All change - cazalets

[sadsack987]

I put off reading the cazalet books for years but have recently read and loved the first 4.

Now I know that she wrote the last one a number of years after and she was 90 etc but wtf. I am a third of the way in and got to the bit with Neville and his love interest. Honestly it's just weird.

Does it get better? I don't like not finishing a book especially at the end of a series but I was finding this quite hard going anyway and this is not making me want to continue.......

Honestly, no. It’s like a giant fuck you to every single one of the characters you grow to love over the previous books and I just don’t understand why she did it.

I totally agree with this. I've just finished the last one and feel that the whole atmosphere had changed, although, in her favour, life,particularly for families like the Cazalets did change dramatically after World War 2. So many characters seems to be disregarded though. Various friends warned me not to read the last one, so I only have myself to blame

I don’t think the last book is that bad. It’s not as good as the first four, but for me it’s not drastically out of step with the others. The Cazalet Chronicles are among my favourite books.

Oh ffs - now Archie!

I am carrying on but I'm not happy.....

It doesn’t get better to be honest. There are some bizarre plot decisions, and the editing is poor - there are glaring continuity errors as she’d clearly forgotten aspects of the previous books. I don’t regard it as canon.

Right I finished it (I had a good proper Sunday lie in and dh even bought me tea!)

The Neville/Juliet thing was just bizarre. How in the name of gods green earth could Neville think they could marry???? I would get it if he was just saying it to get her into bed (urgh) but he seemed to believe it too.

I may have ranted at dh about Archie and the fact that he was devoted to Clary then had his head turned so easily

All the kids confused me. She seemed to forget Wills, Susan and all of Jessica's family. Then at Christmas she just doesn't include a bunch of them.

I did like some of it though. I liked Rachel and her ending. I liked Edward realising he'd lost a lot leaving Villy and I also liked Villy becoming less bitter. Some of the writing was lovely.

But the erections! I counted at least 3 and the bit with Simon in the back of the van - blimey.

At the point where she referred to someone as a 'hands-on father' i knew she'd lost it.

Still finished it but I'll never re-read it.

I too love the Cazalet books and have put off reading the last one.

Archie and Juliet????? The age difference must be about 40 years 😳

Neville and Juliet, not Archie! Which is even worse, as they’re siblings.

😂then 🤢

Oh no. I just had the last two delivered. Even number 3 seemed less polished than the first and second.

I think Casting Off is nothing like as good as the first three but I return to it most often because it's more comforting and less bleak, particularly than Marking Time which is almost as dark as her novel Falling (recommended btw).

All Change is I'm afraid a different order of decline.

Adored the first 4, the last one is dire and I wish I’d never read it.

Loved this book. Very happy to read it