The pace set up in the first two books slows down a little yet gets more frenetic in the conclusion.
There is a real emotional gut punch between the covers of Roth's wrap-up of her dystopian trilogy.
It's really hard to review this one because even the smallest spoiler could ruin it.
I loved her writing style and this is perhaps the best series of this YA sub-genre I've read. The questions raised resonate long after the last page is read.
(Finished October 29, 2013)
I love books. I love everything about them, how they feel, how they smell, the way they welcome you and take you everywhere and everywhen. Here I share my thoughts on books I read as I read them. When I started this Blog on Jan. 17, 2013 I moved all of my posts about books here from another forum going back to 2011.
Saturday, November 16, 2013
The Sweetness At The Bottom Of The Pie (Flavia de Luce #1) by Alan Bradley
Flavia is Sherlock Holmes in the body of an 11 year old girl with two annoying older sisters, a barely present father and a love of chemistry and poison. She has an amazing laboratory, a keen eye and is the smartest person she knows.
In between torturing her sisters (she adds poison ivy to the lipstick of one of them) and being tortured by them (the story begins with her being tied up and locked in a closet by them) she finds a dying man in her yard and must solve his murder in order to clear her father's name.
The ingredients of this mystery were very interesting. Set in 1950's England the story weaves together stolen rare stamps, the death of a head master many years before Flavia is born and the murder in Flavia's yard. Being a precocious 11 year old makes it inevitable she'll get into some pretty tough situations and these allow glimpses of the child she is under all her sass and smarts.
This turns out to be the first of a series of books staring the girl detective and I look forward to seeing what Flavia gets into next.
(Finished November 16, 2013)
In between torturing her sisters (she adds poison ivy to the lipstick of one of them) and being tortured by them (the story begins with her being tied up and locked in a closet by them) she finds a dying man in her yard and must solve his murder in order to clear her father's name.
The ingredients of this mystery were very interesting. Set in 1950's England the story weaves together stolen rare stamps, the death of a head master many years before Flavia is born and the murder in Flavia's yard. Being a precocious 11 year old makes it inevitable she'll get into some pretty tough situations and these allow glimpses of the child she is under all her sass and smarts.
This turns out to be the first of a series of books staring the girl detective and I look forward to seeing what Flavia gets into next.
(Finished November 16, 2013)