My Rating: 4 stars
I had a difficult time starting this review because there
are so many things I liked about this book that it was hard for me to just choose
a few things to focus on. But since I
must choose, I would have to say that the beautiful writing, first and
foremost, is what got me completely drawn into this book. From the very first page to the very last
one, the writing was lyrical, descriptive, engaging. The author Phillip Lewis has a unique skill
in being able to render vivid descriptions of people, places, events, etc. in a
few short sentences, sometimes in a mere few words, and do it in a way that the
reader feels fully immersed in what he is describing. Some of my favorite descriptions in the book
were of the old mansion situated on the side of the mountain in the fictitious
town of Old Buckram, North Carolina – a formidable, intimidating structure that
had seen its own fair share of tragedy in its decades of existence, which
succeeded in giving the house a perpetually macabre, haunted aura. The detail with which the house was described
made me feel as though I was right there alongside the members of the Aster
family as each of them either explored the house for the first time or had to
bear witness to some tragic event that inevitably occurs in the house during
the time that the family reluctantly occupies it.
In addition to the writing, another aspect I loved was
the huge role that books (both reading books and writing them) as well as music
had in the story. As a book lover myself
who also has a great appreciation for music, I could not help but become
completely immersed in the narrator’s story, especially the parts about his family,
specifically his father with whom he shared a similar passion for reading and
also playing classical music. As I
followed the narrator’s story, I felt at times that I was riding on a roller
coaster of emotions, especially during the first third or so of the story when books
of all kinds were front and center and the characters seemed to play only
supporting roles. Even when the main characters
became the focus of the story again, books and music continued to play a
prominent role and were interwoven seamlessly throughout the rest of the story,
which I loved.
This is an excellent book with an engaging story and
relatable characters which easily would have been a 5 star read for me if it
hadn’t been for the middle section of the book (roughly 30% to 40% if I had to
quantify it) -- the entire segment where the narrator (Henry Aster the son) goes
off to college and subsequently to law school.
While I understood the need for this segment to exist (as a means for
Henry to flee from all the tragedy and pain of his past as well as a conduit
for him to meet his true love), I felt that the way this section was written
was very different from the rest of the book.
It felt very out of place to me, almost as though the entire section was
taken from another story and dropped into this one. I definitely felt that this portion of the
book interrupted the flow of the story and I wanted nothing more than for the
narrator to hurry up and finish school so the focus could shift back to his family
and his hometown and everything that had happened that was part of the past he
was desperately trying to flee. After
much consideration, I ended up begrudgingly giving this book 4 stars instead of
the full 5 stars.
I decided to keep this review relatively short, as I feel
like nothing I write can do justice to this book. This is a book that needs to be “read” rather
than “described” because that is the only way to properly experience and
appreciate the story that the author has to tell (and yes, I am still in shock
that this is the author’s debut novel – I will surely be on the lookout for
subsequent works by this author). Highly
recommended read that is absolutely worth the time!
Received
advance reader’s copy from Hogarth / Crown Publishing via Blogging for Books
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