Un po' giallo, un po' horror, un po' romance, molto paranormale: questo romanzo è tutto questo. Potrebbe sembrare un'accozzaglia di generi messa insieUn po' giallo, un po' horror, un po' romance, molto paranormale: questo romanzo è tutto questo. Potrebbe sembrare un'accozzaglia di generi messa insieme a dare vita a un ibrido mostruoso, invece non è così. L'unica cosa che questo libro non è: young adult, come invece viene venduto in Italia. Ma perché? I protagonisti sono tutti intorno alla trentina, quindi abbondantemente adulti.
Altra riserva sull'edizione italiana: ma perché non tradurre il titolo in italiano? "La restauratrice" sembrava brutto? Tutti i libri della serie sono rimasti con il titolo in inglese e lo trovo un po' stupido e anche respingente.
Passando al romanzo vero e proprio... La protagonista è Amelia Gray, conosciuta in rete come "la signora dei cimiteri" grazie al suo blog dedicato appunto all'argomento dei cimiteri. Infatti, Amelia è una restauratrice di cimiteri, passione che ha preso da suo padre, il quale era custode di un cimitero. La particolarità di Amelia è che riesce a vedere i fantasmi, anche questo un fatto che ha in comune con suo padre, benché non sia sua figlia biologica.
Un giorno, nel cimitero dove sta lavorando viene rinvenuto un cadavere e la polizia si mette in contatto con lei per indagare se ha visto o sentito qualcosa di strano. La polizia prende forma nel detective John Devlin, ovviamente fascinosissimo e che eserciterà un'attrazione incontenibile sulla nostra eroina.
In quanto a cliché non c'è male, eppure il libro mi è piaciuto davvero tanto. Sto anche pensando di proseguire subito (o quasi) con la serie, dato che tutti i libri sembrano essere disponibili su MLOL....more
The post-apocalyptic genre is very popular nowadays, I love it myself, so I'm unsure why this novella by Jack London is so little known instead of beiThe post-apocalyptic genre is very popular nowadays, I love it myself, so I'm unsure why this novella by Jack London is so little known instead of being widely appreciated. It is probably the first novella in this genre, being written in 1912, or maybe one of the first, although I don't know of other post-apocalyptic works from the same time. It reminded me of other, more modern novels, such as The Stand by Stephen King, just to name one.
It has all the usual ingredients of the genre: the apocalypsis (a plague which exterminates almost all of mankind in the entire planet), a return to the feral state during and after the plague, a survivor, etc.
The protagonist is an ex professor who survived the scarlet plague of 60 years earlier. The plague manifested itself with scarlet spots, convulsions, insensibility of the body and coldness. After a few hours, or even a few minutes, you were dead of it. Only the protagonist and a few others survive. And now the old protagonist tells the tale to a bunch of children that are in many ways related to him.
If I must find a flaw, it's that the tale is told by the protagonist using many words and ideas that are clearly incomprehensible to the kids, since they don't know what money, university, cars are. But it is not an actual flaw, since the children cut him off lots of times telling him he's talking nonsense.
I really loved this novella, and I'd definitely recommend it to all lovers of post-apocalyptic fiction.
The post-apocalyptic genre is very popular nowadays, I love it myself, so I'm unsure why this novella by Jack London is so little known instead of being widely appreciated. It is probably the first novella in this genre, being written in 1912, or maybe one of the first, although I don't know of other post-apocalyptic works from the same time. It reminded me of other, more modern novels, such as The Stand by Stephen King, just to name one.
It has all the usual ingredients of the genre: the apocalypsis (a plague which exterminates almost all of mankind in the entire planet), a return to the feral state during and after the plague, a survivor, etc.
The protagonist is an ex professor who survived the scarlet plague of 60 years earlier. The plague manifested itself with scarlet spots, convulsions, insensibility of the body and coldness. After a few hours, or even a few minutes, you were dead of it. Only the protagonist and a few others survive. And now the old protagonist tells the tale to a bunch of children that are in many ways related to him.
If I must find a flaw, it's that the tale is told by the protagonist using many words and ideas that are clearly incomprehensible to the kids, since they don't know what money, university, cars are. But it is not an actual flaw, since the children cut him off lots of times telling him he's talking nonsense.
I really loved this novella, and I'd definitely recommend it to all lovers of post-apocalyptic fiction.