TONI's Book Club - SoftheS by JO'C

[WhoKnowsWhereTheTimeGoes]

I'm not sure whose book this is but will be sending it on it's way shortly. One or two people told me they had started it but hadn't finished it so I wasn't sure how I was going to get on.

The book is set in the mid 19th century and written in the style of a collection of documents written by different people about the same events, as if it were a work of non-fiction. The main characters are aboard a ship sailing across the Atlantic and the chapters detailing the characters' earlier lives are interspersed with excerpts from the captain's log which keeps the narrative of the journey going very well. I wasn't particularly engaged with the story until the introduction of the main female character, she really brought the book to life for me, and as the book unfolded, it gradually emerges that she was inextricably linked to the two main male characters at various stages of her former life. These two main male characters are described in great detail and much is made of how their earlier experiences shaped their characters, in many ways for the worse. The descriptions of ship board life are very vivid, as are those of the early parts of the characters lives, great hardships are described without the tone getting too melancholy. Once I got going, I really enjoyed the book, however I found the concluding chapters, written in the voice of the third main male character a little out of step with the tone of the rest of the book, it seemed to try a little too hard to tie up all the loose ends, even for the minor characters and the final twist was a little bit unsatisfactory.