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The Sea House (2014)

by Elisabeth Gifford(Favorite Author)

3.58 of 5 Votes: 4

ISBN

1250043344 (ISBN13: 9781250043344)

languge

English

genre

Historical Fiction

publisher

St. Martin's Press

review 1: Gee, this is a lovely writer; my first experience with Gifford's work. She has a fine sense of language, very pretty images and descriptions, and as I began the novel I felt like I was sinking into the mystical world of selkies and legends of mermaids. How exciting! A house by the sea, young marrieds Ruth and Michael, mysterious effects—all the makings of enchantment and suspense. But most of the novel is written as journal entries from Alexander Ferguson, the minister that previously lived in the sea house, which was a manse in the 1860s, and Moira the servant girl. All the chapters are written in the first person "I" so you have perspectives from Ruth, Moira, and Alexander. Suddenly the novel fell flat for me: the voices and tone of the characters were all the same. I ... morefelt like I was reading newspaper reports instead of moving into the delicious world of fiction.Too heavy on facts and details maybe. There's a lot of backstory, telling this and that, and passive voice which killed any sense of immediacy for me. I ended up skimming more than I wanted to. But I will try this author again.
review 2: I struggled for the first chapter or two. Books that jump between two characters are not my favorite, let alone two different time periods and three characters. However, the story really grew on me and I was intrigued as to how it was going to end. I however found the story about Reverend Alexander Ferguson a little more interesting that Ruth and Micheal's. His story was based during the in the 1860s when crofters are being forced to emigrate or die. I found the historical references and characters quite endearing. less

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