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The Uncertain Places (2011)

by Lisa Goldstein(Favorite Author)

3.3 of 5 Votes: 3

ISBN

1616960140 (ISBN13: 9781616960148)

languge

English

genre

Paranormal Fantasy

publisher

Tachyon Publications

review 1: No spoilers: The story itself was brilliant. It was very "old school" in its treatment of fairytales (more dark and sinister, less Disney princess romance). Reading it inspired me to look more closely into the original Grimm tales and I was really surprised to discover that the Grimms themselves were very active in censoring the tales. I had assumed that the censorship did not begin until much later, but as they discuss in The Uncertain Places it was the Grimms who changed the wicked mothers into wicked stepmothers to protect their children readers. Now, this book is its own fairytale and hardly a scholarly work on the original tales, but where there was mention of the Grimm brothers and their work surprisingly I connected most with this part (which is crazy because I ... moreusually don't care for facts in my fairytales). I suppose that says something about the book itself and while I've already said that the plot was brilliant, the characters left me completely flat. I didn't find much of a reason to care about any of them except the main character, Will. At one point in the story he even wonders why he has fallen in love with the girl, what makes her special enough to care and go to the extremes that he is willing to go to. I found myself wondering the same thing. I just didn't connect with them enough to make me feel the emotions that the plot was trying to direct me to. If I could have mustered any feelings for the characters this would have been a 5 star book, but instead it barely makes 3.
review 2: I really liked the idea of this book and it was a fast read. The only reason it didn't get four stars was I felt like for all the main characters touting the virtues of the Feierabend sisters they didn't really seem all that. I mean, especially Livvy, it seemed like I never really got to to know her and it was hard to see what Will was so drawn to. I think if Will (the narrator) spent a little more time on the bits where he got to know Livvy she'd have felt more three dimensional and I'd have cared more about her. As it was it seemed to me that Will was the truly exceptional one. less

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