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A review by konvineo
The Brides of Rollrock Island by Margo Lanagan
2.0
1.5 stars
and then I'm being nice.
The writing is lovely, no doubt about it, but the book still manages to be meh. It falls short of the promise:
"[...]reveals characters capable of unspeakable cruelty, but also unspoken love."
It's just not there. The characters feel flat and comes across quite boring with very few moments of exception. Also the climax just falls to the ground because... everybody still ends up sort of happy? There's no lasting punishment for the men - or the island as a whole- who decided to fetch a seal-wife out of the sea. If the book had ended around page 253-256 I might've felt more positive... forgiving (don't know if that's the word I'm looking for, but anyway) towards the book.
This book would probably be a great book for reading aloud as background noise, to have something pretty to listen to. But too boring for any more than that, in my opinion.
and then I'm being nice.
The writing is lovely, no doubt about it, but the book still manages to be meh. It falls short of the promise:
"[...]reveals characters capable of unspeakable cruelty, but also unspoken love."
It's just not there. The characters feel flat and comes across quite boring with very few moments of exception. Also the climax just falls to the ground because... everybody still ends up sort of happy? There's no lasting punishment for the men - or the island as a whole- who decided to fetch a seal-wife out of the sea. If the book had ended around page 253-256 I might've felt more positive... forgiving (don't know if that's the word I'm looking for, but anyway) towards the book.
This book would probably be a great book for reading aloud as background noise, to have something pretty to listen to. But too boring for any more than that, in my opinion.