‘What the hell was this book about?’ was one of the first responses in our group review of this tale of nature versus nurture and its successive character assassinations.
Eight years of pining for her dead new-born baby has left Gen distanced from her husband Art. He insists that a subsequent child via IVF treatment will solve all their problems. She never had the chance to hold or say goodbye to ‘Beth’ and the life-like dreams show their daughter maturing as the years pass.
It is easy to condemn the two-dimensional characters, the awkward and contrived character’s names and the implausible ‘accidental’ murders. However, since quite a few of us liked it and found it absorbing despite its disjointedness and most of us finished reading it, it must have appealed to us enough to want to learn about the young person writing in italics even if the main characters failed to gain any sympathy.
Some of us found the flashbacks difficult to set into a time frame and would not have identified who it was without it being made so obvious at the end. We discussed the difference between wanting to know the outcome and caring what happens.
The book is set in England and the names are presumably based on the King Arthur legends, but since the ‘voices’ are distinctly American it has evidently been aimed at readers from the U.S.A. Sophie McKenzie’s transition from a children’s book author to this level of sinister and unbelievable nonsense is very surprising.
One group member suggested a fitting sequel to this might be ‘I’ve had my eyes opened’ but many of us would not be rushing out see what she sees next.
Average score 5/10