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lauram1208's review against another edition
2.0
I decided on this book based on glowing reviews in a FB group i belong to. I didn't listened a sample before downloading it nor did I check to see who narrators it, I regert that now.
At first I thought it was the narrator that that was annoying me. His voice does make me want to nap, however am in Chapter 4 and i feel as if the story has not begun. The book is not without lovely phrases and language but not enough to save a pallid story that would lose a race with a sloth.
At first I thought it was the narrator that that was annoying me. His voice does make me want to nap, however am in Chapter 4 and i feel as if the story has not begun. The book is not without lovely phrases and language but not enough to save a pallid story that would lose a race with a sloth.
onesownroom's review against another edition
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✔️ DNF: April 2023
📎 I can't remember what my problem was with this book! I'm writing this almost 2 years later. My vague memory is that it was too long and too complicated to hold my interest. I'm an emotional reader so if I don't sense some emotion pretty quickly I get bored. I do think the concept is really cool! But I have a huge tbr.
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About moi.
🦡 ENFP. Hufflepuff.
❄️ Favorite books: Gone with the Wind, Testament of Youth, Little Women, Anne of Green Gables, A Tree Grows in Brooklyn, Sense & Sensibility
🍲 Invited to my literary dinner of five historical or literary people: Abraham Lincoln, Anne Shirley, Margaret Mitchell, Dickon Sowerby, and The Mad Hatter.
📎 I can't remember what my problem was with this book! I'm writing this almost 2 years later. My vague memory is that it was too long and too complicated to hold my interest. I'm an emotional reader so if I don't sense some emotion pretty quickly I get bored. I do think the concept is really cool! But I have a huge tbr.
- - - - - -
About moi.
🦡 ENFP. Hufflepuff.
❄️ Favorite books: Gone with the Wind, Testament of Youth, Little Women, Anne of Green Gables, A Tree Grows in Brooklyn, Sense & Sensibility
🍲 Invited to my literary dinner of five historical or literary people: Abraham Lincoln, Anne Shirley, Margaret Mitchell, Dickon Sowerby, and The Mad Hatter.
lastbraincell's review against another edition
3.0
I'd started reading without any idea what it was about (usually I read synopses or GoodReads reviews before committing to reading a certain book). The fact that it was 800+ pages? I figured if it was absorbing then it was worth diving in. The beginning (A Journey. A Quest. but of course!) was easy enough to follow, and soon the Victorian magic part reminded me of Jonathan Norrell and Mr. Strange, with Mrs. Underhill et al. illustrated by Charles Vess. Then it was like I suddenly took a misstep and ended up in a world that was confusing and constantly shifting around me. Part house of mirrors, part fairyland/wonderland, I trudged on, the book teasing me, like if I'd just read a little further on then understanding would be just around the corner. Then just when I think I've gotten a foothold, it shifts again.
Parts I liked: the story about the Meadow Mouse and Brother North-wind (Winter's secret), the story of August and the fairy bargain, the story of the female stork, the changeling, some parts about Ariel Hawsquill. And maybe the nods to Alice in Wonderland, and Midsummer Night's Dream. I guess I like the parts with actual straightforward enchantment or fantasy going on, versus the family going through their angst side. Although, I did love the portrayals of the relationships between family members: the sisterhood of Alice and Sophie, the love of Violet Bramble and John Drinkwater, the strained father-son relationship of Smoky and Auberon. Those parts are so sad and true and human.
I wanted to love this more, but maybe it's a strain of fantasy I'm not quite used to, yet. Or maybe I have to think about it more, mull over it a bit, before it hits me how brilliant this is, and eveything clicks. I'm guessing everyone who rated this with 4 stars or more got that feeling, and I feel a little jealous. Maybe it's a meta-book(???), and the confusion I felt is like how Smoky Barnable felt (or even the older Auberon), living in a house with all the Drinkwaters and always feeling left out on their ancestral secret. He just doesn't have the eye, or the Frida eyebrow, or that extra sense or something. They see/feel the magic, and Smoky (and I, the unperceptive reader) can't. Like, what the heck, so what happened to the grand Faery War?
Still, an enjoyable, though rather long Tale, at least the parts that I understood.
By the way I'm an amateur Tarot card reader/collector, and several times in the book all I could think of was that I'd like to get my hands on a Little, Big inspired Tarot deck. :)
Parts I liked: the story about the Meadow Mouse and Brother North-wind (Winter's secret), the story of August and the fairy bargain, the story of the female stork, the changeling, some parts about Ariel Hawsquill. And maybe the nods to Alice in Wonderland, and Midsummer Night's Dream. I guess I like the parts with actual straightforward enchantment or fantasy going on, versus the family going through their angst side. Although, I did love the portrayals of the relationships between family members: the sisterhood of Alice and Sophie, the love of Violet Bramble and John Drinkwater, the strained father-son relationship of Smoky and Auberon. Those parts are so sad and true and human.
I wanted to love this more, but maybe it's a strain of fantasy I'm not quite used to, yet. Or maybe I have to think about it more, mull over it a bit, before it hits me how brilliant this is, and eveything clicks. I'm guessing everyone who rated this with 4 stars or more got that feeling, and I feel a little jealous. Maybe it's a meta-book(???), and the confusion I felt is like how Smoky Barnable felt (or even the older Auberon), living in a house with all the Drinkwaters and always feeling left out on their ancestral secret. He just doesn't have the eye, or the Frida eyebrow, or that extra sense or something. They see/feel the magic, and Smoky (and I, the unperceptive reader) can't. Like, what the heck, so what happened to the grand Faery War?
Still, an enjoyable, though rather long Tale, at least the parts that I understood.
By the way I'm an amateur Tarot card reader/collector, and several times in the book all I could think of was that I'd like to get my hands on a Little, Big inspired Tarot deck. :)
andreacpowers's review against another edition
3.0
Great story buried in the words words words words. Great characters. When he wrote simply the narrative took off. Left me with no motivation to ever read anything by him again. I might have to read all those words again again again.
jcoryv's review against another edition
4.0
So it took me almost three months to read this. The first couple chapters were so well written, I consciously slowed my pace to savor it. It went downhill from there. Don't get me wrong... there were incredible parts and I'm glad I finished it, but it was a slog.
A review on B&N summed it up for me, " Its parts are greater than its whole."
A review on B&N summed it up for me, " Its parts are greater than its whole."
kristian26's review against another edition
adventurous
inspiring
mysterious
reflective
sad
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.5
anteus7's review against another edition
4.0
I can see how this would end up being one of THOSE BOOKS to a lot of people. For me it rates as one of Those Books.
I enjoyed the prose--very clever, insightful, lyrical--good stuff. The characters ranged from a bit flat to fully realized, as well they should be. The plot was a confused tangle of generations and motivations, which a book like this should also be.
This is a fairy tale at its heart, and fairy tales have a whole different topography and set of rules than other kinds of stories--hidden things, bargains, magic, changelings and more. So it makes sense that many of the reviews that I have read speak to a certain sense of being tangled up in the story. The story isn't perfectly linear. It jumps around from generation to generation a little, and ends on the kind of note that tells us that this might all have been going on forever and is likely to happen again, and keep happening again.
So, I liked it, but it did not change my readerly DNA the way that other books did at pivotal times in my reading journey (looking at you Perdido Street Station, Neuromancer, House of Leaves, others that are not coming to my head right now--sorry all) like it did for other people, but I can see how it might have done so.
I enjoyed the prose--very clever, insightful, lyrical--good stuff. The characters ranged from a bit flat to fully realized, as well they should be. The plot was a confused tangle of generations and motivations, which a book like this should also be.
This is a fairy tale at its heart, and fairy tales have a whole different topography and set of rules than other kinds of stories--hidden things, bargains, magic, changelings and more. So it makes sense that many of the reviews that I have read speak to a certain sense of being tangled up in the story. The story isn't perfectly linear. It jumps around from generation to generation a little, and ends on the kind of note that tells us that this might all have been going on forever and is likely to happen again, and keep happening again.
So, I liked it, but it did not change my readerly DNA the way that other books did at pivotal times in my reading journey (looking at you Perdido Street Station, Neuromancer, House of Leaves, others that are not coming to my head right now--sorry all) like it did for other people, but I can see how it might have done so.
evie5120's review against another edition
challenging
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? N/A
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.5
toc's review against another edition
4.0
This is truly a charming and enchanting story. Ostensibly the tale of the marriage between Smoky Barnable and Daily Alice it enters the strange pretty quickly. Or does it? After all, nothing very odd goes on. Smoky gets lost in the woods and meets a different family than he set out to. Daily Alice has a favorite spot on the river where she speaks her deepest thoughts and worries to a fish she's named Grandfather Trout. The crazy(?) old Aunt likes to read fortunes a deck of cards. They all live in a house designed by their grandfather, a house that that has seven fronts and no backs.
What's strange about any of that? It could happen to anybody.
But it doesn't. It happens to Smoky Barnable and Daily Alice and all their family, past and present.
And that makes all the difference…
What's strange about any of that? It could happen to anybody.
But it doesn't. It happens to Smoky Barnable and Daily Alice and all their family, past and present.
And that makes all the difference…