A review by ecclescake
Freckles by Cecelia Ahern
3.0
Freckles is the nickname given to our heroine/narrator as a child, having inherited her father’s complexion. Freckles, AKA Allegra Bird, is brought up by her father (who she calls Pops) as a single parent; she has never known her mother. Living an unconventional life on Valentia Island, County Kerry, her Pops worked as a music professor and has a bit of the ‘mad professor’ about him – he’s certainly eccentric. It’s at boarding school that she gains her nickname and spends her time after lights out joining freckles on her arm to mark out star constellations. Initially she does this with pens, graduating to piercing the skin when the teachers take her pens away, which leaves her with scars as a permanent record of the constellations Pops has taught her about and which fascinate her.
In the present day Allegra has moved away from home to Malahide, near Dublin, where she works as a traffic warden. Her dream was to be a Garda, but her application was rejected, so becoming a traffic warden is the next best thing. She is meticulous in her task and her strict interpretation of the rules, is a creature of habit to say the least (possibly obsessive compulsive, possibly on the autism spectrum), and in many ways is very child-like – so much so that those areas in which she isn’t child-like come as quite a shock!
A turning point in her life is when a very angry victim of her meticulousness as a traffic warden tells her, “You are the average of the five people you spend the most time with”, and that her five must all be losers, like her. Having difficulty in identifying her five satisfactorily, Allegra sets about contacting some people in the public eye who she admires, in the hope that their influence might have a positive effect on her. In her child-like manner she fully expects them to respond and I felt I wanted to protect her from the disappointment of her letters remaining unanswered.
There are oblique references to her having moved to Malahide on some kind of mission and it is some way into the book before our suspicions of what it might be are confirmed. As Pops seems to be suffering from mental ill health, it begins to look like she might have to leave before completing her mission. She does make progress, however, but her sometimes naïve, sometimes downright stupid actions left me feeling both sorry for her and infuriated with her.
On the whole I found Freckles an enjoyable read. And I found her ultimate five perfectly satisfying.
In the present day Allegra has moved away from home to Malahide, near Dublin, where she works as a traffic warden. Her dream was to be a Garda, but her application was rejected, so becoming a traffic warden is the next best thing. She is meticulous in her task and her strict interpretation of the rules, is a creature of habit to say the least (possibly obsessive compulsive, possibly on the autism spectrum), and in many ways is very child-like – so much so that those areas in which she isn’t child-like come as quite a shock!
A turning point in her life is when a very angry victim of her meticulousness as a traffic warden tells her, “You are the average of the five people you spend the most time with”, and that her five must all be losers, like her. Having difficulty in identifying her five satisfactorily, Allegra sets about contacting some people in the public eye who she admires, in the hope that their influence might have a positive effect on her. In her child-like manner she fully expects them to respond and I felt I wanted to protect her from the disappointment of her letters remaining unanswered.
There are oblique references to her having moved to Malahide on some kind of mission and it is some way into the book before our suspicions of what it might be are confirmed. As Pops seems to be suffering from mental ill health, it begins to look like she might have to leave before completing her mission. She does make progress, however, but her sometimes naïve, sometimes downright stupid actions left me feeling both sorry for her and infuriated with her.
On the whole I found Freckles an enjoyable read. And I found her ultimate five perfectly satisfying.