Sight for Sore Eyes

Rating:
Summary: Deliciously perverse and creepy
Review: This is the best Ruth Rendell/Barbara Vine novel to come along in years. It ranks with the best of them. The events are improbable but in context seemingly inevitable, the characters are deftly and pitilessly drawn, and the atmosphere compelling yet stifling. Couldn't put it down.

Rating:
Summary: Enjoyable Pychological Thriller
Review: This is the second Ruth Rendell book that I have read and I appreciate her writing ability. She did an excellent job keeping the reader interested in the story. Poor Francine was a young girl who was tramatized by witnessing the murder of her mother. She is sent to a child pychologist to help her regain her ability to speak and to learn to deal with her tragedy. The pychologist becomes her stepmother and is a real piece of work. Much less stable than Francine. Francine grows up and develops a relationship with a man. Unfortunately Teddy has many problems including murdering people and showing no remorse. It was a sad but intense story. I was not able to predict the ending but I loved how it turned out.

Rating:
Summary: A dark psychological thriller
Review: This Ruth Rendell novel could have been published under her "Barbara Vine" name. It portrays, in chilling detail, what happens to a boy who is deprived of love, affection, or even a minimal amount of attention, during his childhood. Rendell masterfully weaves two other plotlines about damaged people with this story and eventually connects all of these sad characters in a chilling conclusion. She's at her best when depicting the frighteningly negative consequences of a childhood in which there is no love.

Rating:
Summary: This is great book
Review: This the first time I have read one of Ruth Rendell's books, but I could not put this book down. I love in the book how Ruth Redell starts talking about three diffrent people's life stories and brings together in this thrilling book. While a young girl had wittness her own mothers death, she would easly forget what had but she has a step-mother that will not let her go out and her own life.She then finds Teddy and she goes out and tries to forget everything. While Teddy had been ignored by his parent when growing up has now found Francine, but Francine does not know about Teddy's dead uncle in the boot of his car.While Teddy is making his own business he meet's Harriot, an aging beauty that is wasting away. Harriot having a singer as boyfriend she was thrown out by and ends getting married to an old man. While he is going she always get her way with men that come to fix things at her house till she meets Teddy. If you are looking for a great book with a lot of suspence that will keep you on your toes, you should go and get this book.

Rating:
Summary: so what's your point?
Review: Usually, to lovers of the psychological thriller a new Ruth Rendell novel is, to borrow from the title of her latest novel, "A Sight for Sore Eyes." This novel contained the air of menace and moral apathy that is characteristic of Rendell's more successful and earlier works. Yet the narrative of the lives of a group of dismal self-obsessed and, ultimately, self-destructive characters does not grip my attention. Her characters don't care about each other and, as a reader, I didn't care what happened to any of them. This novel strikes a false hollow note, just as did her latest Barbara Vine novel, "The Chimney Sweeper's Boy". Read this novel if you're a fan of Rendell's earlier and more "twisted" fiction, but read a library copy. Nothing within its covers is worth the the price.

Rating:
Summary: so what's your point?
Review: Usually, to lovers of the psychological thriller a new Ruth Rendell novel is, to borrow from the title of her latest novel, "A Sight for Sore Eyes." This novel contained the air of menace and moral apathy that is characteristic of Rendell's more successful and earlier works. Yet the narrative of the lives of a group of dismal self-obsessed and, ultimately, self-destructive characters does not grip my attention. Her characters don't care about each other and, as a reader, I didn't care what happened to any of them. This novel strikes a false hollow note, just as did her latest Barbara Vine novel, "The Chimney Sweeper's Boy". Read this novel if you're a fan of Rendell's earlier and more "twisted" fiction, but read a library copy. Nothing within its covers is worth the the price.

Rating:
Summary: An engaging literate mystery
Review: What is refreshing in Ruth Rendell's mysteries is that the whodunnit aspect is sacrificed for a more literate appraisal that makes the reader instead ask why such deeds are done. This book took a great risk in getting the story line going by opting to introduce the reader to three different casts of characters, rather than by sudden death. The result is that when mayhem occurs, and of course it does, the logical consequence of the action is what draws the readers attention to page after page of pitch perfect prose. Cliche, but true: I read the book in only two or three sittings. Loved it.

Rating:
Summary: One of her best
Review: When Francine Hill listened to her mother's murder when just a small child, the shock caused her to become mute. She recovered after extensive therapy from Julia who eventually married Francine's father making her Francine's full time carer, an occupation which turned into an obsessively protective cocoon. Teddy Grez was the product of a completely non-nuturing childhood with his parents and uncle totally ignoring him, with the reult that this handsome young man became excessively slf absorbed and unable to relate to others. When the beautiful Francine met the handsome Teddy, the attraction was instantaneous and, on Teddy's part, all encompassing, with tragic and frightening results. This has been my favourite Ruth Rendell to date with all of her psycopathic characters and their bizarre compulsions terrifying to say the least!

Rating:
Summary: Flawless! Rendell/Vine delivers again!
Review: While other prolific authors like Stephen King find themselves floundering for material in the later stages of their careers, Ruth Rendell/Barbara Vine is one of those rare authors who continues to develop artistically. I am an avid Rendell/Vine fan who has read all of her novels, novellas and short stories, but I must confess that I await each new novel with a mixture of anticipation and dread. I pray for another masterpiece, but worry that Rendell/Vine has run out of tricks. Thankfully, as with The Chimney Sweeper's Boy, I was not disappointed! A Sight for Sore Eyes is one of Rendell's finest novels, combining the psychological insights and stunning conclusions which are this author's trademarks. I read the book in a single sitting, and the final pages left me reeling!!