EDW

Delightful

Revisado: 11-03-23

The initially clueless, heavily accented main character proves resilient in the face of daunting set-backs in his hopes for America. His accent slowly becomes better as he studies English, while persisting in finding friends and, eventually, becoming a welcome member of his American family. I couldn't put it down, it was such a pleasure to engage with the characters. Well written and well narrated.

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Beyond disappointing

Revisado: 10-26-23

I kept hoping a plot might emerge. Alas, that was not to be. instead the book jumps around in the memories of the first-person narrator, who is determined to put the most negative possible spin on everyone she has ever known while preening about her 'skepticism.' Perhaps we are supposed to be impressed by her observations about the lack of women's rights, rampant poverty in London, and the involvement of the British in slavery and its after effects - but beyond pontificating the narrator really can't be bothered to do more than observe and complain.

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Great Coming of Age Story

Revisado: 06-17-23

The main character makes mistakes and receives lots of hard knocks, but she keeps surprising the reader by coming around with responses of love and compassion. I loved the narration.

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Truly Distressing

Revisado: 05-08-23

We start with a child's magical memories of family life in a primitive fishing village. The child grows up to be a monster who betrays family and friends instead of helping them adjust to the changing world. I don't understand why this is being lauded as a compelling coming of age story. On top of the difficult story the narrator (who is perfectly capable of communicating clearly based on other books narrated) adopted a strange slurred accent that was very difficult to follow. I wouldn't have stuck with the book if it hadn't been about such an interesting historical time and place.

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Egregious sadism

Revisado: 03-14-23

This author has an amazing ability to depict characters who I begin to care about. In this book they are tormented as much as the victims of the antagonist. I hope I can be self disciplined enough not to try any future volumes in the hopes that any of the good characters might find a path to a better future. There is too much egregious sadism in this book - both by the antagonist and by the author.

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Dancing between mystisim and pragmatism

Revisado: 03-10-23

This series has always left us wondering about Longmire's mystic experiences and where the line for pragmatic explanation left off. I enjoyed every bit of this book - the historical portrayal of the horrors of the old Indian boarding schools was superb and the heroic rescue in the fire is classic Longmire. The plot kept me engaged as it wound through different levels of Longmire making sense of his environment and the twist at the end is perfect. Guidall as always is incomparably great.

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Navel Gazing

Revisado: 02-06-23

I really wanted to engage with this series, but the investment in the first 1/2 of a book that is unending first-person navel gazing from largely unlikable characters is too much. The sprinkling of 'witty' asides in the first person thought streams is especially annoying. After the 1st half, a plot does emerge but there's too much coincidence and bizarre choices by the main character to carry the plot.

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Totally fresh and unexpected

Revisado: 10-02-22

It's so nice to see a mature presentation of how mystical characters from our cultural history might deal with having to integrate into the immigration mix pot of New York the early 20th century. Well plotted with good character development.

I loved the historical contexts that set up the background stories of the two main characters.

George Guidall remains my favorite narrator

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Victorian Vapors

Revisado: 10-02-22

Whew - 16 hours of emotional, irrational palpitations from the main character. I stuck with it in the expectation that such bizarre introspection was a signal that the heroine was unhinged by having committed the crime, and I was curious to see how the plot would evolve. Spoiler alert: I was wrong. Final plot evolution in the last hour was interesting, but not worth the preceding slog.

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Too much rage

Revisado: 03-20-21

I've read all in this series and am afraid this will be the last. Increasing these book have plot lines driven by characters acting out of immediate emotional reactions (often unfiltered rage) - over-riding the most basic logic. Unfortunately the loss of logic or even common sense seems to have overtaken the protagonist as well.

It's too bad because the pantheon of characters in these books is great and some of the side stories are wonderful. But the over-riding ugliness of the most recent books is just corrosive.

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