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The Girl Below (2012)

by Bianca Zander(Favorite Author)

3.11 of 5 Votes: 1

ISBN

0062108166 (ISBN13: 9780062108166)

languge

English

genre

Historical Fiction

publisher

William Morrow Paperbacks

review 1: I found this book utterly riveting. I wanted to be left alone to finish reading it, and resented anyone or thing that came along to make me stop. Now I'm having trouble pinning down exactly why. The premise is of a 28-year-old returning to London after 10 years in Auckland, and finding out that You Can Never Go Home Again, all of which I can relate to, but otherwise this book doesn't tick boxes I generally like. For a start, although it is set in very real New Zealand and English settings, it doesn't stick with reality, delving into a weird (but very interesting) form of time travel/possibly mental illness. In lots of ways it reminded me of Audrey Niffeneger's two works, The Time Traveller's Wife (loved it) and Her Fearful Symmetry (hated it), in that it was dark and gothi... morec, very real and yet very surreal. It is also Zander's first novel and it definitely reads like one, but overall I liked the writing style, and even though the main character was damaged, hopeless and annoying I really liked her (and identified with her, hmmm). The plot is not really a feature of this book, and when things do happen they're ridiculous (they all end up on a Greek island, for goodness sake) but this works because it's a pure coming-of-age revelation rather than a plot book. What drives the book is the way that startlingly unexpected things happen in beautifully subtle passing, creating increasing pressure to find out just what on earth was going on in the garden that night.
review 2: Picked it up for the plane ride down to Florida and was hoping for more magical realism and perhaps a lighter story line which is no fault of the author's. Good prose, well written and interesting plot. The lead character was sufficiently vague and unfocused as a person that I found myself groaning out loud every time she made another terrible choice. Was hoping for a more satisfying explanation of the ghostly visitations she had throughout the story. less

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