the parts don`t add up to a good whole

I am not a Titantic fan, but if you are considering this download because you are, know those sections are a small part of the novel, though that tragedy colours the entire narrative.

I downloaded this mainly because of the blurbs promising an "atmospheric" read/listen - Maybe it's better read; The narrator seems the wrong choice to create period atmosphere.

I???m not sure which novel unleashed the stream of recent historical fiction with storylines exploring the beginnings of psychiatry, but it takes a very skillful novelist to do that well ??? this is a near miss on that count, too.

The author recreates the external world well, but could have learned from Edith Wharton???s tone and characterization style to weave a more convincing story. There are also small continuity errors ??? not due to the interlude flashbacks (which were well-done) but more like editing glitches between drafts. I wouldn???t have noticed these in a better paced narrative. I enjoy a tale told slowly and gently, but that pace didn't suit here. Unless I was really tired when listening, I played long sections on double speed and felt that I missed nothing. There are some very good parts to the novel, but it was an unsatisfying whole, as assembled. This author is better than this -- I look forward to her next book.

14 people found this helpful

A leaden story with a twee narrator

The bones of this story seemed so good: An exploration of how love may redeem grief, woven around a plot that include the Titanic disaster, spiritualism, and the social upheavals of the early 20th century. What could go wrong?

Well, for one thing, there isn't a single character who is not annoying in the extreme -- particularly the protagonist, Sybil, who has lost her mother and sister to drowning, and her almost-fiance to marriage. Sybil flutters and fidgets, whines and worries, and the author traps us with her in a paralytic mess of trivialities. Her mother and sister, drawn in flashbacks of their Titanic experience, are so shallow and screechy that you can't wait for the waters to close over their heads. And there is no apparent reason for anyone to loooove Benton, the object of Sybil's affections, who spends most of his time grabbing hunks of his thick dark hair and scowling and muttering.

But the annoyances of the characters are dwarfed by the irritation I felt with the narrator. In a voice that sounds like it belongs to a 13-year-old girl who is trying to suppress a bad case of the giggles, she coos and simpers and puts on a verbal frowny face when something bad happens. She growls the voices of the male characters and make the Irish maid sound like a leprechaun while Benton, for some reason, seems to have time-travelled back from Soviet Russia. Granted, she has some painfully stilted dialogue and a fussbudget of a plot to work with, but did she really have to deliver the entire novel as though it were a hellishly long version of Goodnight Moon?

Not that I listened to the entire novel. I tried, God how I tried. I got about a third of the way through and had to stop when I realized that the voice yelling "Shut up, you whiner!" at the speakers was mine. I not only stopped listening, I returned the selection so that I wouldn't have to see it on my devices and get annoyed all over again. I would recommend this book only as a passive-aggresive gesture toward my shallowest frienemy. Save your time and credits for a real story with at least one character you might like, narrated by a grownup.

9 people found this helpful

JUST GIVE THE STORY TIME TO DEVELOP

I will admit, I started listening to this book twice and wasn’t feeling it. I decided to give it one final true chance and I’m so glad I did. You need to give the author a little extra time to set the story. I promise, if you just give it a little time you will thank yourself! It’s a fantastic book!

3 people found this helpful

This book crawled

The snail's pace of this work made me skip whole chapters. It was well-written but morose and dull. Good writing doesn't make up for a missing plot. Such a pity because the author has a good handle on description and mood (that is if it were meant to be so confusing and sad). I picked it up because I am fascinated with the only period in time in which things were changing as fast as they are right now, but I was awfully disappointed. I couldn't even figure out what the book was really about--the brother, the love interest who had previously jilted the main character, the salty, crusty old father, the medium? Ms Howe's prose was lovely, but it just couldn't make up for all that was missing. (Or for my inability to listen properly to description after description.)

1 person found this helpful

Great story, NOT the right narrator for it.

I consistently enjoy this author's content but this narrator almost ruined the story for me. Her voice's baseline is squeaky and completely unable to capture any masculine flavor at all. Disappointing performance.

Ok, but too long

I adore Katherine Howe’s writing. I have really enjoyed everything else she has done. This book was just too long, and didn’t get interesting until... well, I’m not sure if it did.

Slow Beginning

I loved the concepts in the story... The characters were interesting and unique, but I felt that it took an awfully long time for things to start happening. Once they did, the story picked up and was very good.

Ugg... sing song romance..

if you like romances this might be for you. The narrator was sing songy.... Ugg again.

It took FOREVER to get exciting

I struggled to finish this. Slow start but good ending. If you like novels that meander, then this is for you.

It's okay.

I think if you like historical novels, you might like this.

For me this was a bit of a slog. The writing style is fine. The reader was fine. I had a hard time getting interested in the plot; heck, I had a hard time *finding* the plot. Actually, when the reader said, "Epilogue," I was a bit surprised; I felt like the long, long exposition was just wrapping up and now we were finally headed for some conflict development. So, I guess I'm saying I found it dull. But that is a highly personal opinion, and probably not shared by most people who read this. Do not let my need for proverbial car chases and explosions dissuade you from giving this a try.

The book has some good insights into the human experience. It did spark thought, which is very much to the author's credit. I suspect part of my lack of enthusiasm was that I already knew what happened on the date mentioned at the start of the first chapter, so the "surprise" ending fell a bit flat, and the rest of the book repeated that pattern. I think because I am somewhat acquainted with a few important historical dates already, the effect of the suspense in the text was a bit like listening to your nephew tell you a knock knock joke you've known for 30 years; you saw that punchline coming from word one.

It's not a romance. It's not really a paranormal book. It wasn't a mystery. I do not think it rises to the level of great literature; that is to say I don't think teachers with force feed this to teenagers. I think I would put this one on the "Historical Fiction" shelf. If that's your bag, give it a go.