Smashbomb

Search

Search results

All (5000)

Content

Erika (17789 KP) rated A Long Long Way in Books

Mar 22, 2020

A Long Long Way

Sebastian Barry | 2005 | Fiction & Poetry, History & Politics

6.0

(1 Ratings)

Book Rating

Slow beginning (0 more)

I got this nookbook on sale for $1.99. I'm glad I only spent that. I enjoy Great War fiction, and the added dynamic of the Easter Uprising of 1916 made me even more interested in it.
This book started out so slowly, and some of the descriptions felt completely unnecessary. I don't want to read about every time someone let their bowels go when they were scared literally and figuratively sh--less.
The one positive is that I felt like the dynamic of the Irish soldiers coming back to an Ireland they didn't recognize, and that they were considered traitors in some ways because they were fighting with the English.
Never expect a happy ending to a book (or any media) about soldiers in the Great War.

Kudos

lurkykitty (3 KP) rated The Animals at Lockwood Manor in Books

Mar 26, 2020

The Animals at Lockwood Manor

Jane Healey | 2020 | LGBTQ+, Romance

10.0

(2 Ratings)

Book Rating

A tense, suspenseful debut historical novel

The Animals at Lockwood Manor is a debut historical fiction novel. It takes place in England during the second world war. Hetty Cartwright is tasked with moving animal specimens from the Natural History Museum collection to a manor in the countryside to protect them from the German air raids. Shortly after moving to Lockwood Manor, Hetty realizes all is not quite right with the inhabitants of the manor. The novel is well-written, tense, and atmospheric. The author skillfully builds the suspense, culminating in the motive for hosting the zoological collection and the revelation of multiple secrets. There is also a romance intertwined with the plot and, although important, is not the main focus of the story. It was highly readable and difficult to put down.