Reviews tagging 'Bullying'

A Place Called Here by Cecelia Ahern

1 review

kelly_'s review against another edition

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dark mysterious slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

1.0

This is a sort-of supernatural novel about things and people going missing and one messed up kid that grows up obsessed with finding. Set in Ireland. Though the only time it’s really evident is when a paragraph or so is inserted to describe how to pour a Guinness.

I think I may be in the minority here but I really didn’t like this book.

  • All the characters sounded the same.
  • Painfully slow pace.
  • The central love story was actually a groomer/pedo thing but it’s framed as end goal/cute or something (ew!) with parental encouragement?!
  • There was a ridiculous amount of repetition (set up states something and then it’s repeated in dialogue and then often repeated again in the POV switch).
  • The “twists” weren’t great and often just info that was withheld.
  • There was an attempt made to make a diverse cast but it felt forced. Lots of extras (non-speaking/practically invisible) to build the fictional/fantasy place ‘Here’ as a multi-cultural place”. There wasn’t that much detailed descriptions of other characters, but I know that the only man described as black (Joseph the carpenter) had ebony skin, melted sugar whites of the eyes, intimidating stature, but gentle. And we came back to descriptions of him a number of times, just in case I forgot what he looked like… oh and the way he’s so quirky using Swahili words but dragging out translating them, presumably to make sure we understand it’s supposed to be a big reveal who Sandy is and what Here is (honestly, Joseph, it really wasn’t worth the effort).
  • The plot felt pretty thin on the ground with aspects that went unresolved or were unsatisfying.

There’s probably other points but I think that about covers it.

I guess there should also be trigger warnings for things like missing people (Inc children), talk of child murder, mental illness, unhealthy relationships, and grief.
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