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outsmartyourshelf's review against another edition
dark
mysterious
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? N/A
- Flaws of characters a main focus? N/A
2.75
Set in the 1880s, it sees Dr Simeon Lee arrive at the house of his cousin, Parson Oliver Hawes. Oliver is ill but believes he is being poisoned & there doesn't seem to be any shortage of suspects: is it the two servants, one of whom provides the food that Oliver eats, or is it one of the townsfolk in the neighbouring village who speak of Turnglass House with disdain, or is it Florence Hawes? Once married to Oliver's brother, James, Florence killed him in a rage over another woman & she now lives behind a glass wall in Turnglass House. How would she get out though to commit the crime?
There are several references to the second half of the story which is set in 1930s California & involves the death of Oliver Tooke & the appearance of a book about a young doctor named Simeon Lee. This book is written as a tête-bêche novel - two intertwined stories where you can read one then the other or read alternate chapters. I didn't realise it when requesting, but this was only one of the two parts to the story so obviously that choice was not open to me, but I didn't enjoy the story enough to read the second part. I found it a bit hard-going for some reason, can't quite put my finger on what I didn't like. Many reviewers seemed to really like it though, so don't let me put you off as it's something different in today's book world.
My thanks to NetGalley & publishers, Simon & Schuster UK, for the opportunity to read an ARC. I am voluntarily giving an honest review.
There are several references to the second half of the story which is set in 1930s California & involves the death of Oliver Tooke & the appearance of a book about a young doctor named Simeon Lee. This book is written as a tête-bêche novel - two intertwined stories where you can read one then the other or read alternate chapters. I didn't realise it when requesting, but this was only one of the two parts to the story so obviously that choice was not open to me, but I didn't enjoy the story enough to read the second part. I found it a bit hard-going for some reason, can't quite put my finger on what I didn't like. Many reviewers seemed to really like it though, so don't let me put you off as it's something different in today's book world.
My thanks to NetGalley & publishers, Simon & Schuster UK, for the opportunity to read an ARC. I am voluntarily giving an honest review.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Confinement and Murder
Moderate: Sexual content and Drug use
Minor: Animal death
what_heather_loves's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
mysterious
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
5.0
"'It won't end well. Tragedy for you and your family.' She ran her palms over the glass model she had made.
'And how do you know that it will end badly?'
'Oh Simeon, we both do. It's all in The Gold Field. It won't take much: a spark of ambition here, a flicker of wrath there. The sins rack up until the whole house burns. It's the dust in the air; it makes the blood foul.'"
Two books in one (and a book within a book), these are cleverly interconnected stories. The first novel is set on the island of Ray, Essex in 1881 and the second in Los Angeles, California in 1939. Both involve a house (one Victorian and one early twentieth century) called Turnglass House (each with an hourglass weather vane) and the blighted Tooke family. There's a creepy mystery to solve in both, each with a male protagonist (not a family member), questing to solve the mystery.
This is the first tête-bêche ("a book split into two parts printed back-to-back and head-to-foot") I've read and also the first book by this author. The hardback, signed edition I have is beautiful and includes a matching bookmark. The isolated and bleak house in Victorian England setting of the first novel drew me in quickly as I tried to work out what was really going on. As a standalone story it engaged me, but once I began the second story and parellels became apparent is where the ingenious complexity of the book really stood out. The contrast with the glamorous glass house in late 1930s LA, set against the backdrop of the impending World War II, was pleasing. Little is as it seems in each story, but ultimately, themes of controlling patriarchs, wilful women and a pervasive sense of menace, bind the two tales. Thoroughly enjoyable and intriguing, I can see the Stuart Turton, Janice Hallett and Anthony Horowitz comparisons.
'And how do you know that it will end badly?'
'Oh Simeon, we both do. It's all in The Gold Field. It won't take much: a spark of ambition here, a flicker of wrath there. The sins rack up until the whole house burns. It's the dust in the air; it makes the blood foul.'"
Two books in one (and a book within a book), these are cleverly interconnected stories. The first novel is set on the island of Ray, Essex in 1881 and the second in Los Angeles, California in 1939. Both involve a house (one Victorian and one early twentieth century) called Turnglass House (each with an hourglass weather vane) and the blighted Tooke family. There's a creepy mystery to solve in both, each with a male protagonist (not a family member), questing to solve the mystery.
This is the first tête-bêche ("a book split into two parts printed back-to-back and head-to-foot") I've read and also the first book by this author. The hardback, signed edition I have is beautiful and includes a matching bookmark. The isolated and bleak house in Victorian England setting of the first novel drew me in quickly as I tried to work out what was really going on. As a standalone story it engaged me, but once I began the second story and parellels became apparent is where the ingenious complexity of the book really stood out. The contrast with the glamorous glass house in late 1930s LA, set against the backdrop of the impending World War II, was pleasing. Little is as it seems in each story, but ultimately, themes of controlling patriarchs, wilful women and a pervasive sense of menace, bind the two tales. Thoroughly enjoyable and intriguing, I can see the Stuart Turton, Janice Hallett and Anthony Horowitz comparisons.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Abandonment and Confinement
Moderate: Forced institutionalization
Minor: Child death and Violence
shelfofunread's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
mysterious
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
5.0
Having never heard of a tête-bêche, or ‘head-to-tail’, book before, the premise of Gareth Rubin’s The Turnglass was an extremely intriguing one. Dating back to the nineteenth century, a tête-bêche is, as David Barnett puts it, “a curious beast where two short novels, novellas or short-story collections, generally by different authors, are printed together, but upside down and back-to-back, so you read one then flip the book over to start reading the other” (see Barnett's article on the form at https://www.theguardian.com/books/2011/jul/28/tete-beche-books-speculative-return). Rubin’s tête-bêche is a little different to the the pieces mentioned by Barnett as both stories in The Turnglass are the product of a single author. More intriguingly, both stories, although distinct and complete in and of themselves, are referential to each other.
Reading The Turnglass is, therefore, a puzzle in itself. In addition to the two separate mystery plots – one following a young doctor’s efforts to track down a poisoner in 1880s England and the other focusing on an aspiring film star’s efforts to get to the truth behind his friend’s apparent suicide in 1930s California – there is the overarching mystery of how the two stories are connected. Why does Hollywood author Oliver Tooke’s contemporary Californian home appear in a painting on the landing of the isolated Turnglass House visited by Dr Simeon Lee in England? Why, for that matter, are both properties called Turnglass House? And why does Oliver’s latest novel feature the young doctor Simeon Lee?
Anyone who enjoyed the satisfyingly head-scratching The Seven Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle and the ‘novel-in-a-novel’ shenanigans of Magpie Murders will enjoy untangling the web of connections between the two tales that make up The Turnglass. I certainly loved the way in which Simeon’s 1880s narrative was turned on its head by the revelations that awaited amidst the sunshine of 1930s California.
I did wonder if I would have found the book to be quite as successful had I read the 1930s narrative first. The ending of Ken Kourian’s plotline revealed several of the key twists and concepts in Simeon Lee’s story. That said, it’s hard for me to know whether, without prior knowledge of Simeon’s story, I would have spotted those reveals for what they were! Looking at Goodreads I’m clearly not the only reviewer who has puzzled over this so I’d be interested to hear from anyone who does opt to read the book the other way around (or, as some readers have done, to read alternative chapters from each)!
On the whole I did prefer Simeon’s story to Ken’s but that’s probably a matter of personal taste more than anything else. Anyone who has followed this blog for any length of time knows that I adore a Gothic mystery and Simeon’s visit to Turnglass House is just dripping in Gothic atmosphere. All the key tropes I love are present and correct: an isolated house, a gaggle of vaguely threatening locals, a family tragedy, and some mysterious relatives with secrets to hide. Pure Shelf of Unread catnip.
That isn’t to say that Ken Kourian’s story isn’t good. Indeed, the glitzy world of 1930s Hollywood leaps off the page in whirl of casting calls and cocktail parties. But my own personal reading taste is more Jane Eyre than The Great Gatsby so it’s unsurprising that the Victorian plotline hooked me that little bit more. As a tête-bêche, however, you do of course need both tales to get the full story and I had great fun looking for all the parallels between the two seemingly different worlds that Rubin has created.
The Turnglass is, in its construction and design, an ambitious book but Rubin pulls off the difficult task of creating two stories that stand alone but, when read together, reveal new perspectives on both. As with The Seven Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle, nothing is quite as it seems in The Turnglass and, for me at least, the novel (or should that be novels?!) is all the better for it. Clever, mysterious, and unique, The Turnglass was an inventive, entertaining and satisfying read.
NB: This review also appears on my blog at https://theshelfofunreadbooks.wordpress.com as part of the blog tour for the book. My thanks go to the publisher for providing a copy of the book in return for an honest and unbiased review.
Reading The Turnglass is, therefore, a puzzle in itself. In addition to the two separate mystery plots – one following a young doctor’s efforts to track down a poisoner in 1880s England and the other focusing on an aspiring film star’s efforts to get to the truth behind his friend’s apparent suicide in 1930s California – there is the overarching mystery of how the two stories are connected. Why does Hollywood author Oliver Tooke’s contemporary Californian home appear in a painting on the landing of the isolated Turnglass House visited by Dr Simeon Lee in England? Why, for that matter, are both properties called Turnglass House? And why does Oliver’s latest novel feature the young doctor Simeon Lee?
Anyone who enjoyed the satisfyingly head-scratching The Seven Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle and the ‘novel-in-a-novel’ shenanigans of Magpie Murders will enjoy untangling the web of connections between the two tales that make up The Turnglass. I certainly loved the way in which Simeon’s 1880s narrative was turned on its head by the revelations that awaited amidst the sunshine of 1930s California.
I did wonder if I would have found the book to be quite as successful had I read the 1930s narrative first. The ending of Ken Kourian’s plotline revealed several of the key twists and concepts in Simeon Lee’s story. That said, it’s hard for me to know whether, without prior knowledge of Simeon’s story, I would have spotted those reveals for what they were! Looking at Goodreads I’m clearly not the only reviewer who has puzzled over this so I’d be interested to hear from anyone who does opt to read the book the other way around (or, as some readers have done, to read alternative chapters from each)!
On the whole I did prefer Simeon’s story to Ken’s but that’s probably a matter of personal taste more than anything else. Anyone who has followed this blog for any length of time knows that I adore a Gothic mystery and Simeon’s visit to Turnglass House is just dripping in Gothic atmosphere. All the key tropes I love are present and correct: an isolated house, a gaggle of vaguely threatening locals, a family tragedy, and some mysterious relatives with secrets to hide. Pure Shelf of Unread catnip.
That isn’t to say that Ken Kourian’s story isn’t good. Indeed, the glitzy world of 1930s Hollywood leaps off the page in whirl of casting calls and cocktail parties. But my own personal reading taste is more Jane Eyre than The Great Gatsby so it’s unsurprising that the Victorian plotline hooked me that little bit more. As a tête-bêche, however, you do of course need both tales to get the full story and I had great fun looking for all the parallels between the two seemingly different worlds that Rubin has created.
The Turnglass is, in its construction and design, an ambitious book but Rubin pulls off the difficult task of creating two stories that stand alone but, when read together, reveal new perspectives on both. As with The Seven Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle, nothing is quite as it seems in The Turnglass and, for me at least, the novel (or should that be novels?!) is all the better for it. Clever, mysterious, and unique, The Turnglass was an inventive, entertaining and satisfying read.
NB: This review also appears on my blog at https://theshelfofunreadbooks.wordpress.com as part of the blog tour for the book. My thanks go to the publisher for providing a copy of the book in return for an honest and unbiased review.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Drug abuse, Alcohol, Murder, Death, Sexism, Confinement, Kidnapping, and Drug use
Minor: Racial slurs, Mental illness, Racism, Police brutality, Suicide, Religious bigotry, Rape, Emotional abuse, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Medical content, and Vomit
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