Fragile

We read this book recently for our monthly book club. This is a carefully constructed modern gothic novel which builds and builds up the atmosphere with a steady drip, drip of teasing details as to tragic past events. Our group found much to admire in the central character Nell and in many ways we felt the house itself was the other main ‘star’. Other characters were well developed but we were not sure that the final mixture of crises and character actions was quite credible enough to carry us over the finishing line, or quite lived up to the atmosphere of brooding dread that had been built up so carefully over much of the book. Some members of our book club were left slightly baffled by the end, other members enjoyed the ambiguity and open-ended questions for the future. This is not normally a genre of fiction that I would choose to read but I’m glad I did. The writing creates a very visual, cinematic quality so there are many images and beautifully observed details that will remain with the reader after the end of the book, and those qualities make this a book I would recommend to others.
Victoria, Hunstanworth Village Hall Book Club