Now I did slate this book a little to be fair. I actually put it back on the shelf and left it there for a month or two because it just didn't grab me as it should have. However, I went back to it due to my dwindling lack of reading material over the Christmas/New Year's break and read it from cover to cover. I am pleased that I gave it another go and read it again however I don't think I will be in any great hurry to read it again. The essential plot of the book revolves around three strong female characters, each damaged by traumatic events in their lives who learn the truth of their heritage in different ways. The mysterious Authoress, abandoned and broken Nell, and Cassandra, also abandoned by her mother and damaged by the loss of her husband and child. Each chapter is told by a different character, in a different setting (either in Australia or England) and in a different year - 1913, 1975 and 2005.
There is a lot of jumping around in this novel and it may have that which was off putting initially. We go from Cassandra being abandoned by her less than useful mother at the door of her grandmother's (Nell) house to Nell herself arriving in Brisbane literally off the boat alone and by herself with no knowledge of who she was or where she had come from, with only the memory of a woman called the Authoress. The bulk of the book revolves around Cassandra's resolve to find out about the property Nell has left her and her discovery of who she is and where she came from. The book concludes with the revelation of the big dirty and disturbing family secret (and a number of smaller just as manky family secrets), the problem with this is that you can see the resolution coming a mile away.
There is a lot of jumping around in this novel and it may have that which was off putting initially. We go from Cassandra being abandoned by her less than useful mother at the door of her grandmother's (Nell) house to Nell herself arriving in Brisbane literally off the boat alone and by herself with no knowledge of who she was or where she had come from, with only the memory of a woman called the Authoress. The bulk of the book revolves around Cassandra's resolve to find out about the property Nell has left her and her discovery of who she is and where she came from. The book concludes with the revelation of the big dirty and disturbing family secret (and a number of smaller just as manky family secrets), the problem with this is that you can see the resolution coming a mile away.
This book isn't pulp fiction - it is twice the size of a small novel - at 645 pages it is a bit of a tome to be honest. It is around the same size as a Gabaldon book without the class. It reads as an okay attempt at gothic type literature, it justs fails to meet the mark for me. Although having said that a number of people have enjoyed it according to Amazon.com reviews - I wondered if they were reading the same book as I was.
Verdict: Okay, just okay. I'm in no hurry to read it again. Read it if you are killing time in an airport on a long haul flight.
S.
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