Sucked me in from the very first page. This book is so beautiful - I know I'll be thinking about the themes and emotions for a long time. ( )

I found this book highly captivating. It grabbed me and wouldn't let me go. I know I'll be thinking about the themes and emotions it brought to the surface for a long time. It's harsh, slightly tragic, real, scary, beautiful and somewhat erotic all at once. It doesn't seem like a children's book or even a young adult book to me at all though. I was rather surprised by this, given its' publisher imprint and the other books this author has written in the past. It's definitely more a book about young adults but for adults, than a book about young adults for young adults. I think under 18s might be disturbed by some of the imagery and emotions as well as the themes here, though obviously this depends on the individual reader. Some parts of this book don't sit right for me - the excerpts from sketch books/ painting and sculpture descriptions break up the continuity. These also left me confused as to whether the book was trying to be a biography. It's stuck between pretend biography and regular fiction - neither fish nor fowl, as it were. ( )

omment from the Celia Rees website
"Summer, 1976: Life-changing, heartbreaking, unforgettable.
Every year, Richard has taken the same holiday with his parents, in the same part of Wales, meeting up with the same people.
But, this summer, everything is about to change. "

A coming of age novel ....
Not your usual....we have druids, poisonous herbs, the recently inhabited wish house
and a family well beyond bohemian.
Fifteen year old Richard, vacationing in the area is drawn into the mysterious web of the family
and
becomes obsessed with the young daughter Clio.

Family secrets are revealed and the novel often tiptoes on the perimeter of the erotic....

The novel is listed as YA....really??
I can't say I would recommend it to a young person.

It is, however, a fast read and does appear to finally tie together multiple plot strands.
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I've not rated this because it's not something I'd normally read.

http://interactivereader.blogspot.com/2006/12/wishingfor-something-else.html ( )