jillie100's Reviews

 Carries you along.....
Date: Aug 11,2010

I wasn't sure this book would be for me and put off reading it, but I am so glad that I did finally get round to it! I was immediately caught up in the lives of the women and became quite anxious about how it was all going to turn out for them. Sometimes I found myself laughing out loud, sometimes I was moved to tears, such is the power of the tale. I am also extremely glad that I chose the audio book version as the great narration truly enhanced the book for me. I reckon that I will quite happily be able to go back to this in a year or so and listen again with much pleasure.

 Fantastic story fantastically read!
Date: Jun 13,2010

It is a love story, yes, but much more than that too. I was really transported back to Japan at that time - the perilous life led by the colonists so far away from home in a culture that was totally alien. How this ill-assorted bunch coped with the isolation in their different ways,from visiting whores to botany; the corruption - both Dutch and Japanese; the power of the shadowy Shogun - it is all intriguing and gave me a true flavour of what life was like at that time. The plot twists and turns and is both funny and sad at times, but it carries you along and never drags. What added an extra dimension to an already captivating tale though, was how excellently it is read - both narrators made a cracking good job of coping with the Japanese accents. Added to this Jonathan Aris showed such versatility, Irish, West Country, London, German... and of course Dutch accents - all tackled successfully - it is rare to hear such skill. The reading made the book really shine in my opinion. In short, if you are considering reading this book hesitate no longer - it is excellent!

(2 people found this review helpful.)

 Great characters, great story
Date: Oct 14,2009

I thoroughly enjoyed this book and found it difficult to stop listening! On the one hand it is a crime thriller as Leo struggles to track down a child-killer, hampered by the fact that in the Communist Soviet Union crime cannot exist as it is a perfect society. On another level we follow his struggles with the ideology of the State as he begins to question the system which he has supported and worked for all his life. Very atmospheric and expertly narrated - definitely worth a listen.

 Not bad, but not the best
Date: Oct 14,2009

I didn't enjoy this book as much as Child 44 which I thought was an excellent and well-narrated story. It is certainly action-packed, but I found some of the plot developments rather hard to swallow. My main gripe, however, is the narrator, as mentioned by another reviewer. All those strange pauses in the middle of sentences eventually proved to detract from the story itself, and in the end made finishing the book rather a trial.

(1 person found this review helpful.)

 Oh dear....
Date: Jul 31,2009

After reading all those brilliant reviews I now feel like some kind of freak - I am part way through listening to this book and bored to death! The characters are so two-dimensional and cliched that I just couldn't give a hoot what happens to them. My first Audible failure!

 Didn't disappoint
Date: Jul 21,2009

Having recently finished listening to the first book in this series, 'The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo', I held my breath and immediately dived back in with this, the second. I am glad to say that I found it at least as good as the first, and some of the unanswered questions about Lizbet Salander's past became clearer as the story unfolded. The characters were further developed, with, I am glad to say, Blomkvist allowed to grow more in the second part of the book. If you have read the first book, then you know to expect rather explicit descriptions of violence, and this book also contains similar material. Once again, impeccably read by Saul Reichlin, who has to be complimented on getting his tongue around all the Scandinavian place names with great dexterity.
Some nice twists towards the end! I highly recommend.

(47 people found this review helpful.)

 Couldn't stop listening....
Date: Jul 21,2009

I bought this book based on the recommendations above, and am extremely pleased I did. It is a great story and I found myself grabbing every opportunity to listen to it. The poor old dog nearly got her legs walked off so that I had the excuse to find out what happens next! Lizbet Salander is a great character, complex but compelling. The narration was just perfect and the slight oddities that occurred sometimes in what was obviously a translated text in fact rather complimented the whole Scandinavian atmosphere.
I was lucky that just as I finished this book the follow-up, The Girl Who Played with Fire was published at Audible, so I could immediately resubmerge myself in more dark doings.....

(1 person found this review helpful.)

 Absorbing
Date: Jun 20,2009

This novel is set in the early 1990s, and it brought back memories for me of that time in English politics when it was 'every man for himself and devil take the hindmost'. Vine captures the atmosphere and values of that time extremely well, and as you would expect she populates the story with some great characters.

The plot concerns Ivor Tesham, rising young star in the Thatcher govt of the time and his affair with Hebe, a married woman with a child. His 'birthday present' to her, to have her abducted, goes horribly wrong and the rest of the story is about that dark secret as the lives of those concerned in it gradually unravel.

The story is told from the viewpoint of two characters: Ivor's brother-in-law and Jane, Hebe's 'best friend'. The brother-in-law is pretty unmemorable, I can't even remember his name - but as a story-telling device it works rather well. Jane is a wonderful complex character - narcissistic and even delusional at times I found myself swinging from feeling desperately sorry for her to rather unpleasantly thinking that she deserves all that she gets!

The novel is narrated by two readers, and I must admit that when I first heard the voice of the male my heart sank - I actively disliked his rather prissy and repressed voice and I was not sure I would stick with the book because of this. I did however find that the 'brother-in-law voice grew on me in time and fitted the character rather well, so don't be put off! The 'Jane' narrator was great fun - all the spiteful little asides were read in just the right tone of subdued venom.... what a bitch!

Perhaps the story itself doesn't have quite the pyschological depths and complexities of some of Vine's other books, nor any great surprises at the end, but still an absorbing listen.

 A subtle ghost story
Date: Jun 13,2009

A subtle ghost story, and all the more believable as the story is told through a character on the periphery of what was happening. Beautifully done, and the complex intertwining of the characters and the house itself builds up a rich atmosphere, which Sarah Waters does so well. Personally I enjoyed the fact that the ending was not cut-and-dried and left you wondering.......

I must admit when I first read the blurb I was a little disappointed that the author had stayed away from the Victorian era, but with her usual skill she has ended up interesting me just as much in the post-war period and the social adjustments that went on at that time instead!

Very well narrated - with the Warwickshire accent not sounding like a parody - quite a feat!

(15 people found this review helpful.)