The Mookse and the Gripes discussion

Birding by Rose Ruane

I read this one earlier in the year.

I liked the opening, the sense of place, and the set up of the characters, but sadly found it badly written. It is saturated with metaphors and similes that just didn’t work for me, and it tilts towards caricature.

In the end felt it was just a bad book.

That’s encouraging!!!

I just started this, and the prose is trying very hard:

"This town is a sentence of buildings scribbled along the deckled edge of an estuary, where the ribcages of old boats jut from the mud at low tide."

Well. We will see. Maybe it is cute? Maybe not.

Loving the cover though!

Agree with your feedback, Anna and Ben. I am about halfway through and quite surprised that this made the long list. The premise is promising, particularly Joyce's storyline, but the overuse of similes and adjectives mean that this reads like an angty YA novel.

I actually wound up liking this book more than I expected to. I agree with Anna's comments about the prose trying very hard, and for a while it was grating, but I think I settled into the story or just got used to it, and I thought that the story she was trying to tell was important and genuine, even if she did a somewhat muddled job of it. Would be stunned to see it on the shortlist but am not sorry I read it.

I am only 100 pages in but more with Cindy - once I got past the metaphors and the alliteration (this author adores alliterative adjectives) I am quite enjoying it and there are some really nice lines

I particularly liked (on a mother criticising her daughters weight)

“Those Very Hungry Caterpillar last day lists: you ate this, then you ate that. The unending, repetitive monologues about food and eating, like being fat-shamed by Stewart Lee.”

Cindy wrote: "I actually wound up liking this book more than I expected to..."

We had similar views Cindy

https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

Gumble's Yard - Golden Reviewer wrote: "Cindy wrote: "I actually wound up liking this book more than I expected to..."

We had similar views Cindy

https://www.goodreads.com/review/show..."

Great write up and I am always reassured when we feel the same about a novel. I particularly liked the open-ended nature of the ending as well.