A review by sweetsimplejoy
A 1940s childhood: From Bomb Sites to Children's Hour by James Marsh

4.0

Okay. I did like this book, there was just one issue I couldn't shake. There were several other reviewers who had a problem with the unexpected jumps in time. I was actually tracking with the post traumatic flashbacks that hopped around in time depending on where Alison was emotionally while encountering various childhood spots. About midway through this book my rational brain crashed into my strange imagination and it became almost comical. Let me explain. I love a good ol' fashioned whodunnit, but apparently there is a limit to the number of red herrings my brain can track before going silly. It suddenly dawned on me that this book is based in a small town whose inhabitants are such terrible people that literally every single resident is a suspect. With each new character we were introduced to, I began to formulate a picture of people with dewy salt-water whipped skin, long stringy hair, and black teeth. Scraggly, limping pariahs in cut off flannel shirts, like.....pirates, maybe. By the end (which, I concur with the crowd, is super confusing) it didn't really matter who did it, because all of these people in this treacherous community of Argus Filches have probably murdered somebody at some point. I could not keep the dark secrets and unsavory actions straight. So, this might be entirely me, and had my brain not gone wonky, I could have given this another star.