D H Schleicher
Auteur van The Thief Maker: A Novel
Werken van D H Schleicher
When We Come Back: More Stories 1 exemplaar
And Then We Vanish: Collected Stories 1 exemplaar
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This is a good, enthralling read. There are some glaring weak points, but its strengths make up for that. I won't reiterate the plot. You can read that in the blurb and/or the other reviews!
Okay, always give bad news first. So, here are the "weak" points that I observed:
What didn't work for me:
The typos.
A lot of these were homophones (sound alike, different spelling/meaning), the curse of writers everywhere. There were quite a few, which is why I mention them.
The order of the chapters in the first section.
The first few chapters worked their way backward in time. March 1936. Then a few days earlier. Then 6 months earlier. Then even further back in time, when Evelyn and Joshua met; you could say that the story's conflict began then.
It's an interesting way of beginning a novel, but I'm not entirely certain if it works. Sometimes (as is the case throughout the novel), it becomes difficult to tell when an event is taking place because it is told in a flashback during a scene with no significant action, or, as in the beginning, it's told out of chronological order. My personal preference would be for the action of the first chapter to occur, then the rest of the flashbacks be told in chronological order. As I said, this is a personal preference!
Myra
I liked Myra's character. She seemed vain, weary, intelligent, and conflicted about her relationship with Edison. But she disappears too quickly from the story. After her initial POV chapter in the opening section, she never reappears. I half-expected her to show up at the end. I wanted more of her!
Enough of the negative. Let's move on to the positive!
What I liked:
Deep characterizations
Schleicher delves deep inside his characters. He's not afraid to have unlikable but realistic people in his story. All the characters have a certain darkness that tinges their actions.
Joshua, of course, is the darkest of them all.
Evelyn is another dark, well-developed character. Prone to epileptic fits, she requires constant need of medical attention and watches her ambitions erode from her medical issues and her ne'er do well husband. Schleicher does a good job picking apart her complicated emotions when she sees her teenage son fall in love with the much-older Myra; he does an equally good job showing the reasons for her infidelity while neither condemning nor excusing her behavior.
But even the vile characters have good aspects. Joshua has a small (as in, minuscule!) moment of quasi-redemption at the end. It's a bit strange to see him spare someone's life. But he does. (Though he also beats his victim unconscious for good measure.)
The portrayal of children
I've observed that most fiction writers aiming for an adult target audience do not know how to handle children in a story. The kids are
Usually the kids seem like an afterthought: not fully developed and only used to increase the stakes in the adult conflict. Even writers who HAVE children/teens don't necessarily portray them accurately. (I struggle with this issue myself.)
Schleicher excels at portraying children. His child characters are just as developed as his adult ones. They have strong points and weak points, fears and goals and desires, just like the adult characters. And their goals are sometimes at odds with the adults' goals. They can even do horrible, evil things.
Gasp!
Shocking, I know. But how many times have you read a book where the kid represents Innocence and Light and is the Undeserving Victim of XYZ Horrible Crime?
All the children (Sally, Tyrus, and Tyrus' young friend, Mostlee) have their dark sides: lying, keeping secrets that shouldn't be secrets, issues with authority. Common problems with this age group, really. But the things they lie about, the secrets they keep, are weighty problems that no child should have to deal with. They also observe the adults around them but don't understand their observations. They don't know how much they know!
This dichotomy of world-weary wisdom and childish innocence makes them believable as children and as characters.
Tyrus is my favorite. He's a "child full of secrets" who has to handle things no child should have to handle. He has a big heart. But as his sister Sally worries,
What's true for Tyrus seems true for most of the characters in this book: there's the potential for darkness to overtake the good inside them.
The atmosphere
There's a great sense of dread threading its way throughout the novel. It's as if some horrible, nameless darkness, represented by Joshua, is coming and catching up to all of them. There is violence but Schleicher wisely uses a matter-of-fact tone and understated words to describe murder. Thankfully, certain things--sexual violence, for example--are left off the page.
The strong points of this novel outweigh the weak points. It's a good novel, well worth reading.… (meer)
Okay, always give bad news first. So, here are the "weak" points that I observed:
What didn't work for me:
The typos.
A lot of these were homophones (sound alike, different spelling/meaning), the curse of writers everywhere. There were quite a few, which is why I mention them.
The order of the chapters in the first section.
The first few chapters worked their way backward in time. March 1936. Then a few days earlier. Then 6 months earlier. Then even further back in time, when Evelyn and Joshua met; you could say that the story's conflict began then.
It's an interesting way of beginning a novel, but I'm not entirely certain if it works. Sometimes (as is the case throughout the novel), it becomes difficult to tell when an event is taking place because it is told in a flashback during a scene with no significant action, or, as in the beginning, it's told out of chronological order. My personal preference would be for the action of the first chapter to occur, then the rest of the flashbacks be told in chronological order. As I said, this is a personal preference!
Myra
I liked Myra's character. She seemed vain, weary, intelligent, and conflicted about her relationship with Edison. But she disappears too quickly from the story. After her initial POV chapter in the opening section, she never reappears. I half-expected her to show up at the end. I wanted more of her!
Enough of the negative. Let's move on to the positive!
What I liked:
Deep characterizations
Schleicher delves deep inside his characters. He's not afraid to have unlikable but realistic people in his story. All the characters have a certain darkness that tinges their actions.
Joshua, of course, is the darkest of them all.
Evelyn is another dark, well-developed character. Prone to epileptic fits, she requires constant need of medical attention and watches her ambitions erode from her medical issues and her ne'er do well husband. Schleicher does a good job picking apart her complicated emotions when she sees her teenage son fall in love with the much-older Myra; he does an equally good job showing the reasons for her infidelity while neither condemning nor excusing her behavior.
But even the vile characters have good aspects. Joshua has a small (as in, minuscule!) moment of quasi-redemption at the end. It's a bit strange to see him spare someone's life. But he does. (Though he also beats his victim unconscious for good measure.)
The portrayal of children
I've observed that most fiction writers aiming for an adult target audience do not know how to handle children in a story. The kids are
1. too good (only showing up when it's convenient for the adults),
2. too precocious (using language and reacting like people much older than themselves, geniuses, prodigies, etc.), or
3. too irritating (too cutesy, too funny, providing comic relief).
Usually the kids seem like an afterthought: not fully developed and only used to increase the stakes in the adult conflict. Even writers who HAVE children/teens don't necessarily portray them accurately. (I struggle with this issue myself.)
Schleicher excels at portraying children. His child characters are just as developed as his adult ones. They have strong points and weak points, fears and goals and desires, just like the adult characters. And their goals are sometimes at odds with the adults' goals. They can even do horrible, evil things.
Gasp!
Shocking, I know. But how many times have you read a book where the kid represents Innocence and Light and is the Undeserving Victim of XYZ Horrible Crime?
All the children (Sally, Tyrus, and Tyrus' young friend, Mostlee) have their dark sides: lying, keeping secrets that shouldn't be secrets, issues with authority. Common problems with this age group, really. But the things they lie about, the secrets they keep, are weighty problems that no child should have to deal with. They also observe the adults around them but don't understand their observations. They don't know how much they know!
This dichotomy of world-weary wisdom and childish innocence makes them believable as children and as characters.
Tyrus is my favorite. He's a "child full of secrets" who has to handle things no child should have to handle. He has a big heart. But as his sister Sally worries,
"that her little brother's heart was so big, there was a danger of darkness taking refuge inside of it, and then his heart would turn black and devour everything" (pg. 58).
What's true for Tyrus seems true for most of the characters in this book: there's the potential for darkness to overtake the good inside them.
The atmosphere
There's a great sense of dread threading its way throughout the novel. It's as if some horrible, nameless darkness, represented by Joshua, is coming and catching up to all of them. There is violence but Schleicher wisely uses a matter-of-fact tone and understated words to describe murder. Thankfully, certain things--sexual violence, for example--are left off the page.
The strong points of this novel outweigh the weak points. It's a good novel, well worth reading.… (meer)
Prijzen
Statistieken
- Werken
- 4
- Leden
- 10
- Populariteit
- #908,816
- Waardering
- 4.3
- Besprekingen
- 2
- ISBNs
- 2
You can read my full review here: rel="nofollow" target="_top">https://laurasbooksandblogs.com/then-came-darkness-book-review/… (meer)