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A review by ghostlydreamer
Helena by Claire L. Smith
4.0
I really enjoyed this book. For it being so short, I felt like most of the details it needed to be a cohesive story were there. There were times I was a bit confused though and could have used more description, not about how Helena was feeling or what she was looking at (all of which is excellently done), but about the plot itself.
On that note, I finished the book feeling mildly confused and full of questions. I'm not sure if this is because I missed crucial details in my reading (particularly during the climax) or if I simply had a harder time wrapping my mind around what happened than I expected to.
Also, when you read the description, it says Helena has to tame and free the spirits by her home. By the end, I think I finally understood how she did that. But I would have liked to know why it needed to be done. Why it was Helena who needed to do it.
Despite any qualms I had with the book, however, these weren't things that actually annoyed me to the point of distate. I found myself liking Helena, Audrey, and Eric. If the book were longer, we could have gotten to know them even deeper. But it did a great job considering it's length. I enjoyed the atmosphere and the descriptions in the book. And for a book this short and of the gothic fiction genre, I think the unanswered questions and slight confusion are typical and expected, and aren't things to condemn too harshly. At least in this case. I also liked that we discovered bits and pieces of Helena's past overtime, and how that served a purpose in the plot and helped create that atmosphere. Because we could have been given an information dump, and I'm glad we weren't.
I only wish it had been longer. I'd have liked more details in certain scenes. And while I mention part of that is because clarity would have been nice, the other part of that is that I simply enjoyed the book and would have liked more of it.
On that note, I finished the book feeling mildly confused and full of questions. I'm not sure if this is because I missed crucial details in my reading (particularly during the climax) or if I simply had a harder time wrapping my mind around what happened than I expected to.
Also, when you read the description, it says Helena has to tame and free the spirits by her home. By the end, I think I finally understood how she did that. But I would have liked to know why it needed to be done. Why it was Helena who needed to do it.
Despite any qualms I had with the book, however, these weren't things that actually annoyed me to the point of distate. I found myself liking Helena, Audrey, and Eric. If the book were longer, we could have gotten to know them even deeper. But it did a great job considering it's length. I enjoyed the atmosphere and the descriptions in the book. And for a book this short and of the gothic fiction genre, I think the unanswered questions and slight confusion are typical and expected, and aren't things to condemn too harshly. At least in this case. I also liked that we discovered bits and pieces of Helena's past overtime, and how that served a purpose in the plot and helped create that atmosphere. Because we could have been given an information dump, and I'm glad we weren't.
I only wish it had been longer. I'd have liked more details in certain scenes. And while I mention part of that is because clarity would have been nice, the other part of that is that I simply enjoyed the book and would have liked more of it.