What do you think?
Rate this book
Odds End
Date not stated
228 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1980
18 people want to read
About the author
Tim Wynne-Jones
72 books163 followersTim Wynne-Jones (born 12 August 1948) is an English–Canadian author of children's literature, including picture books and novels for children and young adults, novels for adults, radio dramas, songs for the CBC/Jim Henson production Fraggle Rock, as well as a children's musical and an opera libretto.
Awards:
Arthur Ellis Award
◊ Best Juvenile (2001): The Boy in the Burning House
Edgar Award
◊ Best Young Adult (2002): The Boy in the Burning House
Awards:
Arthur Ellis Award
◊ Best Juvenile (2001): The Boy in the Burning House
Edgar Award
◊ Best Young Adult (2002): The Boy in the Burning House
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews
May 13, 2015
This does not seem to be a popular book. Only 15 people have rated it, and only 3 people have reviewed it. It's weird that I've even read it. It was a random thrift shop find, and I only gave it a second look because of two things. 1) The title caught my eye for its similarity to 'Odd Lane', which Dark Tower fans will be familiar with; and 2) the name Wynne-Jones made me think he might be related to Diana Wynne Jones, and I was curious.
Well... we all know what they say about curiosity. It bored the cat to death.
I wish I'd read the description for this one before I bought it. But, you know, I don't usually. But still, this is touted as a psychological thriller (at least the first sentence of the description claims as much, and that was enough for me), and since it clocks in at a petite 228 pages, I kind of expected it to be fast paced and, well, thrilling. It was neither.
Here's the skinny: Mary and Malcolm live at Odd's End on the wooded coast of Nova Scotia. Their house is unique, and distinct, because of its location and its local history. They are happy there. She is a rich-man's-cultured-daughter who is now a painter who works from home, and he is a PhD college literature professor writing a paper for a Harvard presentation on some author's work. They are educated, arts-n-lit, eclectic types with eclectic theater friends that I found it hard to relate to. (Given that the dust jacket says that the author has a variety of talents including acting, singing, painting, and teaching visual arts, I'm guessing that every character in this book was inspired from within.) Anyway, they have a cool house, filled with interesting and eclectic stuff that reflect their interests. Unfortunately, other than their stuff, these characters were completely devoid of personality. They sounded alike, and thought alike, and acted alike... The only thing that differentiated them was the fact that Malcolm had to have a little crush (unrequited thus far!) on the side to add some suspense. But when presented with evidence of the other girl, Mary doesn't even react. So bizarre.
Then there's THE VILLAIN, who besides having the privilege of speaking directly to the reader, could easily have been mistaken for Mary or Malcolm, because he was more of the same. He proceeds to tell us about his desire for a home. Not just any home, but the PERFECT home, which must be perfect in the exact current state. Move in ready, completely furnished, etc. He goes on and on and on about his quest for a home, and what it means to him, and where his quest has taken him, and how far he will go to acquire the home of his exacting dreams.
You see, once he finds his dream home, he's only got the pesky little problem of getting its current inhabitants to skedaddle out of there in a hurry, taking nothing but the clothes they are wearing - lest his stolen domestic perfection be ruined by their, I dunno, desire to keep the stuff they bought and paid for. (Unreasonable!) So, he stealthily starts messing with them. Now I don't want you to start thinking this guy is just a common criminal who sees nice things and wants to fence them. He doesn't care about money... he's cultured and sophisticated and just as highbrow as they are - why do you think he wants their house with all their stuff as is? He thinks their lives (or at least the physical structure containing it and its contents) is just perfect, so he wants it for himself.
The opening move is to make an extremely sumptuous and excessive meal, served on the good china and served with the heirloom silver. Mr X is very pleased when they immediately start suspecting each other of pulling it off as a practical joke, but is very displeased when they fail to serve the courses in the proper order and only eat very little of the banquet he slaved over for them. And THEN they leave the dishes. Heathens.
After that follows death by a billion tiny acts... at least for me. He fills their salt shakers, rearranges their papers, switches out Mary's currently reading book to a different book opened to the same page (devious!) trims off a slight amount of a knickknack's walking stick, shifts the position of a picture on the wall, works on Mary's painting for her, does their dishes, etc. All things calculated to make them feel like something is just not quite right, that maybe they are a little crazy, losing track of time, forgetting things, etc, in the hope that to escape their feelings of uneasiness, they'll just leave, without even the picking up part first.
It's an interesting premise, and definitely not a motive I've ever seen before, but this book is chock full of problems. For one, it's 35 years old and VERY dated. This kind of thing could never happen now. If Mr. & Mrs. Educated were stupid enough not to have a deadbolt (and they were - for fuck's sake, they only got one AFTER everything went down), or an alarm, at the first sign of someone messing with their stuff they'd post it on Facebook and Antoine Dobson would go on the news and tell people to lock their doors, lock their windows, they filling err'one's spice racks up in herr. Then they'd get a series of nannycams & motion sensors linked to smartphone apps and with the click of a button, they'd have police surrounding the place. Definitely not something that could happen nowadays.
Secondly, as per my usual nitpicky self, I had to think of the logistics. First of all, I don't even know why he would want the house in the first place. It's a C shaped house wrapped around a courtyard, and both bathrooms are upstairs across the hall from each other in the center, between the North and South wings. Each wing is just made of new rooms that have been added on over the years. So, if you're at one end, you'd have to walk through 3 or 4 rooms to the central section, then upstairs, just to pee. Or you could go outside. Perhaps in the Canadian winter. Perfection? I think not. I don't think Mr. X has thought this through!
But OK, say that Mr. X was successful in his endeavor to drive them out and acquired this bathroom-deficient "dream home"... what then? He moves in and they just all agree to let it go at that? They'll continue paying that mortgage and all the utilities and not call the cops and he'll live like a king in their home for free? Somehow I doubt that's how it would work. So his plan doesn't seem very logical. It seems like a complete waste of time and effort.
The last bit of the book has him claiming that he realized that the house wasn't perfect after all, and that he didn't want it anymore and was on to a new place, which seems to be hinting at the fact that he's just psychopathic... but that doesn't really fit, because every single move and thought has been coldly calculated, planned, and executed with a high level of skill and organization, and with no shortage of intuition and understanding of human behavior. I don't buy that he's just a psycho who likes tormenting people in the hopes of living temporarily rent free for a little while until the police show up. If he just likes tormenting people, fine... but it's always THE HOUSE that draws him. The desire for the home is what motivates him, and he has to know that it is a useless endeavor. It doesn't make sense to me.
Aside from the logic fail pertaining to the motive, the writing was just so tedious. Description for days, exposition everywhere telling us exactly what is going on, what everyone is doing, what they are thinking, what they are feeling, everything. Telling telling telling. Nothing but telling.
Even the concept of having the villain talk directly to the reader was tedious. He was just as descriptive and expository, and the only difference is that he was, literally, telling us stuff, rather than the wishy-washy 3rd person limited narrative that was telling the rest of the story doing it.
I think, in maybe someone else's hands, this could have been a good thriller, but as it was, so much of it was just boring detail that I almost wanted someone to get killed just so something could happen. I wasn't impressed.
Well... we all know what they say about curiosity. It bored the cat to death.
I wish I'd read the description for this one before I bought it. But, you know, I don't usually. But still, this is touted as a psychological thriller (at least the first sentence of the description claims as much, and that was enough for me), and since it clocks in at a petite 228 pages, I kind of expected it to be fast paced and, well, thrilling. It was neither.
Here's the skinny: Mary and Malcolm live at Odd's End on the wooded coast of Nova Scotia. Their house is unique, and distinct, because of its location and its local history. They are happy there. She is a rich-man's-cultured-daughter who is now a painter who works from home, and he is a PhD college literature professor writing a paper for a Harvard presentation on some author's work. They are educated, arts-n-lit, eclectic types with eclectic theater friends that I found it hard to relate to. (Given that the dust jacket says that the author has a variety of talents including acting, singing, painting, and teaching visual arts, I'm guessing that every character in this book was inspired from within.) Anyway, they have a cool house, filled with interesting and eclectic stuff that reflect their interests. Unfortunately, other than their stuff, these characters were completely devoid of personality. They sounded alike, and thought alike, and acted alike... The only thing that differentiated them was the fact that Malcolm had to have a little crush (unrequited thus far!) on the side to add some suspense. But when presented with evidence of the other girl, Mary doesn't even react. So bizarre.
Then there's THE VILLAIN, who besides having the privilege of speaking directly to the reader, could easily have been mistaken for Mary or Malcolm, because he was more of the same. He proceeds to tell us about his desire for a home. Not just any home, but the PERFECT home, which must be perfect in the exact current state. Move in ready, completely furnished, etc. He goes on and on and on about his quest for a home, and what it means to him, and where his quest has taken him, and how far he will go to acquire the home of his exacting dreams.
You see, once he finds his dream home, he's only got the pesky little problem of getting its current inhabitants to skedaddle out of there in a hurry, taking nothing but the clothes they are wearing - lest his stolen domestic perfection be ruined by their, I dunno, desire to keep the stuff they bought and paid for. (Unreasonable!) So, he stealthily starts messing with them. Now I don't want you to start thinking this guy is just a common criminal who sees nice things and wants to fence them. He doesn't care about money... he's cultured and sophisticated and just as highbrow as they are - why do you think he wants their house with all their stuff as is? He thinks their lives (or at least the physical structure containing it and its contents) is just perfect, so he wants it for himself.
The opening move is to make an extremely sumptuous and excessive meal, served on the good china and served with the heirloom silver. Mr X is very pleased when they immediately start suspecting each other of pulling it off as a practical joke, but is very displeased when they fail to serve the courses in the proper order and only eat very little of the banquet he slaved over for them. And THEN they leave the dishes. Heathens.
After that follows death by a billion tiny acts... at least for me. He fills their salt shakers, rearranges their papers, switches out Mary's currently reading book to a different book opened to the same page (devious!) trims off a slight amount of a knickknack's walking stick, shifts the position of a picture on the wall, works on Mary's painting for her, does their dishes, etc. All things calculated to make them feel like something is just not quite right, that maybe they are a little crazy, losing track of time, forgetting things, etc, in the hope that to escape their feelings of uneasiness, they'll just leave, without even the picking up part first.
It's an interesting premise, and definitely not a motive I've ever seen before, but this book is chock full of problems. For one, it's 35 years old and VERY dated. This kind of thing could never happen now. If Mr. & Mrs. Educated were stupid enough not to have a deadbolt (and they were - for fuck's sake, they only got one AFTER everything went down), or an alarm, at the first sign of someone messing with their stuff they'd post it on Facebook and Antoine Dobson would go on the news and tell people to lock their doors, lock their windows, they filling err'one's spice racks up in herr. Then they'd get a series of nannycams & motion sensors linked to smartphone apps and with the click of a button, they'd have police surrounding the place. Definitely not something that could happen nowadays.
Secondly, as per my usual nitpicky self, I had to think of the logistics. First of all, I don't even know why he would want the house in the first place. It's a C shaped house wrapped around a courtyard, and both bathrooms are upstairs across the hall from each other in the center, between the North and South wings. Each wing is just made of new rooms that have been added on over the years. So, if you're at one end, you'd have to walk through 3 or 4 rooms to the central section, then upstairs, just to pee. Or you could go outside. Perhaps in the Canadian winter. Perfection? I think not. I don't think Mr. X has thought this through!
But OK, say that Mr. X was successful in his endeavor to drive them out and acquired this bathroom-deficient "dream home"... what then? He moves in and they just all agree to let it go at that? They'll continue paying that mortgage and all the utilities and not call the cops and he'll live like a king in their home for free? Somehow I doubt that's how it would work. So his plan doesn't seem very logical. It seems like a complete waste of time and effort.
The last bit of the book has him claiming that he realized that the house wasn't perfect after all, and that he didn't want it anymore and was on to a new place, which seems to be hinting at the fact that he's just psychopathic... but that doesn't really fit, because every single move and thought has been coldly calculated, planned, and executed with a high level of skill and organization, and with no shortage of intuition and understanding of human behavior. I don't buy that he's just a psycho who likes tormenting people in the hopes of living temporarily rent free for a little while until the police show up. If he just likes tormenting people, fine... but it's always THE HOUSE that draws him. The desire for the home is what motivates him, and he has to know that it is a useless endeavor. It doesn't make sense to me.
Aside from the logic fail pertaining to the motive, the writing was just so tedious. Description for days, exposition everywhere telling us exactly what is going on, what everyone is doing, what they are thinking, what they are feeling, everything. Telling telling telling. Nothing but telling.
Even the concept of having the villain talk directly to the reader was tedious. He was just as descriptive and expository, and the only difference is that he was, literally, telling us stuff, rather than the wishy-washy 3rd person limited narrative that was telling the rest of the story doing it.
I think, in maybe someone else's hands, this could have been a good thriller, but as it was, so much of it was just boring detail that I almost wanted someone to get killed just so something could happen. I wasn't impressed.
June 11, 2013
interesting story of psychological manipulation. twisted antagonist and a believable reaction from the main characters.
January 26, 2014
I loved this book. The premise is unique, the characters are well defined and I liked them. The unsettled feelings that we sometimes get, without knowing why, are magnified here and become heart thumping suspense.
July 31, 2016
Creepy and funny, in the pompous arrogant way of sociopaths who believe they are too smart to be caught.
Very Gothic in the same gaslighting way of Victoria Holt and others of that genre.
Very Gothic in the same gaslighting way of Victoria Holt and others of that genre.
February 26, 2024
Decent enough as a first novel, I guess. The concept, certainly, is intriguing. A never-named and clearly very disturbed man decides that Odd's End is the perfect home for him. Unfortunately, it already has owners, Malcolm and Mary Close. So, he engages in a campaign of psychological warfare to try to drive them apart and away, beginning with an elaborate meal set out for them when they come home one night. We learn that he has done this sort of thing before, with less than salutary outcomes for said previous home owners. Part of the novel consists of this character's first-person narration, which is the most successful part of the novel. Less successful is the characterization of both Malcolm and Mary, English professor and painter, respectively. Even though Wynne-Jones keeps the book compact, their inability to deal with what they are experiencing (Malcolm's especially) becomes increasingly implausible. Wynne-Jones does try to build psychological tension by adopting the entirely likely position that each might suspect the other of pranking, at first. The villain's attempts to drive a wedge between Malcolm and Mary makes sense. I just found it hard to buy, as presented. The novel takes a slow-burn approach before accelerating to the ending, which does involve one murder (which is as spoilery as I will get), though I can't say I was overly-enamoured of the ending. I think part of the problem for me was that I just didn't find Wynne-Jones's writing, outside of the first-person bits, all that compelling. He also rather conveniently glosses over the whole question of Malcolm's connection with Angela; I would have expected at least some addressing of how Mary would have reacted to her husband's flirtation with adultery. Anyway, this is a creditable enough psychological thriller, even if it's not fully successful.
March 2, 2016
Honesty, I wanted to like this book.
I was drawn to the ominous cover, and the premise seemed promising as well, but once I began reading my initial interest quickly turned to dread. What seemed to be a thrilling novel filled with intrigue fell flat on its face in my opinion, the pompous characters and dry prose made every page extremely difficult for me to turn. I found it boring to follow but I very rarely put a book down for good so I tried to get into it and tough it out. Sadly, I got about halfway through and that was as far as I could go. This book was impossible for me to finish the first time around and I highly doubt I'll be revisiting it anytime soon.
I was drawn to the ominous cover, and the premise seemed promising as well, but once I began reading my initial interest quickly turned to dread. What seemed to be a thrilling novel filled with intrigue fell flat on its face in my opinion, the pompous characters and dry prose made every page extremely difficult for me to turn. I found it boring to follow but I very rarely put a book down for good so I tried to get into it and tough it out. Sadly, I got about halfway through and that was as far as I could go. This book was impossible for me to finish the first time around and I highly doubt I'll be revisiting it anytime soon.
Read
August 2, 2013Puzzling and intriguing. A lot of fun. Mystery. Just a bit eerie.
January 4, 2021
Eerie and compelling. I loved this book!
April 23, 2017
This is the second disappointing Tim Wynne-Jones I've picked up this year. Maybe I should learn my lesson. Maybe I should also avoid taking novels home from community bookshelves. Maybe TWJ should avoid comma splices and ostentatious melodrama. A lot of maybes here.
Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews