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1. Sally
   Member

   Terrifying book. Disturbed me for weeks after reading it. I was impressed with the way she narrated it from the child's perspective though.

   
   

   Posted: 11 months #
2. Kathryn
   Member

   I had the opposite reaction. Couldn't stand it and thought the kid tactic was underdone and tepid. You Magazine has better written stories in the "Life Story" section where they take an extract - usually a story like this one, or a dead body buried in trailer park garden, or Mum burnt my skin with iron vibe.

   
   

   Posted: 11 months #
3. Helen
   Member

   I wouldn't touch it with a bargepole. But that's my inner wuss speaking.

   
   

   Posted: 11 months #
4. Dorothy
   Member

   I found it very moving and not nearly as harrowing as I imagined. I remember it being as much about motherhood as all that other grim stuff.

   
   

   Posted: 11 months #
5. Louis Greenberg
   Member

   I thought it was very good. I had no difficulty accepting the boy's voice, and the first half dragged me along in a physically engaging way that I haven't felt in a long time. I was literally - yes! - breathless and palpitating when I reached that first crescendo.

   And, yes, it was more about motherhood and childhood than about the evil outsider. Donohue deliberately set that focus because she feels that evil is often pruriently celebrated in crime fiction.

   
   

   Posted: 11 months #
6. Kathryn
   Member

   Ah. I like my crime stories sensationalist (see above for You magazine reference).

   I also find The Road (am still plodding alongside them) annoying, so maybe it's that I'm not into offspring literature yet :)

   
   

   Posted: 11 months #

• 7 posts - started 11 months ago by Louis Greenberg
• Latest reply from Kathryn

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