Dr Sophie Henshaw

Super creepy

Revisado: 02-15-25

Brilliant. Very creepy and suspenseful keeps you guessing right until the end. Very well written and highly entertaining. Highly recommended

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A fascinating story that holds interest throughout

Revisado: 08-24-24

Catherine Steadman is fast becoming one of my absolute favourite authors and I await each of her books with eager anticipation. I love the way she paints her characters, scenes and stories in such a way that they vividly come to life. This gripped me until the end and I had no idea which way the story would turn. It’s a scary scenario and it leaves an opening at the end, perhaps with the possibility of a sequel. Can’t recommend highly enough.

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Boring, superficial, depressing, standard dystopian novel

Revisado: 01-22-24

Highly recommended if you want to feel bored and depressed. I read this as a book club pick so it wasn’t what I would normally read and enjoy. The characters were all superficial and as for the story line, think COVID, tRump and conspiracy theories and you’re in the ballpark.

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Really good - you can't go wrong with this one

Revisado: 12-30-23

This is a really good, interesting and entertaining book. The author impressed me with her understanding of the psychology of her characters, which made me think she's probably studied psychology. She certainly understands her characters' motivations and has a sophisticated grasp of human behaviour. This is really well written and held my attention all the way. So much so that I'm checking out her other books and will be following her writing career more closely.

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So utterly, tediously dull

Revisado: 12-30-23

Really just don't bother with this one. Too many characters hit you all at once at the beginning, none of them likeable and hard to keep up. There's a lack of clarity about the setting, which means it doesn't come to life. Sadly, the author has a case of snobbish English attitude, which has no real place in literature because it's so dull. Move past this one and go for something more worthy of your time. I returned this after two goes at listening, starting from the beginning again and not managing to get past the first 50 minutes.

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Wonderful, warm, thrilling

Revisado: 01-17-23

One of the best biographies I’ve ever read, Harry comes across as hugely emphatic and kind, just like his mum. Don’t believe the rubbish you read in the press, it’s nothing but vile lies. This account will stand the test of time and I hope to witness Harry and his family move on to bigger and better things over time.

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Tedious, unethical, weird

Revisado: 12-02-22

I normally love Ian McEwan's books, but in this one he got the balance wrong. He got carried away with his prose, with his research and neglected the story. For much of the book I had no idea where he was going with all of it, but wished he would hurry up about it. I really wanted something to happen - but not enough did, given the length of the novel.

Having just read his new book, "Lessons" and enjoyed it, I was dismayed to find yet more historical background - this time Sadam Hussein's purported weapons of mass destruction and the imminent tipping into the Iraq war. It went on and on.

Early on in the book, I thought the neurosurgeon, Henry Perowne, might have been having a 'neurological event' of his own because he seemed out of sorts and "glided" across his bedroom floor to look out the window. Was he losing consciousness? Having a near death experience? No such luck - just a lot of tedious navel gazing.

A mildly interesting piece is when Daisy reads out one of 'her' poems during the family siege at the hands of the psychopathic and neurologically impaired Baxter. Her grandfather, Gramaticus suggests the poem for her to read that will transform the situation. But is it her poem, or is it one by another poet that he made her learn off by heart as a child? It appears to have been chosen because the old man intuited the right poem for the situation - or did he? That part is not really clear.

Another discordant note is the fact that Perowne eventually operates on the tediously aggressive Baxter's brain after he threatened his and his family's life. I found this at odds with his portrayal as an upstanding neurosurgeon, as in real life it would be a violation of a health professional's ethical guidelines to operate on a person with whom he has such a strong emotional entanglement. If the patient complained to the regulator (he's so disagreeable, he would be likely do so), he would most certainly be struck off the register.

Anyway, overall I'd say, go for another one of McEwan's better works.

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Well written, unusual but waaaay too long

Revisado: 05-19-22

I certainly learned some interesting facts reading this but some passages were totally boring and unnecessary making it waaay longer than it needed to be. For example, we learn all about a new character, Rosalind, about 2-3 hours before the end and I really didn’t care about where she went to school or what she thought about her home. Had to fast forward that part. Towards the end I couldn’t wait for it to finish.

Such a shame because the writing was excellent and the subject matter unusual and interesting.

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Full of ghastly men and sheep

Revisado: 03-26-22

This is the story of a singularly uninteresting woman who has not much better to do than caw in nonsense bird-speak and repeat that the human eye notices movement above all else as though these were profound utterances.

The story chops and changes between indeterminate locations in Australia and Britain without much clarity about where you are in any given chapter. It’s chockablock full of useless and unimportant detail and short on important information that would move the story along. She smokes “holidays” and has unpleasant sex, but so what? She has a man’s name and one of the men has a woman’s name, just to confuse you even more.

I found it a frustrating read and had I known what I was in for, I would never have bought this title. Do yourself a favour and give this one a miss. Awful and forgettable in equal measure.

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Intriguing but at times goes off on less interesting tangents

Revisado: 10-30-21

Paul Auster is a masterful story teller and this trilogy takes you on twists and turns that leave you wondering what it’s all about long after finishing the books.

The narrator does a wonderful job and has just the right tone. Throughout each of the parts, there are themes that mirror each other and you’re never sure what it all means or where it all leads. This trilogy would be brilliant for a book club that you could have endless in depth conversations any.

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