Fur Quits 3 - simpsons book

[Jas]

T B of L by M H

discuss....

This book had a real chance to make a good story, linking wartime and modern day families with murder and mystery, but in the end I just couldn't really warm to the main character Cathy at all. I was more interested in her uncle's fate during the war but there wasn't enough information and backstory to make a compelling tale.

It took me a few attempts to get into this book but once I had a good run at it I did find myself enjoying the story, if not being totally engrossed in it. Overall I would say this is a reasonably good book. It could have been better.

Overall I enjoyed this book but agree with Paschaelina that it was hard to sympathise with Cathy and it could have been better. However, the footnotes written by Cathy were quite funny in places. It would have been helpful to have some translation of the local patois as it's been a long time since I did any french! Not a bad story and I have read it very quickly. Not sure what anyone who lives on Guernsey would think of it though, some of the descriptions of life on Guernsey and the islanders are not complimentary!

I have to agree with the comments already made - somehow this book just didn't 'come together' for me. The plot felt stilted and difficult to follow at times, with the author obviously revealing more at each stage but leaving me a bit dissatisfied. By the end, I was not absolutely clear whether Cat's Mum had actually murdered the Dad, or just not helped him when he was dying.
Sorry, not really a hit with me.

Just had that awful feeling when I read the reviews on Amazon that I had missed the point completely with this book - most were positive about its complexity, strong voice, good grasp of historical accuracy etc.

Made me feel a bit thick (!) so I might re-visit it at some other time and approach it with hindsight, bearing in mind what others have said in its praise.

The parts I most enjoyed about this book were the historical facts about Guernsey, and the footnotes, as Cersei mentioned. Otherwise, I found it a bit... meh. I didn't like the main character, and I also just find that books about a) teenagers who try and stay friends with bitches and b) teenagers who falsely accuse their teachers of sexual harassment are just not my sort of thing.

My take on the ending was that her father had killed himself and his mother covered it up, but was it murder? TBH I read most of it v quickly as I wasn't really enjoying it and just wanted to get it over with, so I may have missed out on some things! Am interested to hear that so many people on Amazon loved it, will have to go and have a look at those reviews...

After reading the other comments I wasn't particularly looking forward to reading this book but I did find it very interesting reading about Guernsey during the war.

I wasn't that keen on her style of writing - the numerous footnotes which sometimes were factual but other times more her own comments - and didn't much like the Guernsey patois (?) that was used quite a bit.

But overall I quite enjoyed the story - its interesting that three out of the five books that I've received so far have been set around WW2.

i loved this! didn't think i would initially, as i liked cathy's voice but found uncle charlie's less convincing, but i thought it wove together well as the book went on. i thought cathy was hilarious and emotionally convincing, as was the depiction of stifling small town life. a few minor issues with some supporting characters not quite as well drawn and some fudging of storylines, but certainly not enough to spoil my enjoyment. thanks simpson, i'll definitely look out for more by this author :)

I quite enjoyed this. Some elements of the teenage relationships I didn't find completely convincing (but maybe I'm just too old...!) and I thought Cathy was a deeply unsympathetic narrator, but knowing enough to make that OK. The history was fascinating, I didn't know anything really about the CI Occupation.

Thanks, was a good read.