Book 2: The Essex Serpent
Mar. 28th, 2018 07:39 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
lizzardgirl2: The Essex Serpent, by Sarah Perry
Part of the reason why it took me so long to get books read this year was that I had started this late in December and it just took me a long time to read it. Don't get me wrong, I loved it, but it's one of those books where you really want to savour every line.
I'm not even sure how to describe it without giving too much away. When I was reading it, I was constantly wondering if it would turn out to be an Urban Fantasy Novel, a character study, a murder mystery, a novel of manners or something else altogether.
The premise of the book is that in an out of the way Essex village, there is a mysterious reptile(ish) animal that may or may not be killing people on the coast. Drawn there is a London widow, who herself brings a whole cast of characters in contact with her.
It's an incredibly vivid, detailled, many-facetted story of the late Victorian times, with a rich cast of characters and a lot of surprising developments.
While reading, I was wondering if she'd manage to keep it all together and give us a satisfying solution/ending, but in the end, she did.
I should think quite a few of you might enjoy reading it - little caveat tho: there is adultery, I know some of you don't like that cropping up. It's actually plot-relevant though and I found I could make my peace with it.
Now I'm reading my way through the Sebastian St. Cyr series - almost caught up just in time for the new book to come out in April. I'll write more about that, and reading on the Kindle app (very mixed feelings about that!!) when I'm done with it.
Part of the reason why it took me so long to get books read this year was that I had started this late in December and it just took me a long time to read it. Don't get me wrong, I loved it, but it's one of those books where you really want to savour every line.
I'm not even sure how to describe it without giving too much away. When I was reading it, I was constantly wondering if it would turn out to be an Urban Fantasy Novel, a character study, a murder mystery, a novel of manners or something else altogether.
The premise of the book is that in an out of the way Essex village, there is a mysterious reptile(ish) animal that may or may not be killing people on the coast. Drawn there is a London widow, who herself brings a whole cast of characters in contact with her.
It's an incredibly vivid, detailled, many-facetted story of the late Victorian times, with a rich cast of characters and a lot of surprising developments.
While reading, I was wondering if she'd manage to keep it all together and give us a satisfying solution/ending, but in the end, she did.
I should think quite a few of you might enjoy reading it - little caveat tho: there is adultery, I know some of you don't like that cropping up. It's actually plot-relevant though and I found I could make my peace with it.
Now I'm reading my way through the Sebastian St. Cyr series - almost caught up just in time for the new book to come out in April. I'll write more about that, and reading on the Kindle app (very mixed feelings about that!!) when I'm done with it.
