Grange House

Rating:
Summary: Jane Eyre with a more modern sensibility
Review: I have loved reading this book, which was recommended to me by the staff of an excellent, erudite and selective bookstore in DC. The story is intriguing without being overdone (a concern with gothic fiction) and is extraordinarily well written. There's a touch of Henry James to the story.

Something not mentioned by other readers: Grange House is one of the few books I've read in years that have given me such vivid imagery that I truly savored reading each passage slowly. This isn't just a Victorian-style thriller; there are several social and interpersonal issues brought out concerning women, marriage, social status, tradition, and family as well. You care what decisions the narrator makes.

Rating:
Summary: haunting story
Review: I initially picked this book up because it was written by the wife of one of my professors. However, I was happy to find that it was very skillfully written and researched. Also, it is a fascinating, sometimes spooky, sometimes heart-wrenching, and sometimes romantic tale of families, ghosts (of the mental and chain-clanking kind), growing up, and love. Be warned: there are a lot of names and information in this book, and some of them are little tidbits that sort of dwindle into nothing as the book goes on. And some are brought up randomly so you have to leaf back to find the connection. But overall, a great read.

Rating:
Summary: An eerie coming of age novel with fun plot surprises....
Review: 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.

Rating:
Summary: An eerie coming of age novel with fun plot surprises....
Review: 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.

Rating:
Summary: Hard to get into, but once in, you're IN
Review: I read this on a friend's recommendation, and the first chapter came across as so contrived and precious, that it was difficult to get into. Sentences like: "Rather, you must take the night steamer from Boston, which deposits you at the Grange House pier before teatime." Or: "And though I watch for it, I am never prepared for the first sight of Grange House on its point, though I know the approach, and early learned to read where the slick black shale ledges of the shoreline turn to the white granite boulders marking the entrance to Middle Haven's harbor."

Having read the whole novel, I now think that if only she'd just left off the first 3 paragraphs, the whole book could have gone a lot better. Oh well. The fact is, because of the strength of this friend's recommendation I gave the book another chance and by the third chapter was totally wrapped up in the gentle yet mysterious world of Grange House. So much, in fact, that I resented getting to my subway stop each morning and having to come back to the real world! I finally got so frustrated that I just took a few hours off and finished the darn thing!

About all I feel safe telling you without giving away the story, is that the author weaves a gentle and mysterious story following a teenage girl who finds herself on an investigation of the lives lived in Grange House. It has elements of each of the Bronte novels, with a sprinkling of E.M. Forster. The author drew me in so far that as she lets us in on delightfully intimate Victorian letters and diaries of the characters, I felt guilty for infringing on their privacy! If you can ride out the precious language for a bit, and forgive the attempts to be original that produce a sentence like: "...for Mama's fear of the fog would dampen the spirit of the voyage, and Papa's cheery dismissal of that fear would only clamp shut her lips," the sensual and mysterious atmosphere will seduce you. If this is your kind of thing I highly recommend this book.

Rating:
Summary: Disappointing Gothic Tale
Review: 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.

Rating:
Summary: Very best of vivid descriptions!
Review: Sarah Blake created a winner with Grange House. A modern writer writes a book so full of vivid Victorian scenes, and the language of the past. There are suprises around every corner, and you will be delighted by the weaving and twisting plot.

What kept me from giving the book 5 stars was that it introduces views from a couple of different characters, and their stories start abruptly in the middle of the book, maybe confusing what character is narrating, at the time.

Rating:
Summary: an enchanting, haunting read
Review: 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!

Rating:
Summary: Surprisingly Great!
Review: 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!

Rating:
Summary: (3.5) Plot-driven Victo-Goth....
Review: When I saw the title and read a few pages, I fell right into this novel, attracted to the eccentricities of the Victorian era. GRANGE HOUSE begins as a summer adventure, an annual family vacation to the coast of Maine. But tragedy looms, as two young lovers drown on the first day of the visit, and Maisie Thomas sees one of them as a ghost. Miss Thomas is only 17, impressionable and naïve, her innocent world circumscribed by her parents. Her sympathies and curiosity lie with the reclusive owner of Grange House, the spinster Nell Grange. Every summer, Maisie anticipates the hours spent with Miss Grange, her aura of secrecy and lost romance. There is a secret, of course, and a necessity for Maisie to uncover her role in the story. That same summer, when we first meet Maisie, a tragic accident changes everything. From that point on, the story unfolds with all its attendant complications. Returning to Grange House the following summer, Maisie experiences a sense of purpose. She feels connected to the Grange family history, determined to understand its mysteries.

In a very subtle manner, GRANGE HOUSE makes a feminist statement, defining the limited opportunities for Victorian women, forever in the shadow of their husbands. Even after the death of a husband, a woman is referred to as "Widow _____". Victorian social conventions are structured to control the behavior of young, single women, if not the male counterparts.

The writing is perfect Victoriana: ornate descriptions, shadowed rooms, lonely wind-swept graves, boat accidents, a dilapidated quarry. And there is romance, complete with complications, as Maisie is torn between two suitors. In fact, there are so many issues needing resolution, that they all tumble together, crashing together at the end. By then, so few pages remain, it is impossible to adequately complete the story line. Once the action really starts, almost halfway through the book, it snowballs, gathering momentum and characters along the way. The Gothic element is often forced, and far too many bodies litter the pages, leaving Grange House in need of a boat full of new guests to fill the empty rooms. However, for a first novel, this author has done a beautiful job with language and atmosphere.