 paperbacks for £3.73 - that's where I got lovely bones from.
RC, would you like to start a thread ?
Here's what I thought.
Good book. Interesting ideas, particularly the way "heaven" was constructed. I didn't believe it or in the idea of the spirits of the dead constantly spying on us. Urghh!
I thought the character of Abigail contained a lot of truth. As a mother I could identify with her. But the old grannie was just a cliche. There are far too many tap-dancing alcoholic grannies in books and far too few in reality.
Also, 14 year old boys don't mope around pining for girls they only kissed once. They move on.
But apart from that.............!
Ok. I found the book very odd. Quite gripping, but I don't think I actually enjoyed it.
It was an interesting view of heaven and possibly does give some insight into grieving. I didn't really find it an uplifting or positive book.
I found the sex scene totally unnecessary and actually pretty distasteful. I just didn't believe that the whole point of a 14 year old's life is to have sex. Ok, sex is important, new and interesting, but not the whole aim of existence. Maybe I'm just being prudish and old-fashioned, but at 14 I still think that family and friendships are more important.
Thinking a bit deeper, could the book be a metaphor for growing up. That you can't get on with your own life before you realise that everyone else's life doesn't revolve around you. I think this does probably happen to you in your 20's, and maybe the book was trying to show that.
I agree with Lady Lucan that the grannie was just a cliche too far, but then there did seem to be quite a lot of cliche in the book.
Overall I don't think I'd recommend this book to anyone but I am glad that I read it.
The actual scenes at the beginning were a bit too gruesome for me, but it did add to the drama, so I suppose it was necessary. I havn't read anything else by the author so I don't know if all her books are of a similar theme.
I think I'd recommend this one though as it's definitely gripping and probably has a bit more too it than your average bestseller.
MissPiggy, that is a good point about growing up being about realising that things do not revolve around you. Susie had to learn that second hand by watching other people grow up.
Here.
Will do.
Watch this space.
I did think the book had some strengths and did give an interesting insight into grieving and a family's copping with violent death. What I hated were the huge plausibility gaps.
- how could the murderer possibly build a whole underground cavern and dismantle it and no one notice?
- by what mechanism did Susie and her mate suddenly change bodies? Are we supposed to think that that is usual after death?
- how could the mother just up and leave from work and end up staying at home forever without even a toothbrush?
- how can we believe the sister and her boyfriend ran 10 miles without kit? Guys maybe, but surely she needed a sports bra? If you're fit enough to run 10 miles you know you need support. And why did they have their running shoes with them when they had just gone to graduation? I notice they also took champagne with them but were only going to drink it when they got home so why not leave it at home?
- the death of the murderer was a step too far. An icicle is deadly enough to kill someone as it drops from the roof? And the ravine is that close that he falls straight into it but it wasn't fenced off? Pur-lease.
There were lots more.
I'm sorry, I'm being really viscious about the book. I just get very pi$$ed off with authors who CBA to work out all the finer details so just construct a story around these gaping holes and expect us to buy it.
It's a pity because I do think she writes well and it was a great idea for a novel. She just should have been forced by her editors to put in the necessary forethought and then it would have probably been a good read.
(or should that be LedOL?)
anyone read any robert goddards?????
Overall this book was something of a rollercoaster for me.
Stage I
Promising start, description of the crime was horrible and shocking in the matter of fact way it was told. After that the story lost its way.
Stage II
I found myself getting annoyed at the cliches and steroetypes. The serial killer was as multi-dimensional as a cardboard cut out. Characters were not real. The writer seems to have learned about people from watching TV movies. Overuse of stereotypes, dotty grandma, inscrutable asian women...
I was particulary annoyed when the bloke with Irish grandpa sings a "dirge". Who the hells sings dirges? I'm from Dublin and if anyone asked me to sing, I would hit them with my shillelagh and pelt them with rotten potatoes. Begorrah.
Some of the writing was just poor. It seemed to be not just a first novel, but a first draft. some of my favourites. Susie's father says something "breezily" - does he have asthma? "Hal asked, incredulous" - bikers arent incredulous about riding a bike in the rain. Especially bikers who hang out with Hell's Angels.
There was an interview with Elmore Leonard in Friday's Independent. One of his rules is: Never use an adverb to modify the verb ''said''. Ms Sebold would do well to heed this advice.
Lot of the writing seemed to me to be just padding. I tried to re-read some parts of it and found it a painful experience. Even the opening chapter shows up its flaws on re-reading.
End Part 1
I was still uncomfortable at the contrived nature of much of the writing. The characters werent believable. It felt like the writer made things happen to the characters purely for effect. Why did the mother order coffee and toast? So that that the writer could write about "buttering the toast with her tears". Although my first instinct was to reach for the airline sickbag, I admit I laughed out loud at this. The book didnt seem so grim after that.
In this stage I started to enjoy the book in a perverse way, looking out for the bad writing or ridiculous characterisation.
The highpoint for me was the scene at the old victorian house. The writer tries a bit
of "observation" about bike handling which she gets wrong. Then there is a reference to leathers and perversion - that sort of connection doesnt fit with the time, early 80's? Samuel talks about tongue and groove, than Lindsey handily remembers that Samuel is obsessed with carpentry, masterly writing or padding? Of course they have sex, why else did they the rain force them to stop at that spot. Another LOL when Samuel proposed. Within minutes of proposing Samuel uses the words "hideous, hideous" and talks about making the house gorgeous. Personally I dont think think the marriage will last, but he does have a future in interior decoration.
I would forgive the writer everything if at this stage Mr Harvey is captured (perhaps tripped up by some gorgeous tongue and groove floorboards), and lead handcuffed from the house while muttering "I would have got away with it too if it wasnt for those meddlin' kids..."
Golden opportunity missed.
Other random points
- What was the point of Hal?
- damned clever of Hal to solve a murder while adjusting a timing chain and talking to a Hell's Angel (who "admits freely he had spent some time in prison" - LOL, what's that all about?)
- Grandma in pantyhose and makeup? Anyone else get an image of gran wearing nothing but pantyhouse and makeup while baking muffins for Hal, LOL
- date of murder very specific but no other sense of the time
- lot of irrelevant people get named, more importance than they should have
- What are the odds of two people dying of mushroom poisoning then being found by a serial killer?
- icicle, LOL
- Ms Sebold really cant write male characters
- necrophiliac sex scene just ridiculous
Overall, not a good book. A triumph for the marketing department.
Interesting question about what song he was singing. Perhaps its the one that goes:
#Dem bones, dem bones, dem dry bones...#