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ClareR (5854 KP) rated The Split in Books

Jun 10, 2020  
The Split
The Split
Sharon J. Bolton | 2020 | Crime, Mystery
9
9.2 (5 Ratings)
Book Rating
The Split by Sharon Bolton is a roller coaster of a ride from start to finish. I know that sounds very clichéd, but it’s true! I don’t think I managed to draw breath whilst I was reading each stave every morning for twelve days on The Pigeonhole. I had no idea what was going to happen next, and I REALLY appreciated that!

Felicity comes to see Joe, a counsellor, when she is found wandering, lost and disorientated in Cambridge, where he story is set. She doesn’t know how she got there, or how she has been injured. She wants to go to South Georgia to carry out her research on glaciers ( she’s an academic at the university), but has to have a clean bill of health. This accident puts her mental health in doubt.

I don’t want to say too much more about the plot. I will say that it was a breathtaking read. I was constantly left wondering what could possibly happen next, and I didn’t know who to be the most worried for, or who I could trust - if indeed I could trust anyone at all!

It’s a great read, and one I’d thoroughly recommend if you like suspense - I was on tenterhooks for the whole book!
  
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ClareR (5854 KP) rated Mrs Dalloway in Books

Sep 6, 2020  
Mrs Dalloway
Mrs Dalloway
Virginia Woolf | 2017 | Fiction & Poetry
10
7.4 (10 Ratings)
Book Rating
I’ve been trying to read this book for the best part of 20 years. It moved with me from my childhood home, through university, to the house I live in now. It’s a well travelled book. Thanks to The Pigeonhole, they’ve removed the one hurdle to the reason why I haven’t read it: sections, chapters, staves - call it what you will. I have a mental block when it comes to reading something without a break, and now I have learnt what I need to do - create sections or breaks myself (Ducks, Newburyport may well be on the cards soon).
I’m so glad that The Pigeonhole serialised this, because I’ve been missing out on a true classic. A day in the life of Clarissa Dalloway in the lead up to her party, and all of the people who intersect her life(directly and indirectly). It’s a beautiful story. The peripheral stories are just as interesting and important, giving us a look in to the lives of those living at the time. In particular the story of Septimus Smith stays with me, and the lack of understanding of both Shell Shock and mental health problems. But life seems to go on for all of the others.
This is a book that I’m glad to have read, and it’s not hard to see why it’s considered to be a classic.
  
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ClareR (5854 KP) rated H is for Hawk in Books

Jan 14, 2018  
H is for Hawk
H is for Hawk
Helen Macdonald | 2015 | Biography
8
7.0 (2 Ratings)
Book Rating
A surprisingly fabulous memoir!
Helen Macdonald is an Academic and a Falconer. She loses her father and decides to get a Goshawk and train it - they're notoriously difficult to train; but the connection they have is special. T H White features heavily in this, and his memoir of training his Goshawk is recounted alongside Helen's own story. His first attempt with a Goshawk was disastrous (I believe he became more successful after.).
This is a very moving story: we see Helen trying to 'become' more like a Hawk and not need people after her father's death. The descriptions of nature and the hawk are amazing, and i loved the language she used. A brave story in a lot of ways, to admit to mental health issues and her own (perceived) shortcomings. The end is particularly sad - but I'll leave it to you to read it and find out why!
  
Eleanor Oliphant Is Completely Fine
Eleanor Oliphant Is Completely Fine
Gail Honeyman | 2017 | Contemporary, Fiction & Poetry
8
8.6 (80 Ratings)
Book Rating
Completely different to what I expected, witty but rather sad
I've heard that this book is a comedy because of the narrator's frank outlook on life, however this is definitely not the case.

Eleanor Oliphant is socially awkward, very blunt but well spoken and seems to have a few dysfunctional issues. The author then explores why this must be the case, especially her relationship with her past and her controlling mother. The novel is about trauma and mental health, and how depression can cause people to act out in unusual ways. It is funny at times when she has no clue about social conventions and how much emphasis is put on the mundane.

It's important for showing that one isn't 'mad' for being different, merely misguided and that by addressing problems head on and getting the right support Eleanor Oliphant is actually completely fine.
  
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ClareR (5854 KP) rated Watching You in Books

Jul 21, 2018  
Watching You
Watching You
Lisa Jewell | 2018 | Fiction & Poetry, Mystery, Thriller
8
8.7 (6 Ratings)
Book Rating
Well, this had me guessing right up to the end!
This has all the ingredients for a good thriller or mystery: a teenaged voyeur, a potentially unreliable witness with mental health issues, teenaged girls with a crush, career driven men, unfaithful spouses. Quite a lot for a book that's under 500 pages long!
An unspecified dead body appears in the first chapter, and the book then goes on to tell us the sequence of events that lead up to that moment. There are some interesting police interviews tucked in now and again too, that help to clarify (or sometimes obfuscate!) what is actually going on.
This was really good. There was no way that I was going to guess who was murdered and by whom, until the end - I liked that touch. The end was a proper bombshell moment. Great writing from Lisa Jewell!