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A review by darkskybooks
The Turnglass by Gareth Rubin
4.0
There were a few times when I was reading this I did find myself thinking - is it trying to be too clever with its literary gimmick, but ultimately I feel this landed (just) on the right side of trying to hard to be clever and actually being clever.
The central conceit of The Turnglass is that the book is present as a tête-bêche - two books flipped back to back with each other. This style of bookbinding has existed for a long time, but is perhaps most remembered for some of its pulpier genre publishing from Ace in the 1950s-70s. Definitely a bit gimmicky, and it was generally two separate and unrelated books. In The Turnglass, the two books here definitely relate to each other - with the other book being directly referenced in each respective story. There is a knowingness to this self referential nod that does border on pretentious at times, but on the whole it works, although the different time frames for the two stories does push the boundaries a bit.
Each story revolves around a crime, with the same family and same names (although often applied to different characters). The novels do work self contained from each other, with the prose definitely competently drawn and the central stories of each half having a good flow and resolution. Taken together, the links between the two stories are what makes the read more fascinating and elevate it beyond merely competently written crime. The very different characters and setting serve to emphasize the links in a clever way.
Ultimately, yes the literary nature of this is gimmicky, but it has been done in a way that is clever enough to let me forgive it without it falling into the trap of being too much style over substance.
The central conceit of The Turnglass is that the book is present as a tête-bêche - two books flipped back to back with each other. This style of bookbinding has existed for a long time, but is perhaps most remembered for some of its pulpier genre publishing from Ace in the 1950s-70s. Definitely a bit gimmicky, and it was generally two separate and unrelated books. In The Turnglass, the two books here definitely relate to each other - with the other book being directly referenced in each respective story. There is a knowingness to this self referential nod that does border on pretentious at times, but on the whole it works, although the different time frames for the two stories does push the boundaries a bit.
Each story revolves around a crime, with the same family and same names (although often applied to different characters). The novels do work self contained from each other, with the prose definitely competently drawn and the central stories of each half having a good flow and resolution. Taken together, the links between the two stories are what makes the read more fascinating and elevate it beyond merely competently written crime. The very different characters and setting serve to emphasize the links in a clever way.
Ultimately, yes the literary nature of this is gimmicky, but it has been done in a way that is clever enough to let me forgive it without it falling into the trap of being too much style over substance.