4.5 stars. Some brilliant stories, some half-duds, but mainly very good. It's not exactly the traditional anthology though, given some of its contents4.5 stars. Some brilliant stories, some half-duds, but mainly very good. It's not exactly the traditional anthology though, given some of its contents are actually full-length novels (The Moonstone, The Hound of the Baskervilles)! So don't think you'll finish it as quickly as the usual; it took me a month.
Merged review:
4.5 stars. Some brilliant stories, some half-duds, but mainly very good. It's not exactly the traditional anthology though, given some of its contents are actually full-length novels (The Moonstone, The Hound of the Baskervilles)! So don't think you'll finish it as quickly as the usual; it took me a month....more
The prose is beautiful from page one. The characterisation isn't terrible, at least as far as the main characters are concerned. The time shifts, I'm The prose is beautiful from page one. The characterisation isn't terrible, at least as far as the main characters are concerned. The time shifts, I'm not so sure about, as the splits seem rather arbitrary. But I think in general, this just wasn't my thing. Maybe it's a disinterest for gothic novels in general, or it could just be this one. Hence the 3 stars. I still have a Kindle First Reads copy of "The Silent Companions" to get around to, so I guess we'll find out. But I think "Bone China" just, isn't really my thing. Rosewyn is a pretty name, though.
I've not been using GR much lately, and I don't seem to be able to make a general update for my friends on here, so I'm sorry about that. ADHD problems. What I *really* want to do is get "Be The Serpent" read before "Sleep No More" comes out, and get "Nona the Ninth" read before "Alecto the Ninth" comes out. Neither of which I've managed yet, and not for lack of interest either! So frustrating....more
It took me some warming up to it, but in the end I enjoyed the audiobook as much as the print version, and some of the voices seem to have become the It took me some warming up to it, but in the end I enjoyed the audiobook as much as the print version, and some of the voices seem to have become the characters' voices in my mind as well, even for fanfiction, which is usually the mark of both a very talented fanfiction writer and a very good narrator.
Moira Quirk does make some odd mistakes here and there in the reading - by which I mean things like referring to Coronabeth Tridentarius as Crown Prince of Ida rather than Crown Princess, and reading something in a tone very different from the way the text states it should be, although it is profoundly weird for me to hear the name Jeannemary pronounced as Jeanne-Marie, even though Muir has confirmed that - but after a while one can mostly endure those for the sake of the story itself. Also, listening to the book sort of highlights different things from the text than one might have noticed in reading the text, and can aid my mental pictures of particular imagery in general.
TLT has become a much-loved fandom of mine, but that does not mean I can't see the less sparkling moments (mentioned in my text review, I believe, so I won't go there for this one), and I'm trying to re-evaluate my rating system to give four and five star ratings only when I absolutely mean it, and to use two and three star ratings more often overall. However, this one still gets 4* from me....more
**spoiler alert** This book was a choice made for me by the mobile library team, who often choose books from genres they know I like to fill my monthl**spoiler alert** This book was a choice made for me by the mobile library team, who often choose books from genres they know I like to fill my monthly delivery quota, if I haven't reserved the full number. The author is new to me.
I enjoyed reading this novel (I'm trying to rate things more evenly from now on, since I so often seem to end up rating things as either a 4 or a 1!), to some extent, and I finished it within a day, though not in one sitting.
I think I'd probably have picked it up sooner than I did, had the blurb been less coy about its queer characters, and I'm none too comfortable with the erasure of bisexuality as a possibility, let alone a reality. In addition to that, the darkest strand of the story is only barely touched upon, even by the very last page, and the final resolution leaves a number of plot holes. Not to mention the irritating instalove between the main character, Eve, and an unhappily-married newly-met acquaintance.
Speaking of acquaintances, the author somehow manages to give one more of a sense of chance-met characters, and even of Eve's past and future/present male partners, than he does of Eve herself. That... isn't a positive. In any way.
I winced a few times while reading the book, but it wasn't until I stopped to write this review that most of the things about it that bothered me so much really seemed to come into focus. The bi-erasure was in my mind almost throughout my read, as I hoped Barnard would finally own up to May's apparent bisexuality instead of trying to write her off as a lesbian with a beard, but he never did. But the rest? Well, the book is readable and, as I've said, enjoyable enough. But I'm not sure I'll be giving Robert Barnard any space on my personal bookshelves after this.
3 stars.
Content warnings (spoilery): Bisexual erasure, homophobia, mention of coercive control, parental disappearance, parental loss, murder of an elderly adult, mentions of illegal images of children in the context of ephebephilia....more
I still love this like a loving thing. Really good choice of narrator for the audiobook, I hope they'll have kept him on for the rest of the series!I still love this like a loving thing. Really good choice of narrator for the audiobook, I hope they'll have kept him on for the rest of the series!...more
Read in audiobook, narrator Emma Gregory. (I can't choose format or edition in the Android app, which is still intensely annoying.)
I made it forty miRead in audiobook, narrator Emma Gregory. (I can't choose format or edition in the Android app, which is still intensely annoying.)
I made it forty minutes into this audiobook before I hit the pause button and went to check whether I had acquired it too recently to be able to return it. That speaks for itself, but I will elaborate.
The narrator, Emma Gregory, seems to be very talented, but she's utterly wasted on this book. Its major characters are intolerable - yes, the compulsively-lying leading lady March, as well as her male antihero counterpart - and the plot, such as there is of it, takes much too long to gear up. By the time I got half an hour in, I was being tempted to throw the book, and I make it a rule to stop reading if I feel that way about anything other than printed paper - to spare my phone, if nothing else!
Any audiobook that claims to be "funny", but has yet to make me even crack half a smile after half to three quarters of an hour of listening, isn't likely to have me rolling on the floor later on.
As for the comments that this is a pastiche of Sherlock Holmes... Well, "pastiche" is not a term I would use for it. Nor "parody". It's a very poor imitation. Quite apart from anything else, Holmes never displayed the classist snobbishness immediately apparent in Grice, and he had compassion and emotional intelligence despite his proclaimed disdain for emotions, traits that are in no way translated to his counterpart.
As for the plot that I did experience, it's poorly introduced, and the characterisation actually gets in the way, which is something most authors know better than to allow to happen in their writing. I won't be continuing with this one.
5 stars for narration, 2 for the book and overall - the latter only because the author's use of language was decent and comprehensive. It's a pity we can't merge Kasasian's use of language with the plotting and characterisation abilities of some fanfic authors I know -- then we might have an excellent book! Alas......more
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