The Lace Reader: A Novel
by Brunonia Barry
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Book Reviews of The Lace Reader: A Novel
Book Review: What happened to The Lace Reader?
Summary: 3 Stars
Like many reviewers, I thought The Lace Reader showed great promise but was ultimately disappointing. In the beginning, I settled into a haunting story about Salem witches, psychics, and readers who saw visions in the patterns of lace. I became a friend of Sophya, the lead character who returns home to bury the aunt who raised her. The sea, the islands, the dogs, the tea, the mystics, the calvinists...Brunonia Barry reeled the reader in with great mystery and intrigue. Then something went wrong.
Sophya, called Towner, obsesses over her twin sister who committed suicide. She begins to date Rafferty, the local cop. Rafferty is caught up in the case of a missing girl feared dead. Sophya is haunted by her past love and by her abusive father who leads the crazy religious locals. The middle of the book pulls the reader in a million directions with no hope in sight. Sophya's real mother remains a distant figure and the reader forgets all about Eva, the dead aunt.
A big section of the book is Sophya's childhood, packed full of random days that should have been laced throughout the book rather than all packed into about 30 pages. The author also switches between first person narrative when Sophya was telling the story, and third person narrative when we were looking at Rafferty's actions. While this style is okay, it ultimately made the story disjointed and made it hard for the characters to actually connect.
I wouldn't call it a "sixth sense" type ending like many other reviewers have mentioned, but it's sad that the A-ha! moment happened in the last twenty pages of the book. I indeed felt cheated and felt like I'd wasted too much time and too many pages building up to the lackluster climax.
I really wanted to love this book. If only I could read lace...it would probably tell me not to waste my time on this one.
Book Review: Doesn't Live up to the Hype
Summary: 2 Stars
THE LACE READER is one of the most heavily hyped books of the year, with HarperCollins paying Brunonia Barry a whopping $2.4 million for the rights to this novel and an untitled follow up. I wish I could say this debut lives up to the hype, but it really doesn't.
This novel isn't exactly bad, but it's structured in an awkward manner that makes it difficult to get into. Most notably, very little happens during the first 150 pages of THE LACE READER. A large number of characters are introduced, and their relationships and back stories are revealed in a plodding fashion. Eventually, a mystery plot is introduced, but it quickly takes a backseat to yet even more backstory that relates to the main character, Tower Whitney.
As another reviewer commented, THE LACE READER is filled with blind alleys -- a lot of scenes go nowhere, serving no purpose to the storyline. Barry is also very fond of frequently changing points of view from character to character, as well as jumping back and forth in time. There are also several scenes that may or may not be taking place in the real world. While all of this gives the book a Gothic, dreamlike quality, it also hinders the plot's momentum in a pretty severe fashion.
Everything else about the book is just average. The prose of this novel is acceptable, but in no way remarkable. The characterization approaches the level of caricature in places, especially when it comes to the religious conservatives in this book who serve as the primary villains. The ending is quite a surprise, but is ultimately little more than an unsatisfying gimmick.
Obviously, some people just adore this book, including the publisher that paid big money for it. But in the end, I found THE LACE READER a rather lackluster example of storytelling.
Book Review: Great twist of an ending!
Summary: 4 Stars
Salem, Massachusetts is an unusual town. And the Whitneys are the most unusual family in Salem. Their family roots in Salem go back hundreds of years. They fit right in with the eccentric witches, most of the Whitney women have the ability to sense bits of people's thoughts and see glimpses of the future when they look through a piece of lace.
Towner Whitney is in her early thirties and she has just returned to Salem from her self imposed exile in California because her beloved Great Aunt Eva has disappeared. Towner fled to the west coast fifteen years before, running from the violence and grief that was part of her life as a teenager when she lost her twin sister, Lyndley. She is a damaged soul and Salem is the last place she wants to be. Her memories of her life in Salem are sketchy and she struggles to put the pieces of her childhood together while dealing with people from the past that she is not prepared to see.
Eva was in her eighties but still swam in the ocean every day. When her body is found out in the water it's hard to believe that she drowned on her own. The police suspect her estranged son-in-law, Cal. While married to Emma, Eva's daughter, Cal beat her so badly that Emma was left blind and mentally impaired. Somehow he managed to escape any legal penalty and now he is an Evangelist with a very warped following. Towner's return and Eva's death rip open the past and send everyone concerned reeling.
This is a book about the damage that people do to each other and the incredible lengths that the human soul will go to in order to survive. At times haunting, heartbreaking, mystical and magical, it has an ending that will surprise you and show you the healing power of love.
Book Review: A great story!
Summary: 4 Stars
*pertains to audio version
I had been wanting to read The Lace Reader for so long, that I knew it would be forever before I could get to the book itself, therefore, I opted to listed to the audio version. For me, it is a bit more difficult to get as much from a story listening to it, as opposed to actually reading it. That being said, the beginning of The Lace Reader was a little difficult for me to get into, however I think that was simply because of outside distractions while listening. After the first couple of chapters, I truly felt myself pulled into Towner Whitney's story. I had never before heard of lace reading, but I find the idea to be very intriguing. Also, with the audio version it took me a bit of time to realize that the author refers to snippets directly from The Lace Reader's Guide, written by Towners Aunt Eva. These snippets correlate with the chapters contents and are quite interesting.
The narrator does a marvelous job breathing life into Ms. Barry's characters, including Towner, Eva, Mae, Ann and Jack Rafferty. Between Ms. Barry's writing and Ms. Bresnahan's narrating, The Lace Reader is a true entertaining gem. The reader is easily and quickly drawn into the trauma and torment of Towner. The Lace Reader is a story of the unthinkable, a story of finding your place and finding out who you really are.
When I wasn't listening, I found myself longing to be. The Lace Reader is a very engrossing story, which once it has you in it's grasp will not let go - until long after the story has concluded. I greatly look forward to more by this author and my curiosity about lace reading has been piqued, so perhaps one day I will do a bit more research into this art form.
Book Review: deep Salem thriller
Summary: 4 Stars
She left her hometown of Salem, Massachusetts when she was eighteen years old due to a tragedy she believes she caused. Like all her female relatives Towner Whitney can read the future using lace. However, she vowed never again when her lace reading led to her twin sister Lyndley's death and put her mental well being on the brink of collapse with selective amnesia perhaps keeping her somewhat sane.
Now years away from Salem and the memory of that trauma, Towner returns home because her beloved Great Aunt Eva vanished. Soon afterward the drowned body of the first Lace Reader is found. Towner has no doubts some anti-paranormal fanatic like born again former alcoholic Preacher Cal killed Eva; everyone else assumes she is off her rocker again. Still she plans to learn who murdered her aunt even though it means reading the Lace for the first time since Lyndley died. Ex NYPD Detective turned Salem cop John Rafferty officially investigates the case though he is increasingly convinced an accident happened even as he is attracted to the enigmatic Towner.
THE LACE READER is a fabulous whodunit that cleverly uses differing perspectives of the same events to keep the audience somewhat off-balance, but totally engrossed. The story line is character driven especially by Towner and John, but also by secondary players like Cal and Towner's reclusive mom. Each sees the death through the relative personal bias. Brunonia Barry provides a deep Salem thriller in which readers will keep pondering that truth is in the eyes of the beholder.
Harriet Klausner