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lindsayvale's review against another edition
dark
emotional
mysterious
reflective
sad
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
5.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Child death
Moderate: Pregnancy
thesapphiccelticbookworm's review against another edition
dark
mysterious
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- 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
3.75
Content Warnings
Graphic: Child death, Infidelity, Mental illness, Kidnapping, and Abandonment
Moderate: Suicide, Medical trauma, and Pregnancy
Minor: Infertility and War
what_heather_loves's review against another edition
emotional
hopeful
mysterious
reflective
relaxing
sad
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
5.0
"She'd seen something quite unacceptable not thirty minutes before. Clementine, that unfortunate freckled child with the horsey teeth had appeared at the side of the house with the baby (Theo) riding high on her back! Constance had felt a rage rise within her. She'd called out, intending to remonstrate, but the girl had ignored her. Now Constance glanced back down the garden to where she'd last seen the girl, disappearing around the lake. The mower clattered away on the lawns behind her and she took up her stationery set, using it as a fan. Mechanical noises always made the heat seem worse and it was going to be dreadfully hot today. People did strange things in hot weather, unexpected things. It was not unheard of that a person might go a little mad when the temperatures sweltered...Midsummer was a strange and unpredictable time."
Cornwall, 1933 and at the Midsummer Party of the wealthy Evadvane family's home, their youngest child, Theo, goes missing, never found. Seventy years later, the Met's DC Sadie Sparrow, staying with her grandfather in Cornwall, is on enforced leave from work after becoming too involved in a missing mother case; she uses her idle investigative talents to look into Theo's disappearance.
I listened the Bolinda audiobook read by Caroline Lee on Borrowbox from my local library. Despite being over twenty one hours long, it was one of those books that was irritating to have to put down when life got in the way. The narratives switch between teenage Alice Edavane in 1933 and Sadie Sparrow in 2003 (when Alice is now an octogenarian crime fiction author). As the plot progresses, more characters were introduced, other perspectives (both historical and modern) were added into the complex mix. Despite this I didn't find either the characters or the plot difficult to engage, perhaps because of the enjoyably slow and languid pace. The author perfectly captures the character, landscape, summer climate and atmosphere of the titular Lake House (Loeanneth in Cornish). Alice's and mother Eleanor's beloved home (busy in 1933, abandoned in 2003) is a magical, sylvan setting, but it harbours secrets. The two mysteries, the missing boy and missing mother, share elements and the reader learns how both investigations progress through conversations and letters. The devastating impacts of both the First and Second World Wars in the Edavane family in particular, are deftly explored. Fictional books are present in both timeframes: in Mr Llewellyn's (Alice's 'mentor' for her childhood stories) novels and later in Alice's crimie fiction and her protagonist, Diggory Brent - I'd love to read that series!
Grief, love, loss and hope are explored in this complex and engrossing family saga, as are the lengths to which a parent would go, to protect the child they loved. Nostalgic, character-driven historical fiction at its absolute best, Morton remains one of my auto-buy authors that I never hesitate to recommend.
Cornwall, 1933 and at the Midsummer Party of the wealthy Evadvane family's home, their youngest child, Theo, goes missing, never found. Seventy years later, the Met's DC Sadie Sparrow, staying with her grandfather in Cornwall, is on enforced leave from work after becoming too involved in a missing mother case; she uses her idle investigative talents to look into Theo's disappearance.
I listened the Bolinda audiobook read by Caroline Lee on Borrowbox from my local library. Despite being over twenty one hours long, it was one of those books that was irritating to have to put down when life got in the way. The narratives switch between teenage Alice Edavane in 1933 and Sadie Sparrow in 2003 (when Alice is now an octogenarian crime fiction author). As the plot progresses, more characters were introduced, other perspectives (both historical and modern) were added into the complex mix. Despite this I didn't find either the characters or the plot difficult to engage, perhaps because of the enjoyably slow and languid pace. The author perfectly captures the character, landscape, summer climate and atmosphere of the titular Lake House (Loeanneth in Cornish). Alice's and mother Eleanor's beloved home (busy in 1933, abandoned in 2003) is a magical, sylvan setting, but it harbours secrets. The two mysteries, the missing boy and missing mother, share elements and the reader learns how both investigations progress through conversations and letters. The devastating impacts of both the First and Second World Wars in the Edavane family in particular, are deftly explored. Fictional books are present in both timeframes: in Mr Llewellyn's (Alice's 'mentor' for her childhood stories) novels and later in Alice's crimie fiction and her protagonist, Diggory Brent - I'd love to read that series!
Grief, love, loss and hope are explored in this complex and engrossing family saga, as are the lengths to which a parent would go, to protect the child they loved. Nostalgic, character-driven historical fiction at its absolute best, Morton remains one of my auto-buy authors that I never hesitate to recommend.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Grief
Moderate: Abandonment and War
Minor: Suicide, Dementia, and Pregnancy
seekittyread's review against another edition
emotional
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
I desperately wanted to love this book. Unfortunately the author's casual disregard of the abuses of adoption and medically forced deliveries ruined it. The characters were beautiful and the story had great promise, but I found the abuses and inaccuracies a downer.
I think it important that it is made clear that a cord being wrapped around the neck during childbirth is a common occurance and not a fatal one. I believe the author's use of this as a manor to further plot quite distasteful and probably led her own miseducation due to gaslighting by the medical industry. Parents who seek out doctors are led to believe that a cord around the neck is fatal and a baby only survives due to the "greatness" of the abusive doctor they have hired to deliver their babies. In reality fatalities due to a cord being rapped around the neck are minimal and most often happen before the baby can be born. Cords wrapped around the neck are simply slipped off by mother after birth during natural births when doctors and the overbearing hands are not involved. I would encourage this author to research more about the abuses of medically led deliveries before casting it as the normal and right way for babies to enter the world.
I think it important that it is made clear that a cord being wrapped around the neck during childbirth is a common occurance and not a fatal one. I believe the author's use of this as a manor to further plot quite distasteful and probably led her own miseducation due to gaslighting by the medical industry. Parents who seek out doctors are led to believe that a cord around the neck is fatal and a baby only survives due to the "greatness" of the abusive doctor they have hired to deliver their babies. In reality fatalities due to a cord being rapped around the neck are minimal and most often happen before the baby can be born. Cords wrapped around the neck are simply slipped off by mother after birth during natural births when doctors and the overbearing hands are not involved. I would encourage this author to research more about the abuses of medically led deliveries before casting it as the normal and right way for babies to enter the world.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Child abuse, Child death, Death, Infertility, Mental illness, Sexism, Medical content, Dementia, Grief, Medical trauma, Pregnancy, and War
Warning for misrepresentation of the "benefits" of adoption and for the promotion of abusive medical deliveries.