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Swansong
Paperback
Published September 2, 2002
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About the author
Victoria Routledge
12 books7 followersVictoria Routledge worked in publishing for three years before her first novel, Friends Like These, was published.
She was born in the Lake District and now lives in London and writes full time as a novelist and journalist.
She was born in the Lake District and now lives in London and writes full time as a novelist and journalist.
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
June 9, 2023
Swansong - Victoria Routledge (2002) -
This really was enjoyable and I found that I’d managed to read lots of it in one sitting.
It was all a bit ‘Absolutely Fabulous’ with hints of both Patsy and Edina’s life in the character of Rosetta and hints of Bubble and Saffy in the character of ?Sue?
And it was easy to feel a resemblance of Queen or The Rolling Stones with regards to the band “The End” that Rosetta’s other half Brian managed, but the same could be said of any band I suppose and I was only going on the rumours of their wild behaviour and what I’d seen in biopics, documentaries, etc.
I did think that it was quite British-centric and time stamped, because there were lots of references to things that might not be clear to everyone, bands and peoples names that might not be as popular to some people, as well as Yorkie’s (Chocolate), Polos (Volkswagen Cars) and all sorts of similar things.
I like to think that I know quite a bit about music, but even I struggled with some of the names dropped.
As the story began I couldn’t quite work out why the boys ?t? and Greg got so upset about Rosetta writing an autobiography, which seemed to be the main theme of the story. There didn’t seem to be any reason for them to be so against it.
I hadn’t initially thought that it would be Rosetta’s story, believing that it was more likely to focus on Greg and while he did seem to be the secondary character, his tale was mostly used to tie Rosetta’s various antics and family together, as was Tanith in the other more featured character.
I liked the touches of reality throughout that could be called filler, but I actually thought that they did a great job of setting the scene or expanding on a character. Most of it was just real life, toilet habits and things, but activities that everybody does and rarely feature in fiction.
The build up to the various events as they unfolded and the establishment of the general cast of personalities did mean that it took a while to really get in to, but it was well done and in a way that kept me interested
I would say that there were a few bits that could have done with an edit though, some clumsy paragraphs, odd journeys that went back and forth in one sentence at times. However, there was also some great bits of dialogue too and emotional writing, almost as if the author had been there and done it and felt it herself.
There were elements of Shakespeare’s ‘The Taming Of The Shrew’ with regards to Tanith’s makeover of Greg, but it probably resembled Robert Llewelyn’s ‘Man On Platform 5’ book more.
I also felt that there were similarities to the films ‘Almost Famous’ with Rosetta in the role of a more integral part of the band, but essentially Kate Hudson’s character. There was definitely some of ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’ in there too, but only because how could there not be?
Towards the end I really liked how I felt sorry for Rosetta in the past, but that I could totally see why the lads all harboured a grudge towards her for their upbringing and understand why, but also still feel for Rosetta even then. It made the whole thing very interesting to read and thoughtful, showing his people change and the circumstances that can cause that.
After a long and winding build up, the end came a bit too quickly and fairly obviously by then and I also wanted a bit more closure for some of the other characters too, as well as more of a resolution/conclusion with the one in particular, as it had been a focus throughout.
But overall I really enjoyed it, including the very last bit.
8.58/10.
This really was enjoyable and I found that I’d managed to read lots of it in one sitting.
It was all a bit ‘Absolutely Fabulous’ with hints of both Patsy and Edina’s life in the character of Rosetta and hints of Bubble and Saffy in the character of ?Sue?
And it was easy to feel a resemblance of Queen or The Rolling Stones with regards to the band “The End” that Rosetta’s other half Brian managed, but the same could be said of any band I suppose and I was only going on the rumours of their wild behaviour and what I’d seen in biopics, documentaries, etc.
I did think that it was quite British-centric and time stamped, because there were lots of references to things that might not be clear to everyone, bands and peoples names that might not be as popular to some people, as well as Yorkie’s (Chocolate), Polos (Volkswagen Cars) and all sorts of similar things.
I like to think that I know quite a bit about music, but even I struggled with some of the names dropped.
As the story began I couldn’t quite work out why the boys ?t? and Greg got so upset about Rosetta writing an autobiography, which seemed to be the main theme of the story. There didn’t seem to be any reason for them to be so against it.
I hadn’t initially thought that it would be Rosetta’s story, believing that it was more likely to focus on Greg and while he did seem to be the secondary character, his tale was mostly used to tie Rosetta’s various antics and family together, as was Tanith in the other more featured character.
I liked the touches of reality throughout that could be called filler, but I actually thought that they did a great job of setting the scene or expanding on a character. Most of it was just real life, toilet habits and things, but activities that everybody does and rarely feature in fiction.
The build up to the various events as they unfolded and the establishment of the general cast of personalities did mean that it took a while to really get in to, but it was well done and in a way that kept me interested
I would say that there were a few bits that could have done with an edit though, some clumsy paragraphs, odd journeys that went back and forth in one sentence at times. However, there was also some great bits of dialogue too and emotional writing, almost as if the author had been there and done it and felt it herself.
There were elements of Shakespeare’s ‘The Taming Of The Shrew’ with regards to Tanith’s makeover of Greg, but it probably resembled Robert Llewelyn’s ‘Man On Platform 5’ book more.
I also felt that there were similarities to the films ‘Almost Famous’ with Rosetta in the role of a more integral part of the band, but essentially Kate Hudson’s character. There was definitely some of ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’ in there too, but only because how could there not be?
Towards the end I really liked how I felt sorry for Rosetta in the past, but that I could totally see why the lads all harboured a grudge towards her for their upbringing and understand why, but also still feel for Rosetta even then. It made the whole thing very interesting to read and thoughtful, showing his people change and the circumstances that can cause that.
After a long and winding build up, the end came a bit too quickly and fairly obviously by then and I also wanted a bit more closure for some of the other characters too, as well as more of a resolution/conclusion with the one in particular, as it had been a focus throughout.
But overall I really enjoyed it, including the very last bit.
8.58/10.
June 9, 2009
My sister begged me to read this book set in the future 7 years after the US gets nuked. The main character is a 15 year old girl and she finds a crown with powers (which she only uses once,) and people are killing each other, etc. There is a very chilling part that takes place in a K-Mart and I did read all of it, but my sister loved it far more than I did.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews