[.ca] Grange House: A Novel (ISBN 0312280041)

an enchanting, haunting read:
this is an awesome novel. i am not normally a reader of books in the gothic style (i usually stick to mysteries and hard boiled fiction), but this book clearly hooked me. it was evocative, powerful, totally gripping. the story was compelling and the writing was both sharp and beautiful. i know it's a cliche, but i think i would recognize grange house immediately if i happened upon it. very highly recommended - enjoy!

Surprisingly Great!:
When I saw the cover of this book I thought it was just another one of those old time books that almost puts you to sleep but it wasn't like that at all! It's a great story about a girl trying to help an old woman finish her story while starting one of her very own. In the process she finds out who she really is. Its a deeply touching and at times eerie mystery story that I would recommend for everyone to read!

Not as good as I had hoped or expected:
I was excited to read this book, based on reviews I had read here and elsewhere. Although I enjoyed the first half, I started to get bored with the ethereal language and obscurity of the main diary section. By the time the book resurfaced in present-day 1897, I was ready for some explanations and conclusions. Instead, Maisie's voice morphed into that of Nell Grange's diary--cloudy and self-absorbed. Certainly it was the author's intention to have the diary affect Maisie in this way, but I found it tedious. It took Maisie a lot longer to figure out the reality of who was who in the diary than it did me as a reader (save one twist); yet other mysteries remained unsolved (like why the couple at the beginning of the book died). By the end, I was reading just to get to the end, which was taking a lot longer than I wanted it to--not how I usually finish a book, not being able to put it down. Maybe I just don't appreciate Victorian gothic literature, but I remember enjoyed Jane Eyre.

Disappointing Gothic Tale:
This is a beautifully written book. In many ways Brontean. However, the ultimate "secret" of the book was rather disappointing and altogether obvious, and the writer took oh so long to get to the rather tame conclusion, although she did it with great evocative power. As a literary work on the roles played by women at the dawn of the last century, it speaks quite clearly on the repression of women's creativity and subservience to the male establishment. However, for genuine storytelling in this genre, read the truly repressed women who were writing in the Victorian Age--the Brontes, Mrs. Henry Wood, George Eliot, et al.

An eerie coming of age novel with fun plot surprises....:
I picked up this novel to read during October, feeling in the mood for a little ghost tale. I didn't expect the fun bit of romance, the touching family story line, and good plot developement. While I was hoping for a good ghost story, this isn't exactly that. It has 'ghosts' and other strange things which Maisie is 'gifted' enough to see, but it is not exactly scary. If you know this going in to it, you will make a better choice. Like I said earlier, it is touched with romance, eerie plot routes, sad deaths, and family issues as well, so it is much more then a simple 'spooky novel'. Sarah Blake studied victorian literature, and to me this is the strong point of the book. Her writing is true to a style long forgotten, and she does it well. She takes you to the grange house, to the graveyard and hillsides, and weaves her story in a beautiful way. If you enjoy classic books this one is a modern version that will not let you down. If you like those coming of age tales where a young woman looks for love but really finds herself, with a twist of a haunting tale, this will be a great journey for you.