The Essex Serpent

[tinypop4]

I'm 157 pages in and really struggling with this. Finding the characters a bit two dimensional and the pace very slow. Some nice descriptive writing.
Is it worth continuing? I'm struggling but it's had such good reviews I wonder if I should persist

You got further than I did before I gave up

I really enjoyed it. It does have a slow pace but the writing is gorgeous IMO. It seems to divide opinion a bit. If you enjoy an action packed historical novel it's not for you.

I'm with you. Really hard work and slow.

Keep going! I almost gave up half way through but after the half way mark it really improved.

I'm with earless, I thought it was beautiful to read even though it wasn't fast paced.

Best bit is the cover.

Struggled on with it, then gave up about a third in. Just didn't engage with it.

I agree the writing is absolutely beautiful. I enjoyed reading it for that alone.

Sebum it is a lovely cover! I keep waiting for a bit of a story but just not getting one. I'm going to give it till 200 pages and then I might give up If it hasn't improved in my mind. I rarely give up a book!

I read it when it first came out. I loved it and so did the half a dozen or so people I know who've also read it. Of course it's set locally which probably added to the appeal.

I much preferred it to her other novel (Taken after the Flood I think) which I've also read.

I hated it.. over-hyped and the characters were just far too modern,(well in the few chapters I read before I chucked it) ,. DH and WellReadBookloverFriend also loathed it,,

was even more hyped up than the appalling Girl on a Train

I've just finished it and surprised myself by enjoying it. It's not a fast paced action novel but a lot happens. It's the sort of book you enjoy when you've finished because you start thinking about themes and relationships etc. Stick with it. It's powerful.

Girl On The train isn't in the same league as this book.

I really think it comes down to whether you enjoy really rich descriptive writing that you have to think about. It needs a lot of your attention when you read it and it's not without flaws but I will read it again at some point. I loved the relationship between Cora and Will.

It reminded me of when I read A French Lieutenant's Woman - absolutely HATED it at first, but it grew on me and the more I thought about it, and the slower I read it, it became more and more mesmerising. I absolutely loved The Essex Serpent.

Lovely writing but it didn't really go anywhere imho.

I looked at it in a shop, thought it wasn't for me (myths, ghosts etc aren't my thing), but then it got picked for my book group. Found the first half or so fairly tedious, the characters really didn't engage me at all, but then it really picked up and I really enjoyed it.

Loved it.
The main characters were interesting, unconventional and extremely well-drawn.

I gave up which made me sad because the writing really was beautiful but I couldn't get behind the characters

I thought it was an excellent book. Beautifully written and considered. Nothing much happens, but there's a lot there if you enjoy ideas and themes and thinking about the links between disparate times, people and schools of thought. I also liked that it was about love in all it's many forms, but with a particular focus on friendship. The characters are meant to seem strikingly modern IMO, in order to close the gap between our time and the Victorian era in which it is set, and emphasize the shared territory.

Also, I read it before I'd read any "hype" around it, and watched it take off with some pleasure. I think it did well because those who read it enjoyed it and said so - it doesn't share much with the "Girl" type thrillers that are pushed and pushed.

Enjoyed it but felt it lost some of its quirky Gothic charm towards the end. Also had a minor issue with the liberal use of contractions/double contractions interfering with my suspension of disbelief (a bit too colloquial for the setting).

very late to this one
also wondered about reading it - will wait for it in library.

I love myths and ghosts but I am finding it hard to get along with books that don't go anywhere.

Yes I enjoyed it - it is more a novel of ideas than plot. Very prescient (given that it was written before Grenfell) in that at one point a character is railing against the state of London housing..

woolly - these days I am very plot hungry, I must admit but also very attracted by the idea of a mythical creature.

Grenfell was also foreseen in the old version of House of Cards, I think. But any Victorian novel has someone -quite rightly - railing against the state of London housing doesn't it? Back to back houses, no proper sewage systems till one of the cholera outbreaks made them put two and two together.