Strange book. Felt as if the author suddenly wanted it to end. Good suspense most of the book and was a nice detour from the non-fiction I have reading the past year and half while in college! ( )

** Spoilers **

Not what I was expecting. And um? What was the point of that? Oh, by the way, evreyone dies. The end. ( )

This is not a book you can race through to get onto your next book. It demands to be read slowly. This book was mentioned by Nancy Pearl in one of her monthly book recommendations.. I got about a fourth of the way into The Thin Place and was lost. There are many characters and plots (including animal characters and plots). Also some switiching back and forth in time... I couldn't keep track of these and the story made no sense. Therefore, I resorted to a technique I use to read turn -of- the- century (1900) novels. A pen and notebook and a dictionary to start. Go back. Start at the beginning. Write down all the characters, how they are related to each other and to the plot. After doing this, the story makes sense, I was able to keep track of who did what and could continue. It is a beautifully written book. One of those books where you will read a sentence and you just need to stop and take it in and enjoy it.... Take time for this book. You will still have moments where you are lost; why did she write this book, what does she have to say... But think about it, discuss it. There is much more to this story than meets the reader's eye....

This book was given to me by bumma a Christmas or two ago and I somehow avoided taking it off the shelf until recently. Having said that, I believe it has taken me longer than any book in recent memory to finish. Normally, I'm a magical realism kind of girl, but somehow I never found the flow of this book. Rather than stand as a story, the vignettes did not hold together for me. Perhaps it was because I would set the book down with one character and when I picked it up again, I was with someone totally different.

Thin places, particularly in Celtic Britain and Ireland, are spots where the veil between this world and the other world is thin -- spots where we can sense the existence of a world beyond what we know, where we can almost reach out to touch the Other World, but it remains just beyond our fingertips. And perhaps I was just too far away from the perfect spot to appreciate this book completely at this time in my life. It reminded me of Bergman's "The SEventh Seal", but that may just have been because of the cover of my particular edition.

On to the book--I won't try and describe the story, as it's just a bit to disjointed in my mind to relay. But it is set in a New England town and covers everything from the here and now, the yet to come and even a past tragedy in the 1800's. It is told from the perspectives of schoolgirls, dogs, octogenarians, pastors, parents, police reports and even at one point, a beaver. I've read reviews that focus on the opening event, three girls find a man's body on the beach. Two go off for help, and the third somehow finds the power to revive him. The whole book does seem to focus on spots between life and death, which may indeed be thin places. The prose was wonderful, if somewhat unconventional. I just think I need to digest it more before rating it or sending it off into the world. ( )

I liked the leisurely, wandering feel to the narrative, the characters and the way she handled the fantastic aspects of the story. If you're a fan of Latin American Magical Realism or its North American Metaphysical cousins, you might find "The Thin Place" to be a bit slow and well, spare with the magic. This is not a typical fantasy that builds from the ordinary gone awry to a magical resolution that completely changes how the world looks to everyone in it. Varennes is magical the way all communities are magical when you slow down and really look at them. The actual supernatural elements end up being far less important than the day to day details in the lives of her characters. They are incidental at best and the changes are so subtle that only the characters who feel those kinds of minute changes will notice. ( )