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Micky Barnard (542 KP) rated The Orphan's Tale in Books

Dec 13, 2018 (Updated Dec 13, 2018)

The Orphan's Tale

Pam Jenoff | 2017 | Fiction & Poetry

8.8

(6 Ratings)

Book Rating

Intensely compelling

This was a heart-stopping and painful read but there are no regrets in reading it. THE ORPHAN'S TALE broke my heart at the beginning and it didn't stop there. The premise for this story had me searching for the history behind the start of the book; a boxcar of babies on their way to be transported to a concentration camp and a young infant saved. This was based in reality and I can say this book was very well researched and the story throughout felt so tangible.

The two main characters in this book, Noa and Astrid are two women brought together through the rough and barren circumstances of war. They develop that kind of bond that feels like sisterhood. The main story centralises around a circus, such a contrast to war and occupation but this wasn't a joyful, fun life. These two aerialists, learner and mentor, continued in this world just to survive. There was a wonderful cast of characters both in the circus and also along their travels; the character development was superb.

This book provoked such emotion, making the reader really feel the desperation, attachments and loss and hope in 1940s war time Europe. This story was not neatly tied up to make the reader satisfied. Any discomfort or sadness I felt was necessary and right. I don't want to feel my emotions smoothed over for a more comfortable experience, I want to vicariously feel the experiences of these characters cast from real history....and I did.

Pam Jenoff has excelled in her writing, concept, story and character development. This is her best work yet.

Kudos

Goddess in the Stacks (553 KP) rated Frankenstein in Baghdad in Books

Jul 23, 2019

This book won at least two awards; the International Prize for Arabic Fiction and France's Grand Prize for Fantasy, and the author had previously been named one of the 39 best Arab authors under the age of 39. I picked it up to read for the Year of the Asian Reading Challenge, since the Middle East is all-too-often neglected in regional groupings like that. People don't think of it as Europe or Asia. I also try to read translated books on occasion, in an effort to diversify my reading. So this hit a number of my interests - I wish I had actually liked the book more!

It's an interesting retelling of Frankenstein - which I haven't actually read, and now feel like I really should. But it bounces around between several viewpoints. It's not too many to keep straight, but it's definitely too many to truly care about. And it suffers from an unreliable narrator - it's written as several stories told to an author from multiple people that he's woven together into a single narrative, and while he does that well, it suffers from contradictions between how different characters recall things, scenes that don't play a part in furthering the plot but the characters thought they were important, and no authoritative "this is what REALLY happened" to draw it all together.

And I very much dislike unreliable narrators, so that alone is enough to make me dislike the book. If you like ambiguous narratives and vigilante stories, however, you might enjoy this, and the writing style itself was quite engrossing.

You can find all my reviews and more at http://goddessinthestacks.com

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Phil Leader (619 KP) rated The Last Child of Leif in Books

Nov 18, 2019

The Last Child of Leif

Chris Pridmore | 2016 | Science Fiction/Fantasy

9.0

(1 Ratings)

Book Rating

Did you hear about the child who ran away to join the circus? How about if that child was a crown prince called Valiant who escapes the murder of his father, barely escaping with his mother and faithful swordsman Sebastian?

That's an extremely simplistic rendering of the start of this book, but one that is quite illustrative of the way that the whole story unfolds. What starts as something very simple evolves into something a whole lot more complicated.

Valiant does indeed end up hiding in a travelling circus as its traction engines slowly pull it across an alternate 19th Century Eastern Europe. But this is no ordinary circus and among it's various performers and other attractions much skill and knowledge is hidden. As the journey continues it becomes clear that forces want Valiant dead and really will stop at nothing to achieve this.

With a story this complex and with the very big cast of characters it would be easy for the reader to get confused, but Pridmore is very careful to introduce everything and everybody gradually, giving each time and space so the reader becomes familiar. The characterisation is outstanding, everybody in the circus is very much their own person and very well realised and each character develops throughout the book, sometimes with some surprising revelations.

The plot itself is really good, building at each turn, becoming gradually more complex and more expansive as each chapter passes. The threats appear credible and the efforts to repel them are completely in line with how the characters have been developed up to that point.

Overall this is an utterly compelling read that has been very well written