Possible spoilers ahead
I had high hopes for this book, which sounded full of secrets and scandals, but I was very disappointed.
Ada lost her father at thirteen, and lost the ancestral home of his family after her mother sells up to move to London. Ada loved her father, and loved the home in Wales and wants to be back to that privileged life. She sees the art history trip around Italy as a way to get back into that lifestyle. But there isn’t any depth to the character. She wants to be rich and privileged, but that’s all Ada seems to be. She isn’t likeable and as a reader I didn’t feel sorry for her at all. There also isn’t any character development. She goes on the trip at eighteen, and even though the book covers a span of a decade, Ada is still the same person at the end as she was at the beginning.
The other characters are similarly lacking in development, and most come across as typical entitled wealthy characters, who look down on anybody without money. I also didn’t like the way the author described some of them. One character was described as effeminate and camp, and this was shown as creepy. He wasn’t a gay character, but those characteristics being described as unlikable didn’t sit well with me. Neither did the way the Jewish character was portrayed. Ada criticises her for playing the minority card, and a Jewish memorial service was seen as theatre. Personally it irritated me, as someone born in Newcastle, that both the working class (or “common as muck”) characters had Geordie accents.
The story itself starts slow, and doesn’t pick its pace up until the second half. There is a lot of art and history phrases in the first half that seemed to require a previous knowledge to understand as they weren’t always explained. I felt there action was often told rather than shown as the story jumps around the trip and into the future. The ending was unexpected but was more played for shock value than anything else, so it didn’t leave me feeling satisfied.
I wanted to like this book, but it wasn’t for me. It did improve in the second half, but not enough due to its lack of substance or development. I don’t DNF books, but I’m afraid I came close with this one.
I had high hopes for this book, which sounded full of secrets and scandals, but I was very disappointed.
Ada lost her father at thirteen, and lost the ancestral home of his family after her mother sells up to move to London. Ada loved her father, and loved the home in Wales and wants to be back to that privileged life. She sees the art history trip around Italy as a way to get back into that lifestyle. But there isn’t any depth to the character. She wants to be rich and privileged, but that’s all Ada seems to be. She isn’t likeable and as a reader I didn’t feel sorry for her at all. There also isn’t any character development. She goes on the trip at eighteen, and even though the book covers a span of a decade, Ada is still the same person at the end as she was at the beginning.
The other characters are similarly lacking in development, and most come across as typical entitled wealthy characters, who look down on anybody without money. I also didn’t like the way the author described some of them. One character was described as effeminate and camp, and this was shown as creepy. He wasn’t a gay character, but those characteristics being described as unlikable didn’t sit well with me. Neither did the way the Jewish character was portrayed. Ada criticises her for playing the minority card, and a Jewish memorial service was seen as theatre. Personally it irritated me, as someone born in Newcastle, that both the working class (or “common as muck”) characters had Geordie accents.
The story itself starts slow, and doesn’t pick its pace up until the second half. There is a lot of art and history phrases in the first half that seemed to require a previous knowledge to understand as they weren’t always explained. I felt there action was often told rather than shown as the story jumps around the trip and into the future. The ending was unexpected but was more played for shock value than anything else, so it didn’t leave me feeling satisfied.
I wanted to like this book, but it wasn’t for me. It did improve in the second half, but not enough due to its lack of substance or development. I don’t DNF books, but I’m afraid I came close with this one.