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Loading... The Temple House Vanishingby Rachel Donohue
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Sign up for LibraryThing to find out whether you'll like this book. No current Talk conversations about this book. Listened for two hours and it went absolutely nowhere other than setting up a creepy setting. No plot movement for two hours. Nope. ( ) Gothic academia at its finest, this story of angsty teens in the 90s UK, moodily traipsing through the corridors of a decrepit mansion on a cliff by the sea, will scratch all your itches for an eerie and haunting tale. Inappropriate and taboo relationships take centerstage, stern nuns, invisible help, and plenty of mean girls are the supporting characters. Brains and beauties, the clash of the classes, all come together to tell a story of a mysterious disappearance and its consequences. An advanced copy of this book was sent to me by the publisher. The opinions are my own. The ending almost redeemed this book for me, but not enough for me to give a 4 star review. My main issue: Further, why did Helen speak like an adult? What was Helen’s purpose/deal, anyway? Her character didn’t make any sense. What I liked about this story was the somewhat of a revelation/understanding that Louisa reaches about herself and others. The way that she was mistaken, deluded, so very young in her thoughts at the time. This is a very pretty little novel. The language is pretty, the ideas are pretty, the characters are pretty—-I get where the author is/was going with this story, I really do—but it’s missing something. Substance, perhaps. Or maybe it’s just that teenage romance/characters are wearing on me lately. The subject doesn’t seem so compelling or real to me anymore. It's so weird that a book with so many things I like (gothic school mystery!) fell so flat for me. Creepy school scenes were great, but I never connected with the journalist character, never understood why Victoria decided to tell all her closely-guarded secrets, and was ultimately disappointed by the reveal. At the explanation of the mystery, I just felt like "Oh, that was it? But... surely... we all knew that was what had happened? Isn't this going somewhere?" and it was very disappointing. no reviews | add a review
Awards
"The disappearance of a brilliant scholarship student and a young, charismatic teacher from an all-girls Catholic boarding school in Ireland is an unsolved mystery that has captivated the whole country. Year after year the media revisit it, and the conspiracy theories persist. Now, on the twenty-fifth anniversary of the disappearances, a journalist who grew up on the same street as the missing girl delves into the past to write a series of articles and uncover the truth"-- No library descriptions found. |
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Google Books — Loading... GenresMelvil Decimal System (DDC)823.92Literature English English fiction Modern Period 2000-LC ClassificationRatingAverage:
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