08-22-2020, 11:37 PM
What better way to spend time indoors during a pandemic than reading. It seems to be the safest thing. But as much as I enjoy reading, anxiety and stress during the pandemic make it difficult for me to settle down to read at times. Yet, if a book is written well enough for me to get absorbed in it, then it is time well spent.
Although this book was not superb, I found it suspenseful enough to keep me going. In some respects, I wish it was not too rushed. The plotting was fine but I have read similar plots that are stretched out to twice its length. This book was only 170 pages. I have read books where I have complained, "just get on with it", because the author slows down the pace with minute descriptions. This was the total opposite. Nevertheless, the suspense was there because the heroine was mentally trapped by succumbing to a recurrent fever. I appreciated that the author did not make her mentally weak as well. She suspected the people around her and she correctly surmised that she was being doped (though not intentionally by the doctor).Â
The story starts out with Rose, our heroine, going to her newly inherited home in Maine, with her fiance. The story takes place in the 1890s. My first thought was, really, the romance started before the gothic. However, we also know that there is a distant cousin living in the home who had proposed to our heroine and was rejected. We automatically assume he is the villain, but, of course, we have to wonder, will the author change this up? It is only after our supposed hero disappears that we can be sure who is the hero and who is the villain. However, there was not much of a hero - at least, not in my opinion. Rose inherited the home after acquainting herself with her estranged grandfather through letters after her parents died. Unfortunately, her grandfather died before meeting her and she was greeted by distant relatives who had been managing the estate. Needless to say, there was jealousy, though it was not outwardly manifested.
What grade should I give this? B-/C+
Although this book was not superb, I found it suspenseful enough to keep me going. In some respects, I wish it was not too rushed. The plotting was fine but I have read similar plots that are stretched out to twice its length. This book was only 170 pages. I have read books where I have complained, "just get on with it", because the author slows down the pace with minute descriptions. This was the total opposite. Nevertheless, the suspense was there because the heroine was mentally trapped by succumbing to a recurrent fever. I appreciated that the author did not make her mentally weak as well. She suspected the people around her and she correctly surmised that she was being doped (though not intentionally by the doctor).Â
The story starts out with Rose, our heroine, going to her newly inherited home in Maine, with her fiance. The story takes place in the 1890s. My first thought was, really, the romance started before the gothic. However, we also know that there is a distant cousin living in the home who had proposed to our heroine and was rejected. We automatically assume he is the villain, but, of course, we have to wonder, will the author change this up? It is only after our supposed hero disappears that we can be sure who is the hero and who is the villain. However, there was not much of a hero - at least, not in my opinion. Rose inherited the home after acquainting herself with her estranged grandfather through letters after her parents died. Unfortunately, her grandfather died before meeting her and she was greeted by distant relatives who had been managing the estate. Needless to say, there was jealousy, though it was not outwardly manifested.
What grade should I give this? B-/C+
