Rating: 
Summary: Excellent
Review: I'm not very articulate, but I agree with many of the other reviewers that this is one great novel! I've read some marvelous books in the past year, but this one tops them all. Really felt as if I was there.
Rating:
Summary: the best book of the year
Review: absolutly the best book I have read this year. I insisted my 16 year old son read this book, not an easy task, and he was enchanted and did not stop untill he finished. He now wants more!
Rating:
Summary: Marvelous!
Review: Don't let this one pass you by. Superb writing in a narrative form that captivates the reading audience....a talent not shared by many authors. This book was passed on to me and I will make sure someone else has the opportunity to enjoy it. Can't wait for the next book by Ms. Holman.
Rating:
Summary: A masterful, haunting narrative
Review: The book has a rare, marvellous, even poetic style. It is extremely well crafted and constructed literature, and I can't wait for her next book.The author masterfully re-creates England of the early last century, from the extreme poverty to the classist attitudes of the poor--something most period-pieces forget--as well as the rich. We are caught in a world of whores, disease, grave-robbers, and ladies. The author does not judge or euphemize: she simply re-creates and recounts. As a result, every detail of the book takes on a glowing vividness. By far, the best aspect of the book is its narrative. One aspect that pleased me was the author's way of bringing us close to the characters and events and then distancing us at crucial moments, making the events seem hauntingly real. As such, the book has a sort of tension and a feeling of uneasiness that keept me reading anxiously, even in the happiest moments. It is in the book's masterful control of the plot, characters, and even of the reader--particularly in the second-to-last chapter--that you know that you are in the presence of someone who will become a great writer. The Lodger is divided into two halves. In the first, we learn essentially not to judge a book by its cover; in the second, we learn that you cannot change what you are. These themes exist programmatically as well - in the first, the plot lures you into false conceptions about itself and in the second, the plot plays with the idea of a "historical novel" by leading you into several possible outcomes. Thankfully, though the author is aware of narratological and generic aspects, she does not use them as cheap gimmics, nor does she give them full keel. The author seems to know as much about controlling the author as about controlling the plot. The one unpleasant aspect of the book is/are the narrators. Most of the work is written in a simple, third-person narrative, but there are occasional intrusions by first-person-plural narrators. These latter narrators exist in the past as well as in the present and detract from the period-authenticity of the book. These narrators feel free to mix contemporary and modern slang and use British together with American orthography (+neighbour+ and +jail+, respectively). Even when I understood their narratological function, I found they jerked me around too much. Then again, I am an editor and tend to be somewhat anal. There are also a few small things that were left unanswered, for example, did Dr. Clanny recognise Gustine as the body snatcher? On the whole, the book is excellent.
Rating: 
Summary: stylistically striking
Review: This author has a quirky and interesting approach to narrative. A voice, for lack of a better term. The novel is beautifully written on the sentence and the paragraph level. However. Some of the characters slide (reluctantly) into stereotype. The exception to this problem is the dress lodger herself, who manages to elude this fate somehow; I was surprised by her and found her very believable, at the same time. Many of the other characters are finely drawn, but they are characters we've met elsewhere and know too well. The real problem is the fact that the story doesn't climb toward the resolution of the conflict, which are too large and all encompassing. This novel wiggles, it sidesteps, it sighs. There is no tension because there is never any doubt about what will happen, or how it will happen. There are some wonderful touches here -- the miraculous baby, for example -- but they need a plot to hold them up. A story like this needs to spiral up toward such a violent and disturbing climax as the last scene in the doctor's laboratory. In spite of these problems I have given this novel four stars because the narrative voice is so distinctive and interesting, and the quality of the writing and research is so high. The scenes in the pottery factory, for example, are exemplary.
Rating: 
Summary: Promising writer in search of mature editor
Review: The author has talent, as a researcher and, I think, as a writer, but she desperately needs an editor who can help her sculpt her work. The strongest aspect of this novel is the research--although even here some amusing errors slip through (on the situation of Riga, military units and practice, and so on). Yet, we get the fruits of her research unfiltered, just piled on, while a more developed writer would select the pair of telling details that bring a scene to life, rather than listing the twenty that turned up. Good writing requires selectivity; the author laundry lists. Part of the reason, in addition to her clear infatuation with the past, is that the plot is thin as rice paper. The details pad the book to an acceptable length. And the characterizations, which are supposed to startle us, are hackneyed bores: the idealistic-but-disappointed young doctor; the spunky, preyed-upon young prostitute; the doctor's spunky, praying-onward fiancee; the benevolent, crusty-old-doctor uncle; the heartless landlord; the suffering outcast with a deformity. Had the author only glanced around her the last time she lunched out, she might have found far more interesting characters. It's dreadful enough to encounter another "delightful and heroic" prostitute in a book or film, but the beloved baby bit went out early in the last century. As for doctors and prostitutes, read "Of Human Bondage." If cholera entrances you, read Jean Giono's brilliant, macabre "Horseman On The Roof." If all this criticism seems harsh, note that I did give the book three stars. It is still better than much of the dross on the shelves these days, and the author does have talent. But she desperately needs an editor with a drawer full of red pens and a whip. Overall, it is appalling how low the state of editing has been driven by today's it's-only-a-business publishing world and the paucity of literate university graduates interested in becoming editors. The author needs development, not indulgence. If, one day, she can translate her visceral feel for the past into trim, disciplined fiction with living characters, she just might have a classic in her future.
Rating:
Summary: Finely Written
Review: and difficult to put down. Ms. Holman has done her homework and unleashed her considerable talent to open a window upon the bleak lives of the lower classes in England's early Industrial Age. She's an excellent wordsmith.
Rating:
Summary: dostoevsky meets charles dickens
Review: this book was one i couldn't put down. the characters were all well drawn. it demonstrated how the advances of medical science advanced with the exploitation of the underclass. ms. holman did not make all the poor characters(gustine, pink, eye, fos, whilkie,etc) as downtrodden but with hearts of gold; but, with realism. the better off characters drs. chiver&clanny,and audrey(dr.chiver's fiance) are not drawn as wicked and greedy. audrey in particular is shown as well-meaning, good hearted, but, misguided. most of all, what made this book such a good read: for each character you could think, 'this just like so and so at the office is" or "just like my sister". in short you can relate to all the characters.
Rating:
Summary: Mysterious Love
Review: Wonderfully imaginative invocation of a bygone time, with a cast of characters and an atmosphere worthy of Dickens.
Rating:
Summary: ok
Review: may need to read again it is quite interesting
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