Blueeyedboy

Critics

• Blueeyedboy by Joanne Harris - Review by Waterstone's Books Quarterly Online

  Joanne Harris’ latest novel is a tale of deception and damage, internet personae and posturing, retribution and the shadow of the past. Told through the posts blueeyedboy makes to his website ‘badguysrock’, it is impossible until the final pages to d ... (read full critics)

  wbqonline published on Tue, 14 Sep 2010

1 Review

• 

  Very clever and well written but I simply did not enjoy this one.

  I have been reading and generally enjoying, sometimes loving the writing of Joanne Harris for a long time. This time with blue eyed boy after reading all 527 pages I am left wondering why I bothered. It was not the writing as that ... (continue)

  Very clever and well written but I simply did not enjoy this one.

  I have been reading and generally enjoying, sometimes loving the writing of Joanne Harris for a long time. This time with blue eyed boy after reading all 527 pages I am left wondering why I bothered. It was not the writing as that was up to her normal high standards. No this time I just could not get my head around this somewhat strange story. The fascinating aspect of the story and possibly the reason I kept reading was that Synaesthesia plays an important role in the story. Also interesting is that it is written in the form of an online journal. If you have read Gentleman and Players you will recognise the setting for this novel as it is also set in the Yorkshire town of Malbry.

  Once upon a time there were three brothers, Black Brown and Blue as they were known by their widowed mother. Blueeyedboy is single, early forties and living at home with his mother. He has a mundane job and no social life apart from his virtual one. He spends a vast amount of time online, on a website he set up it seems to play out his fantasies. Most of his online interaction is with Albertine, with whom in the real world he shares a troubled past. The scenarios he talks about in his web journal are of dark murder. Our protagonist plays out his life on the internet so we slowly learn of his dysfunctional family background and his connections to Emily the blind child prodigy who was also part of his childhood. His mind games will lead you to a conclusion that will not answer all your questions but leave you with something to think about. This I believe was the author’s intention.

  It seems I am not alone in my thoughts, as opinion on this novel seems to be very much divided and I quote Joanne Harris : ‘Never has one of my books received such a “Marmite” reaction. Love it or hate it? What kind of reader are you?’ I am not I do not think of a sensitive disposition and I was not terrified as the back cover suggested I might be, I just simply did not enjoy it! Disappointing as after enjoying Gentleman and Players her first psychological thriller, I expected more from this one. Joanne Harris’s writing has in the past tended towards the dark side of human nature but this time I found it just too heavily weighted. Love, Like or Hate this novel will certainly give food for thought especially about the darker side of how one can portray oneself on the internet.

  If you have read this I would be very interested to know what your Marmite reaction was.

  More info to be found at LindyLouMac's Book Reviews.
  http://lindyloumacbookreviews.blogspot.com/2012/02/blue…

  Is this helpful?

  Lindyloumac said on Feb 21, 2012 about the Hardcover edition | Add your feedback

Book Details

• Rating:
  (8)
  • 5 stars
  • 4 stars
  • 3 stars
  • 2 stars
  • 1 star
• English Books
• Others 384 Pages
• ISBN-10: 055215346X
• ISBN-13: 9780552153461
• Publisher: Black Swan
• Pub date: Jun 20, 2011
• Also available as: Paperback, Hardcover and eBook
• In other languages: other languages Libros en Español, Livros em Português, Libri Italiani, Polskie Książki

Prices Change currency & sellers