A review by claire_fuller_writer
A Ladder to the Sky by John Boyne

3.0

I'm not sure what I was expecting, but somehow it wasn't this. This fits the psychological thriller genre, except while that is often in a domestic setting, A Ladder to the Sky has a broader scope. There were lots of things I enjoyed: the literary jokes and tropes (all exaggerated but I recognised many writerly things), the pace (I had to read on), and the structure (the different points of view, and the chapter headings). But most of the story was too far-fetched for me to fully fall into it and accept what was happening. All books manipulate their readers (here, the author wants the reader to feel sad, here the author wants the reader to think this, or that), and usually I barely notice, but in this novel (as in a lot of psychological thrillers, even well-written ones such as this is), the manipulation is very evident and seeing it made me irritated and pulled me out of the story. The manipulation is at its worst when Boyne expects us to accept that certain characters at certain points will spill all their darkest secrets to a relative stranger. I simply wasn't able to suspend my disbelief. Perhaps that's my failing and not Boyne's.
So, enjoyable but nothing more.