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Eleanor (2000)

by Jason Gurley(Favorite Author)
4.04 of 5 Votes: 1
languge
English
review 1: Some interesting ideas and well written, generally, but I kept feeling like the author was having trouble deciding what direction to take the story and the characters. Enough so, that it was distracting. At the end I read that he wrote the book over a 10 year period, and had indeed changed his direction with it frequently. While sometimes that can work for a novel, in this case it took away from my experience.
review 2: I've no idea where to start with this one, I really loved this book but I don't know how to put it in to words without making a total mess of it, but hey I'll give it a try.Eleanor is a truly epic read, Jason Gurley whose work I have read previously in the anthology Synchronic has done such an amazing job creating the world that the characters l
... moreive in.This story flits through time, we have scenes from the sixties, eighties and the nineties , the main story revolves around Eleanor, at the age of six she is involved in a car accident in which her twin sister Esmerelda is killed, her mother who was driving is inconsolable with grief and since the accident has turned cold and unloving against her remaining daughter, turning to drink and telling Eleanor it should have been her that died.Eleanor at the age of 14 has her first incident in which she goes through a door at school and ends up somewhere totally different, scaring her immensely she finally finds her way back home but it keeps happening, she sees so many terrible things and each time she disappears they scale of time gets longer and longer until she disappears for so long she is declared dead.She seems to be in a sort of rift between life and death, and in that rift she meets another, another who wants Eleanor to help her family mend its broken bonds, will she manage to make everything alright?As a mother of two young daughters, reading this book really affected me, I found it so hard that Eleanor's mother really couldn't stand her surviving daughter, I know they where twins and every time her mother looks at her she sees her late daughter, her mother is truly in a dark place.Eleanor is one of these books that I feel I need to go back again and read straight away, when it ended even though I had a grasp of what had happened I just felt like for example the tv show Lost I need to experience it again to look for those "aaaahh" moments when things become clear.I apologise that this review is a little vague but Eleanor is a book you need to experience for yourself, in it you will be overcome with emotion, grief for the loss of the daughter and also the loving mother-daughter bond, bewilderment and fear as Eleanor experiences her incidents alone and joy as the story comes to an end and the realisation of what Eleanor has been going through.Jason Gurley has done a superb job and I'm already adding his back catalogue to my wish list, though I wish Amazon UK would make his title Great Fall which seems to be only available on the US Kindle Worlds available over here as I know I will love that!Eleanor is awarded 5 out of 5I was sent a copy in exchange for an honest review less
Reviews (see all)
Lollan
Excellent story! Great read.Could not put it down!
Zenah93
Confusing and difficult to read.
ang
Beautiful
ywl
Yuck
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