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AnneBrooke

Anne Brooke: fiction writer

Contemporary gay romance and fantasy writer. Also loves flowers and bakes the occasional cake. Sometimes they're edible ...

The Silver Dark Sea by Susan Fletcher (literary fiction)

The Silver Dark Sea - Susan Fletcher

This is extremely poetical indeed - to the point that the story and any deep engagement with character is sadly lost. It's also very difficult - and sometimes dull -  to read, and needed a great deal of editing and slimming down, which would have helped to increase the power.

 

That's not to say it's not beautifully written - as it absolutely and most definitely is. But it's so beautifully written that anything else is very hard to dig out, I'm sorry to say. It also - as I've said above - tends to dullness and so I was skimming for 60% of the time.

 

There are however some very beautiful (there's that word again!) and also poignant vignettes, but the story itself is of course very cliched and sometimes basic. In many ways, it's like an opera - the music is amazing, but please don't concern yourself with the plot, my dears, as it's ultimately laughable. Oh well. I just wanted the characters to stop emoting and declaiming all over the place and just show a little backbone and get on with their lives. Perhaps it's a lesson to us all not to live on an island. Still, I have to say it - the poetry is beautiful.