The Return, Victoria Hislop

[costagirl]

My MIL said "oh, it's not meant to be as good as 'The Island'"....luckily I still took it on holiday and LOVED it. Anyone else think it was good? (apart from the details about bull fighting and war atrocities...)

My MIL said the same
Its in my bookcase NOT read it yet !

Well I liked it! Enjoy (sort of.)

I liked it. I thought it was very different to The Island, but it was still engrossing.

I loved it- read it on holiday in spain which i think made it even better.
It was quite predictable and unbeleivable but a fab read for holiday.
Really enjoyed The Island too.

Am resurrecting this thread as I finished The Return last night.

I really enjoyed the Island, and having studied the Spanish Civil War at length at uni was looking forward to this.

So badly written I wanted to scream. Sort of like when you hear an actor's voice translating what someone says and it seems somehow false and fake....the dialogues were all like that, and her grammar was appalling- she kept writing "didn't used to" "if I was" and using "that" where a "who" would have much more stylish.

I skipped through entire pages in my hurry to be done with it.

If you liked the Island- don't read this.

I have not read the Island, and I shan't bother after reading this drivel.

It is such a shame as the basic premise of the story is really good I think, but it was so badly written and the main character was so uninspiring I couldn't be bothered with it.

I did finish it but was distinctly underwhelmed.

The Island was actually much much better- the characters were much more "real" and the story was really "grabbing".
(I do remember saying to a friend- "but I don't think I'm going to like reading a story about lepers, it's not going to be very uplifting is it????" but strangely it was.)

Bucharest - I think we broke the thread

Hmm, I really enjoyed reading "The Island" & have bought "The Return" (albeit second hand) and was looking forward to reading it. Not so sure now. BTW, I am usually really pedantic and didn't notice poor grammar in "The Island". Did she change proof readers or something?

Not sure what happened to her, maybe the success of her first novel went to her head?
Maybe Ian was too busy being smug to help her proof-read
I'm Miss Pedantic of Pedantville, and I didn't notice it in The Island either!

And thank you for answering my next question, "Is she related to Ian?"

I'm just reading it at the moment and I think it's a huge pile of drivel.