ARC provided by NetGalley. All opinions are my own.
This took a little getting into for me which I put down to the main character holding the reader atARC provided by NetGalley. All opinions are my own.
This took a little getting into for me which I put down to the main character holding the reader at arm's length at the beginning of the book. It appears to be a deliberate stylistic choice attributable to the MC's gut wrenching sense of ongoing grief and denial, and in that respect works very well. On the surface, The Water Witch is a simple novel about a lost kingdom and an ancient curse, but once Thorne combined it with a nuanced portrayal of woman grieving over choices - her own and her dead fiancée's - as well as mourning his loss, it becomes a subtle, beautiful recreation of a folk tale with a strong sense of place and dynamic characterisation. I don't want to stray into spoiler territory but in many ways this is a love story or at least a story about love and how it can both tear things down and mend wounds. It was clever and quiet, with clear perfect prose. By the end of the book I was in love with the story. Highly recommend for anyone who loves fantasy that clashes with the real world and savours strongly of folklore.
Merged review:
ARC provided by NetGalley. All opinions are my own.
This took a little getting into for me which I put down to the main character holding the reader at arm's length at the beginning of the book. It appears to be a deliberate stylistic choice attributable to the MC's gut wrenching sense of ongoing grief and denial, and in that respect works very well. On the surface, The Water Witch is a simple novel about a lost kingdom and an ancient curse, but once Thorne combined it with a nuanced portrayal of woman grieving over choices - her own and her dead fiancée's - as well as mourning his loss, it becomes a subtle, beautiful recreation of a folk tale with a strong sense of place and dynamic characterisation. I don't want to stray into spoiler territory but in many ways this is a love story or at least a story about love and how it can both tear things down and mend wounds. It was clever and quiet, with clear perfect prose. By the end of the book I was in love with the story. Highly recommend for anyone who loves fantasy that clashes with the real world and savours strongly of folklore....more
This book would have benefitted hugely from the author remembering his target audience and embracing a more conversatiAudio ARC received via NetGalley
This book would have benefitted hugely from the author remembering his target audience and embracing a more conversational style. It could also have done with a serious edit. At this point. there is so much included that almost nothing is examined in sufficient detail. The audio book would have been much better with a professional narrator. I'm not sure what it is about the 'r' sound that Greger is having difficulty with but in English it isn't three syllables long.
I'm in the odd position of giving this 3 stars for the amount of research, while at the same time wanting to mark it lower based on how much of that research is included. At times you literally feel as if you're being battered with excerpts from research papers. However, there is no clear message except 'eat vegetables and exercise' which is advice everyone should already be embracing. In addition, I feel the author definitely had an agenda here. He is espousing his way as the right way. Maybe it is. But if you don't allow the possibility for error, I start wondering if you're cherry picking results and I saw some evidence of that here. To pick one example, the tiny section on Perimenopause was flippant, undetailed and from a perspective that had not been rigorously tested against real life experiences. I fully support every woman making her own choice about HRT but to suggest that the only real symptom is hot flushes and that it does not need to be as debilitating as it is made out to be, is just factually incorrect and grossly ignorant. It leans into the scaremongering about modern HRT causing breast cancer which if you look into it, has been pretty thoroughly debunked. I absolutely agree that a good diet, healthy lifestyle and measures to manage sleep and stress will greatly improve symptoms, but in many cases that is not enough. Hot flushes are nothing compared to the rages, the memory loss, the brain fog, the general sense of the world being a terrible place, the mixture of pains, the poor recovery time, the vision impairment etc There are oestrogen receptors in every part of the female body and there is plenty of evidence that low hormone levels are behind many later life afflictions in women - which could be completely avoided if HRT was more readily available.
Finding one section that was so badly researched made me notice others. I also wasn't expecting to find a joke about sex workers casually tossed in. That along with a few other things suggested that the author is, like many doctors, dismissive of female health. It's unfortunate for him if he's not and that impression is incorrect, because that is how he came across.
Overall, a few interesting studies mentioned but there are better anti aging books that aren't just about showing off how much research has been done. In trying to make this for everyone, Greger has made it for no one. ...more
Ok for me personally this was 2* but objectively, I can see why other people love it so 3*.
The actual prose is good - accessARC received via NetGalley
Ok for me personally this was 2* but objectively, I can see why other people love it so 3*.
The actual prose is good - accessible, descriptive and engaging. I also like the concept. My issues stem from some narrative choices and the MC.
We'll start with the latter. I don't need to like a MC to enjoy a book. Just make them.interesting. make me want to root for them. Unfortunately, Lily Bly was a neurotic, self centred, selfish mess. Creepmouse 'I can't engage with reality' characters can be interesting when their arc includes them finding unknown wells of strength and resourcefulness. But that isn't the case here. Lily grew up with everything handed to her except maternal affection. When she had a problem, daddy battered it into submission with his checque book. She also won the genetic lottery as well, being able bodied, healthy, beautiful and of average intelligence. A few bad things happen in her life but all that gets smoothed away by her husband who picks up the tab when her father dies after losing all his money.
And this is where I really lost patience with her. She runs up 50k worth of credit card debt (and not for the first time). She clearly has poor impulse cobtrol and some sort of mental illness as well, but she refuses to do anything to help herself. Her husband is just left to pay everything. Lily gets a job, loses it almost immefiately. Starts doing things around their new house and leaves them half done and more of a mess than if she'd never started. She wants a baby so badly, but refuses to even consider shouldering her share of the labour to a) get them out of debt and b) make sure she is mentally healthy enough to give a child what it needs. And then she acts as if her husband is being unfair when he confronts her about these things.
Ultimately I deispised her. She was a parasite parading learned helplessness who believed that support was being given money by whoever she asked for it. I would have not engaged with this person in real life. I spent way longer with her in book form than I wanted.
Other issues for me were that this was a told story. Every answer is just handed to you. There is no tension and no suspense. I'd argue that technically it's not even reall gothic horror or a ghost story, it's sad girl fic wearing a sheet with eyeholes.
So ultimately, I did not like this. But the author has written it skillfully so I am assuming that the reasons I did not like it were deliberate....more
It's beautifully written and a creative idea but the style made it impossible to connect with the characters. I jusARC provided by Netgalley
DNF at 50%
It's beautifully written and a creative idea but the style made it impossible to connect with the characters. I just has zero interest in continuing....more
This was perfectly ok. I just want more from urban fantasy - quirkiness, an unusual MC, humour, action and an intricatAudio ARC received via NetGalley
This was perfectly ok. I just want more from urban fantasy - quirkiness, an unusual MC, humour, action and an intricate plot. And if there are vampires, they had better be different in some way. This was written exactly for its target audience which meant it didn't push those boundaries. That's a valid choice but it didn't hold my interest. ...more
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