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The Solitary House (2012)

by Lynn Shepherd(Favorite Author)

3.42 of 5 Votes: 5

ISBN

0345532422 (ISBN13: 9780345532428)

languge

English

genre

Fiction

publisher

Delacorte Press

series

Charles Maddox

review 1: Did not finish. Just... That narrator. The story was interesting, the setting was well-developed... Potential to be a fabulous book and exactly the kind of mystery like to read when I step outside the YA bubble. But I could not cope with that weirdly omniscient and completely condescending narrator for even ten more pages. It was like a bizarre love child of The French Lieutenant's Woman and Anne Perry novel.
review 2: In all honesty, my star rating should be taken with a grain of salt, since I could not finish the book. I picked this novel up having not heard anything about it. It was a semi-random Barnes and Noble purchase that appealed to me for its connection to one of my all-time favorite novels, Bleak House. The problem is that this book seems to have no ... moreidea what it wants to be. The narrative style seems to want to pay homage to Dickens, but almost comes off as more parody than anything. In addition, some characters retain their Dickensian names (i.e. Tulkinghorn), while others appear as thinly-veiled versions of themselves (Esther = Hester?) for no clear reason. Again, I didn't finish, so maybe some of these inconsistencies are explained, but as an avid reader and huge Dickens fan, I think it's telling that the book put me off so early and often. Give it a shot if you haven't read Bleak House. It's probably a serviceable murder mystery when taken out of the context of literary history, but regardless, it tries far too hard to be clever. less

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