There was much to enjoy here, but I found I couldn't connect with it. I'd read more from this author in the future though.

(I received a free copy of this book from Net Galley in exchange for an honest review.)

"When I was eighteen, my father fell off a cliff. It was a stupid way to die."
John Venton's drunken fall from a Devon cliff leaves his family with an embarrassing ghost. His twin children, Morwenna and Corwin, flee in separate directions to take up their adult lives. Their mother, enraged by years of unhappy marriage, embraces merry widowhood. Only their grandfather finds solace in the crumbling family house, endlessly painting their story onto a large canvas map. His brightly coloured map, with its tiny pictures of shipwrecks, forgotten houses, saints and devils, is a work of his imagination, a collection of local myths and histo­ries. But it holds a secret. As the twins are drawn grudgingly back to the house, they discover that their father's absence is part of the map's mysterious pull.

*2.5 stars*

I don't mind character-driven stories. Some of my favourite novels are. But I also like a plot as well. And this didn't seem to get the balance right for me.

This story is part family drama, part mystery, part coming of age. The blurb tells you about what happens so I won't go over that, so I will just cover my feelings for this novel.

Firstly, the family drama - lots of characters inhabit this novel, none more than twins Morwenna and Corwin and grandfather Matthew. While I think grandpa Matthew was by far the most likeable character, I can't say the same thing for the twins. I just did not get any feeling for them (does loathing count?) and Morwenna is particularly horrid.
Then the mystery of their father's death. By the end, I really didn't care. The story took so long to get anywhere, I was kinda hoping he had been pushed...
And the plot? Was really a snooze-fest. For a book f just over 250 pages, it felt more like 2500. Nothing happens for the longest periods of time and then some supposed revelation opens up the next period of boredom.

The one shining light, for me, is that the author really does know how to put one word after another, one sentence after another (and so on...) Lots of beauty and lyricism in the writing, so much so that it dragged the rating up to three stars. But that's about it...

I can see why people who love character-driven stories, family drama novels, would like this. I just think it failed to deliver for me.


Paul
ARH

I liked this book a lot!! If you're a fan of magic realism, you will enjoy it, too.