Reviews - Agatha Christie, The Heroines
Jan. 25th, 2010 01:05 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
wilderthan4:50 from Paddington (Agatha Christie)
Another one in third person, not first person. It could have been even more fun, I think, if it'd been from a character's point of view -- perhaps Lucy's, since I thought she was a fun character, and I rather hope she shows up again in future... Doubtful, but you never know. She was the most interesting part of it, for me, with her cheerfully getting on with things and working hard and doing detective work at the same time. More of her in general would have been nice -- maybe more of her potential romances, too.
The misdirection was quite well done in this one, since I had no idea who it could be -- I suspected everyone by turns, I think. I knew 'whodunnit' from someone else's review, before I got to the end, so I'm not sure I'd say there were adequate clues to figure it out for yourself, though...
The Heroines (Eileen Favorite)
Picked this one up randomly in the Borders closing down sale, because it sounded like the kind of thing I read for fun that isn't great but fills up a couple of hours. I didn't expect wonders out of it, though someone told me it was more literary than I'd expect. I didn't really find it so, though. I found the thirteen year old girl character annoying -- I certainly wasn't all puberty-puberty-puberty-ooh-handsome-man when I was thirteen, so that might have something to do with it, but I didn't find her a compelling character at all.
I like the idea of the Heroines, but not the execution. For example, just to throw in a reference to Emma Bovary, the author info-dumped all about Madame Bovary. I've read it, I don't need a synopsis. I suppose it's an awkward position to write from: some readers will have read some books, some readers will have read other books. Still, it could have been done in a more interesting way than Penny simply recounting the plot as she read the book. Perhaps by actually, you know. Making Emma Bovary more of a character, since that's the title...
Anyway, found it poorly written and it didn't really catch my attention at all. Chick lit with pretensions.
Another one in third person, not first person. It could have been even more fun, I think, if it'd been from a character's point of view -- perhaps Lucy's, since I thought she was a fun character, and I rather hope she shows up again in future... Doubtful, but you never know. She was the most interesting part of it, for me, with her cheerfully getting on with things and working hard and doing detective work at the same time. More of her in general would have been nice -- maybe more of her potential romances, too.
The misdirection was quite well done in this one, since I had no idea who it could be -- I suspected everyone by turns, I think. I knew 'whodunnit' from someone else's review, before I got to the end, so I'm not sure I'd say there were adequate clues to figure it out for yourself, though...
The Heroines (Eileen Favorite)
Picked this one up randomly in the Borders closing down sale, because it sounded like the kind of thing I read for fun that isn't great but fills up a couple of hours. I didn't expect wonders out of it, though someone told me it was more literary than I'd expect. I didn't really find it so, though. I found the thirteen year old girl character annoying -- I certainly wasn't all puberty-puberty-puberty-ooh-handsome-man when I was thirteen, so that might have something to do with it, but I didn't find her a compelling character at all.
I like the idea of the Heroines, but not the execution. For example, just to throw in a reference to Emma Bovary, the author info-dumped all about Madame Bovary. I've read it, I don't need a synopsis. I suppose it's an awkward position to write from: some readers will have read some books, some readers will have read other books. Still, it could have been done in a more interesting way than Penny simply recounting the plot as she read the book. Perhaps by actually, you know. Making Emma Bovary more of a character, since that's the title...
Anyway, found it poorly written and it didn't really catch my attention at all. Chick lit with pretensions.
