Reviews

Oh, this was so lovely. I'm glad yet again that I don't review "professionally" because I don't even know how to review this other than to say it was lovely. It's a marvelous coming of age story, mixed with a slice-of-life from England in the 1930s. I Capture the Castle is written as the journal of Cassandra, a young girl who lives with her sort-of-mess of a family in a crumbling castle in the English countryside. Cassandra is a wonderful narrator, really. She was poetic without being overly so, and perfectly descriptive, without going overboard to the point that it stopped feeling like a journal. Cassandra was so very real, too, in all her teenaged glory; caring and kind but also selfish and overwhelmed by the changes going on around her and within her.

It reminded me a lot of the Montmaray Journals, which I suppose is on purpose-- or rather, it is the opposite way. Those books were written a lot later and were inspired in a way, I think, by this one. Anyway, I am just so glad I took the advice of the ladies at The Toast and read this because oh, WOW, was it just a lovely way to spend the weekend. I advise anyone who reads it to do so with some candles and a cup of tea, and a backdrop of rain if you can manage it. (I went for another dose of rainymood.com and a dash of crackling fire on youtube!)

(And if someone could recommend me some books like this, I would ADORE THEM forever.)

Some favorite quotes to round this off:

“When I read a book, I put in all the imagination I can, so that it is almost like writing the book as well as reading it - or rather, it is like living it. It makes reading so much more exciting, but I don't suppose many people try to do it.”

“Perhaps watching someone you love suffer can teach you even more than suffering yourself can.”