Sheri HolmanRecensioni

This book is written as a diary by a young Sondok, soon to be first Queen of Silla Korea, A.D. 595. Even though Sondok is heir to the throne, her father the King of Silla kingdom disapproves of her study of astronomy, believing that such academic endeavors are not suitable for females. Sondok struggles with this personally, as well as with the discordances between the Buddhist beliefs of her kingdom, the Shamanistic practices of the older generations, and the growing Confucian influence from her kingdom's "Older Brother China."

While this historical figure and period of pre-unified Korea was fascinating to read about, there was something about the voice and language weaved into Sondok's narrative that I had difficulty believing as very realistic. Also, I couldn't help but feel that Sondok had decidedly Western point-of-view of her world even though she was supposed to be a young Buddhist Korean girl. Still, it did feel like the author gave it her best effort and intent to share the culture and perspectives of Silla Korea.

Looking for more information on Sondok, had a list of resources in the back. Written in diary format.

A very drawn out and complicated mystery with little pay off. I left feeling a little cheated.

2.5 hours into the audiobook and I have yet to encounter anything resembling a plot. It's a very strange narrative voice that I'm sure was aiming for quirky, but it felt a lot like the experience of an ADHD train of thought in narrative form. The omniscient narrator would enter a room, proceed to hone in on a particular person or detail, get sidetracked into a different time and/or space describing the history of the character or historical relevance of an object, eventually return to the room, and then do the same thing with every single character/object in the scene. O_O I guess this book is good if you're interested in that kind of aimless historical detail.

I loved the subject matter of this story, but the tense changes were frequently confusing. I get that some of that may have been intentional so as to add to the disjointedness of connecting prostitution, cholera epidemics, and grave-robbing, but it still made the flow of the story a little tricky. I found the plot itself fascinating though, and found myself conflicted on who to root for, if anyone. Overall, it was an intriguing historical read!

Sheri Holman is an astonishing writer, and this is the first of her novels that I'd read. Part Dickens in its depiction of lives of poverty and social injustice, part Bram Stoker in its gothicness at times. Holman creates unique and memorable, even haunting, characters, both sympathetic and unsavory, and lets us see their hearts without imposing her judgments on us. The introductory scene with Foz and Les Chats Savants is truly one of the most memorable things I've ever read.

Sheri Holman is a new favorite author. She writes about her characters with great compassion, empathy, and humanity, even the most evil ones.

Sheri Holman is a master at creating memorable characters that will stay with you long after you finish the last page. She portrays even her villains with such humanity and compassion that they are always understandable and even sympathetic.

This is a departure from her previous two historical fiction novels, but she paints the community of Three Chimneys, Virginia, in as much detail and vividness as her historical settings.

I don't know anyone to whom I could recommend this book, but it has stayed with me years after reading it. It's possibly the most repellent book on my all-time favorites list. It's grotesque, compelling, and quite unlike anything I've ever read. The plot involves a monk devoted to St. Catherine of Alexandria, his patron, a sinister translator, a young woman who is either a lunatic or a saint, a medieval pilgrimage, and holy relics including the titular tongue.

The story behind this book had a lot of potential, however the execution of the story failed, in my opinion. While some may like the way this story was told, I found it confusing and difficult to follow. It did not keep my attention and I found myself skimming a lot. I enjoyed learning about the cholera epidemic and distrust of doctors during this time. I just wish the writing style was different so I could have enjoyed the storytelling.

The Dress Lodger is a grim and unsavoury Dickens.

The writing is very descriptive, bordering on purple prose. It begins with a “fourth wall” technique speaking to the character just written, and continues throughout to use uniquely creative techniques. The characters are well drawn, if occasionally stereotypical.

This is not a novel for the squeamish or easily offended. You will learn a lot about Cholera, grave robbing, vivisection and prostitution. Maybe more than you bargained for.

My patience did grow thin with the wordiness towards the end of the book. I really wanted to be done with it. While it’s an extremely good story, the manner of its telling left me feeling depressed and disheartened. I was glad to be moving on.

Prostitution, grave-robbing, disease that makes people's skin turn blue... combine all this with a one-eyed hag, a child whore, a baby with a grotesque chest deformity, and a hot-headed doctor = one heck of a gritty look at 1830s England. Not for the faint-of-heart but a compelling, historically valid (much researched) look at the underclass in the 'bad old days.' This historical fiction takes a hard look at the epicenter of the cholera epidemic, Sunderland, England and the lengths people who have little will go to to survive.

The story starts out in great detail the first couple of pages drew me in, then gets a little strange by including the we in reader and story teller? Then page 4,5 I was slapped in the face with two f'bombs, and continues with a g-d, a slang word for a female body part, rape and a dead body. That's just the first chapter. The author succeeded in making me disgusted that she couldn't find a more talented or skillful way of describing the life of the main character.
I turn to the back of the book, who in the world IS THIS main character?! Ah, she's a prostitute. My mistake.
I bought the book awhile back and my life and way of thinking has changed a great deal since then. Perhaps I would have liked it then, but as for now, this type of writing is no longer a part of my library.

Eddie Alley, a child in rural Virginia, aspires to be more than a country boy after a writer and his female photographer friend come into his life. Tucker, the writer, comes under Eddie's mother's sorcery and never leaves and many years later is discovered to have died there. Even so, he has a larger than life influence on Eddie.
Several themes recur...the homeless boy, Eddie, taken in by Eddie's future wife's family and then the homeless boy, Jasper, taken in by Eddie; the witchcraft and sorcery theme seems to pass from Grandmother Cora Alley to Eddie's daughter, Wallis; the fascination with "monster" movies is passed on from Tucker to Eddie and then to Jasper. All characters make a desperate attempt to find themselves.
My response to this book is mixed. I often had to read passages for a second time to fully grasp the content. It is certainly not a book to pick up for pleasure reading. If you want a book that is thought provoking and intense this is the book for you.

Another mystical realism novel - I am on a tear! They have all been good, this one was by the author of The Dress Lodger, a book I read for the Robert Adams lectures and enjoyed. This novel is VERY different! I enjoyed it, but found somethings vague and unclear. Sometimes mysterious is just confusing.

This is a novel that takes you in the heart of Victorian London. The nightmarish prose, Dickensian and haunting at the same time, introduces Gustine, a very interesting character, and Dr. Chiver who is controversial and fascinating. At the heart of the story lies Medicine, and the well-known practice of stealing the unfortunate dead bodies in order to perform autopsies. There are echoes of the Burke & Hare events and the coming of the plague that troubled Britain in 1831 claiming about 52,000 lives. Amidst the bleakness, Gustine must protect her baby, an extraordinary child with a curse that is also a gift.
One of the best books set in Victorian England, a time of a society full of progress and tumultuousness.

It took me too long to finish this book. It was well written, but it slowed down in the middle. I'm glad I finished it, because the end was worth it. Topics of respect for the dead compared to scientific advances were examined in the time of a cholera epidemic with frank humor and balanced representation of all sides of the arguments. I felt the sentiments of Giustine deeply and even came to love the Eye.

Beautifully written tale about plague, prostitution, squalid poverty, grave-robbing, and madness in 19th century England.

Like the Frankenstein monster, the book is assembled from several plot lines that don't mesh very well. Her writing is fantastic, but it doesn't make up for what a mess this is.

Later note - I 'unstarred'. Cathleen Schine's review in the NYRB and several days of thinking about the book has altered my opinion some. It seems more of an ambitious failure now. But I don't want my low review to put off anyone else wanting to read it.

Set in cholera-stricken England in about 1830, the book deals with the needs of medical students to procure bodies for dissection, the lack of choices available to the poor and underclass, and moral dilemma.

The story follows Gustine, a 15-year-old "dress lodger" prostitute and her relationship to Dr Henry Chiver, a surgeon and anatomy professor. They strike an unlikely bargain born of frustration and desperation. Their hopes are ultimately shattered.

The writing isn't perfect, but the author shows promise. The writing style is somewhat strange and different. The story is compelling in a macabre way. One person I recommended it to really liked it. Another avid reader couldn't get past the first few pages.

I liked the book! I thought it was good, but not amazing. I did like the astrological aspect of it though and I did stay interested. For a person in the right age group I can see how this would be a big hit. Very good. 3.75 out of 5 stars. I would recommend it.

(Possible spoilers) Seems to be well researched and the narrative voice is interesting but not consistent. Characterization seemed to aim for Dickensian but felt flat and ultimately not believable. I hate to begrudge a sympathetic character a happy ending but that happens when the other main viewpoint character who was interestingly grey and complex is surprisingly vilified in the last part of the novel. There seems to be a moralistic tone toward the end that was confusing and disappointing given the promising start. Crimson Petal and the White was much more satisfying.

Truly and dreadfully awful, I only finished this for bookclub. The story was uninteresting, the characters even more so and the writing style was pretensious and irritating. Weird mystical stuff mixed in with odd voice-over style narration and odd episodes of incredibly crude sex. Ick.

This was a pretty intense book for what I originally thought was going to be a typical historical fiction romance type book. Set in the early 1800's in a poor section of England, it deals with the cholera epidemic, the struggles of the surgeons of the time to procure cadavers to work on & teach from to better understand the workings of the human body, & a strange form of prostitution called dress lodging, where a landlord "rents" a fancy dress for the girl he sends out to walk the streets so she can attract a higher paying class of clients, & takes her room & board out of her earnings, letting her keep enough to survive on & enough to barely cover the needs of her medical miracle baby, who is born with a nearly free floating heart, covered by just the layer of skin on the chest. It's a fascinating look at the times, although some with weaker stomachs may be turned off by the descriptions.

Well, this was unexpected.

So I thought this was going to be about witches and such. In a way, it is, but really, it's as non-witchy as a book about some people who may be witches gets. What do I mean? I mean, if you LOVE witch stuff like some people LOVE vampire stuff, I don't think this book is for you. Instead, it's a book for those who like multi-generational family sagas, old horror flicks, coming-of-age stories...

The story does skip around between 1940, when a couple on a government project to write a travel guide-like book with photos accidentally meet a boy and his mother, who live up in the woods. The 1980s are told mostly by the teenage daughter of this boy, who is now a grown man, in fact, a TV host for a horror-film show. And in some recent past (say the 2000s) the grown up daughter as well as her ailing father remember the good old days. So there are roughly 3 times the story takes place (there are some others, like when the girl's mother, Ann, talks about when she met her husband and when his mother died, etc)

The whole family saga is well done. Characters are all extremely well developed. Holman takes her time with descriptions of people and places. Some of her language is haunting. Towards the end, there are bits where it gets a bit too preachy for my taste, but this is not unrealistic. This is confession time for some of the characters, so it is expected and it is not out of place.

Perhaps the most surprising thing about the book is that it is ultimately very sad. Not in that make-you-cry kind of sad, but more like that's-the-way-life-is kind of way. A simple girl crush can seem childish just a few days after some things happen in a teenagers life. An old shack in the woods, which meant the whole world to a little boy, can seem like a hell-hole to his new bride many years later. You grow up, get married to a woman who's set on helping you climb out of the dirt you come from, have a child, and then one day, a young man shows you what other desires you might have crawling under your skin. And in the end, we're on our own, together but separate, longing to understand yet never succeeding. And sometimes, guilt and blame, the self-afflicted pain is what makes us feel alive.

All in all, Witches on the Road Tonight is a well-written, complex, and multi-layered book. Holman writes well and keeps the story rolling as she builds characters bit by bit. And regarding the witches, she's caught the narrative exactly where it should be, happily trotting at the edge of the enlightened new millennium and the magical and ignorant past.

Quite the subject matter!

The characters' development throughout Ms. Holman's work was quite intense, especially Doctor Chiver's and the Eye's.

I particularly appreciated the narrators' perspective, although it wasn't clear who that truly was until the last quarter of the novel.½