The book is beautifully written, sometimes almost a little too experimentally, yet it sometimes seems clichéd. An easy example; the book is split into parts--Beginning, Middle, End--and in each of those parts each character has a chapter describing what happens to them, each character's chapter begi
... (continue)
The book is beautifully written, sometimes almost a little too experimentally, yet it sometimes seems clichéd. An easy example; the book is split into parts--Beginning, Middle, End--and in each of those parts each character has a chapter describing what happens to them, each character's chapter begins "the beginning", "the middle", "the end".
To summarize, the novel describes what happens to a family on an extended holiday when an uninvited--indeed unknown--guest shows up & lives with the family. Each character has fatal flaws & the guest through her conniving manages to show those flaws to each individual. They all grow and find themselves, some to more success for their future lives than others by the finish.
Other than the writing being slightly over the top, the main thing that stopped me really enjoying the book was that none of the characters are particularly likable.
Do stick with it; it gets better about a third of the way through, but still not enough for me to effuse over it.
Claspam 
Accidental, the
The book is beautifully written, sometimes almost a little too experimentally, yet it sometimes seems clichéd. An easy example; the book is split into parts--Beginning, Middle, End--and in each of those parts each character has a chapter describing what happens to them, each character's chapter begi ... (continue)
The book is beautifully written, sometimes almost a little too experimentally, yet it sometimes seems clichéd. An easy example; the book is split into parts--Beginning, Middle, End--and in each of those parts each character has a chapter describing what happens to them, each character's chapter begins "the beginning", "the middle", "the end".
To summarize, the novel describes what happens to a family on an extended holiday when an uninvited--indeed unknown--guest shows up & lives with the family. Each character has fatal flaws & the guest through her conniving manages to show those flaws to each individual. They all grow and find themselves, some to more success for their future lives than others by the finish.
Other than the writing being slightly over the top, the main thing that stopped me really enjoying the book was that none of the characters are particularly likable.
Do stick with it; it gets better about a third of the way through, but still not enough for me to effuse over it.