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A review by euzie
House of Fallen Trees by Gina Ranalli
3.0
This is one of those 3 1/2 star books.
There was good and bad, a little from column a and a little from column b.
First the good. I got sucked in, the story moved along at a near perfect pace for the most part and as a BIG fan of Shirley Jackson, the stylistic homage was just lovely (I assume it was on purpose, so benefit of the doubt there)
The characters were well drawn out, the dynamic in the house was excellent. It was creepy and as a ghost story all I can say is bravo.
Now the bad.
There were a few lines that seemed so clunkily written i could have screamed. "she switched off the internet and turned on her Microsoft Word program" - ouch.
But that was a small quibble, my main gripe is the ending. Without giving anything away I felt the main ending was rushed and a bit "oh, was that... ah ok?" BUT THE EPILOGUE!! It's almost like she had 2 endings and couldn't work out how to have them both, so it seemed tacked on and rushed. which was a real shame indeed.
Overall though, I still really enjoyed most of it.
There was good and bad, a little from column a and a little from column b.
First the good. I got sucked in, the story moved along at a near perfect pace for the most part and as a BIG fan of Shirley Jackson, the stylistic homage was just lovely (I assume it was on purpose, so benefit of the doubt there)
The characters were well drawn out, the dynamic in the house was excellent. It was creepy and as a ghost story all I can say is bravo.
Now the bad.
There were a few lines that seemed so clunkily written i could have screamed. "she switched off the internet and turned on her Microsoft Word program" - ouch.
But that was a small quibble, my main gripe is the ending. Without giving anything away I felt the main ending was rushed and a bit "oh, was that... ah ok?" BUT THE EPILOGUE!! It's almost like she had 2 endings and couldn't work out how to have them both, so it seemed tacked on and rushed. which was a real shame indeed.
Overall though, I still really enjoyed most of it.