Overall, I did enjoy this latest addition to the Owens' family saga, but it was probably more a 3.5 for me than a 4. There is some heavily revisited cOverall, I did enjoy this latest addition to the Owens' family saga, but it was probably more a 3.5 for me than a 4. There is some heavily revisited content in Magic Lessons that readers will be very familiar with if they've read Practical Magicand/or The Rules of Magic.Part of me felt that this book was just a revision of the same types of characters and plot points from those earlier books but set in the 17th century. Since this book clocks in at nearly 500 pages, I was hoping for something more fresh. I do enjoy how Alice Hoffman used real historic figures (John Hathorne, Nathaniel Hawthorne's ancestor and real Salem magistrate, for one) to ground her story.
Unfortunately, the strength of her earlier Owens' family novels lies in the sibling relationships and this book had no siblings at all. Most of our characters spend a majority of the book isolated physically and emotionally from each other, and it just makes for a slower, less engaging read for me.
Hoffman also adopted this faux grandiose style in this book that I don't really remember seeing in previous books. At times, it felt a little forced, as if she was trying to write lines that people would quote and frame. It also grated on my nerves after a while that nearly every page had a sentence structured exactly like this: "His son was his heart, and Maria understood, for she held her heart in her hands, a red-headed little girl." Once I noticed it, I couldn't stop seeing it, and it drove me crazy for the rest of the book.
Examples here: "As always, most came for love. Maria wasn't surprised, for this had been true in Devotion Field, and Hannah had always said love-sickness afflicted most of those who came to her alone."
"Faith Owens could spy the sea from her room in the attic, where the previous tenant had died of the fevers, for in this low-lying land there were clouds of mosquitoes drifting by on summer nights."
"She had to trust in what her clients told her, for she was unable to read the lines on their right or left hands."
"In this way, alone and abandoned, shackled by metal cuffs she could not remove and pretending to be someone she was not, she began her practice of the Nameless Art, for one does not have to have the talents of a witch to be called to the Art."
"She remembered Hannah searching the cottage at Devotion Field when she heard it, never managing to get it out of the walls no matter how she might try, for it predicted the day of fire and destruction, when she was nailed to her own front door and her house was burned to the ground."
Overall, enjoyable, but not lifechanging or groundbreaking. I don't think I'll read it again, but wouldn't tell anyone else to not read it, for what it's worth. ...more
It’s always a relief when the sequel is as enjoyable as the first! While I didn’t have extremely high expectations for The Heir Affair (I wasn’t reallIt’s always a relief when the sequel is as enjoyable as the first! While I didn’t have extremely high expectations for The Heir Affair (I wasn’t really sure where else the story of Becs and Nick could go) I was still wildly excited to see what else Cocks and Morgan would cook up; I was not disappointed.
This novel centers around a much slower, internal conflict or series of conflicts, and that suited me just fine, because I could not put it down. I enjoyed watching the relationships between the characters in The Royal We develop more and the authors hit a perfect balance between clever humor and more serious emotion as all of the characters faced some pretty uphill battles.
The love story between Bex and Nick still felt honest and realistic to me and while it’s the driving force behind the story, we also got to spend a lot more time with Freddy & Queen Eleanor who both steal whatever scene they’re in.
I didn’t realize or fully acknowledge this when reading the The Royal We the first time, but both books are great examples of why a close, first person narrative voice can be so enjoyable - since we only ever know what Bex knows, it sustains the drama in a believable way. I think some readers might find the setup of the first half a little drawn out, but it was all in the service of the second half which was as excellent as The Royal We. I loved the reveals and the ending and wish this would be made into a miniseries with colorful gowns and British accents and Buckingham Palace galas tomorrow....more
This book took me half a month to read, not because it wasn't completely enjoyable (it absolutely was) but because I wanted to savor the language and This book took me half a month to read, not because it wasn't completely enjoyable (it absolutely was) but because I wanted to savor the language and writing and found myself reading it slowly, so as to not finish it right away. Brit Bennett has excellent command over her words, and I couldn't get enough of her simple, third-person, limited-omniscient narrative voice that jumped around within her wide cast of characters, time, and place. There were many, many lines that I wanted to mark and remember:
A town always looked different once you'd returned, like a house where all the furniture had shifted three inches. You wouldn't mistake it for a stranger's house, but you'd keep banging your shins on the table corners.
All of her blessings had come so easily in the beginning of her life, and she'd spent the back half losing them all.
"Negroes always love our hometowns," he said. "Even though we're always from the worst places. Only white folks got the freedom to hate home."
(view spoiler)[
He cut his hair in Plano, hacking off inches in a truck stop bathroom with a stolen hunting knife. Outside of Abilene, he bought a blue madras shirt and a leather belt with a silver stallion buckle . . . . In Socorro, he began wrapping his chest in a white bandage, and by Las Cruces, he'd learned to walk again, legs wide, shoulder square. He told himself that it was safer to hitchhike this way, but the truth was that he'd always been Reese. By Tucson, it was Therese who felt like a costume.(hide spoiler)]
I was also really interested in how this novel has become a sort of modern descendant of early 20th century racial "passing" stories, but Bennett's characters aren't punished for the unthinkable "crime" of pretending to be white (view spoiler)[or male (hide spoiler)]. I loved how Bennett digs so deep in this theme to explore the tangential theme of identity and belonging through all of the ways her characters create and shed identities, family, support structures. There's also a lot in this novel about physical beauty, race, loneliness, friendship, love, and probably many more I didn't even pick up on.
Thematically, The Vanishing Half is very, very rich, and while this is reason enough to read it and love it, this novel is also extremely character-driven. I was most actively invested in Jude and Reese's story, but also loved Early's story of being a bounty hunter, and couldn't wait to find out how that all intersected with Stella and her daughter Kennedy.
And if that all wasn't enough, Bennett also writes my very favorite type of historical fiction! She doesn't go overboard in the way of period details, but instead captures a feeling specific to the time and place she's writing about that is very evocative and believable. I read that HBO picked up the rights to make The Vanishing Half into a mini-series, and I think they'll have a lot to work with. There is just so much to enjoy in this novel! I highly, highly recommend it. ...more
This is hands-down my favorite book of 2020 thus far and certainly J. Courtney Sullivan's strongest novel. is an extremely readable story, full of reThis is hands-down my favorite book of 2020 thus far and certainly J. Courtney Sullivan's strongest novel. is an extremely readable story, full of realistic characters, dialogue, and inner monologues, but it's also very much an exploration of inherited and sought-after privilege within different socioeconomic classes and how that privilege works to one's advantage and, occasionally, disadvantage. I haven't really read many contemporary novels that tackle this timely theme, and it makes for a really thought-provoking read.
Like all of Sullivan's books, you're just kind of dropped into her characters lives without any authorial judgment and while you may not love all or even any of those characters, the details of their relationships and observations about themselves and others are so entertaining to me. The relationship between Sam and Elisabeth was very dimensional and one that I could heavily relate to, since I was a nanny after college graduation.
also has one of my new favorite novel characters, George, who is Elisabeth's father-in-law. Every scene with him was sweet, hilarious entertainment. I completely loved his obsession with "The Hollow Tree" metaphor and very much wish I could read Elisabeth's non-fiction book about it....more
I approached The Glass Hotel with a vague understanding of what it would be about, and I'm so glad I did! Having no preconceived ideas or expectationsI approached The Glass Hotel with a vague understanding of what it would be about, and I'm so glad I did! Having no preconceived ideas or expectations of what this novel was supposed to be doing really elevated my reading experience.
In her signature way, Mandel weaves together complicated, multi-layered plots that span decades and involve many, many characters. If she wasn't so fantastic at characterization, her plots would probably be difficult to follow. However, Mandel is brilliant at describing people and their actions with as few words as possible, and I felt like I knew and understood each and every character in this novel intimately, no matter how little time I spent with them.
This is a very haunting novel, both in terms of plot and tone. Literal spirits visit some of Mandel's characters and the ghost of "what could have been" torments others, as they consider their life's choices and how they may have acted differently. Mandel uses plot and character to explore the theme of the "counter life" and it's very effective. I loved that The Glass Hotel is, in and of itself, a kind of counter life for Miranda and Leon, two characters introduced in Mandel's previous novel Station Eleven. Truly, The Glass Hotel couldn't be more timely as it explores other themes of the fragility of the modern world, isolation, corporate greed, addiction, and more. Considering the year the world has lived through in 2020, Mandel seems unrealistically prescient and her novel works as a kind of balm in these sad, lonely, and frightening times. ...more
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