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The Orphan Choir (2014)

by Sophie Hannah(Favorite Author)

2.69 of 5 Votes: 3

ISBN

1250041023 (ISBN13: 9781250041029)

languge

English

genre

Mystery & Thriller

publisher

Picador

review 1: I've recently stumbled on this author after reading "The Wrong Mother" and a few others from the series. Her books are "quick-reads" and remind me of the English (as in England) version of Law & Order:SVU with each story much like a single episode of SVU. They usually are satisfying in the same way that an episode of Law & Order is in that there is not a lot of "depth" into literary themes, but rather are "fun" in a twisted sort of way, and that the reader is left satisfied at the end with "justice being served" to someone hurt by a twisted pervert. I was looking forward to this one in-particular since it was a stand-alone book, but I have to admit I read more than half of this book and I had to FORCE myself to do that. I kept waiting for something to happen other than ... morethe main character (one who I absolutely LOATHED)continue to go on about her late-night "noise-making" neighbor and how her life was being ruined on account of him and his intentional torturing as well as the fact that her young son was part of an all boys-choir that required the children to stay at the prestigious school throughout the week. The only one who had a problem with it was the mother and her reasoning was entirely self-satisfying. The author continued to describe this boarding school as "one of the best" and the incredible opportunities that graduates of the school have upon graduation - not to mention those that were in the choir. Those boys were the pride of the school and by being in the choir they not only had their tuition paid for, but also were guaranteed future opportunities that any parent could only dream of. And it wasn't just the descriptions & opinions about the school that made the mother seem deranged, it was also made obvious that her son was thriving at the school and didn't even miss his mother in the way she wanted him to. Now since I only could bare half of this book, I'm not sure if things are not as good as they seem with the school or the son, but I'd have a really hard time believing it since their was no foreshadowing or insight to make the reader wonder if there were any merit to the mother's worrying. Throw in the fact that the mother only "worries" about him on account of what others think of her and does nothing to ease her worries by investigating the school or by being pro-active about her concerns. She is portrayed as weak, snobby, and insecure - not characteristics I like in my heroines to say the least.All together this makes for some serious BORING reading and really built up a lot of animosity towards her since she had so much and could only focus on "what she didn't have." By the time I had read half of it, I decided I could care less what happened to her and that NOTHING would make this opinion change regardless of whatever crazy plot twist was thrown in. In fact, I actually felt that her son was definitely better off away from her. I definitely do not recommend this book to anyone since there wasn't one aspect of the book I liked, and let's be honest, I'm not that hard to please when it comes to reading because I can usually find something worthwhile in everything I read - this was definitely an exception.
review 2: I'm kind of ambivalent as to how to rate this one... on the one hand, it drags on a bit for the first half. Actually, for the first three quarters. On the other hand, Hannah draws you in, and the ending makes it completely worth it. It's getting a three because of the beginning,which deserves a one, but the last chapter deserves a five! So honestly, you could read the first two-three chapters, skip to the end, and still get a pretty good read out it... less

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