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The Shell House Linda Newbery Books

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The Shell House Linda Newbery Books

Linda Newbery doesn't seem to be well known in the US ---she's written a great many books, but precious few of them appear to have been reviewed on the American Amazon site. It's a pity, because this is the second book I've read written by this author, and both have been excellent.

This book really took me back a few years, to that half-forgotten period of my late teens. Do any of you remember hanging out with your friends and chatting up a storm back when everything was so new, and your whole life just waiting to be explored? I haven't thought about those talks for a while, but all sorts of topics would come up in these earnest conversations---the nature of good and evil, what life is all about in the grand scheme of things, what sort of religious beliefs one does (or doesn't) hold, and why... And that's just how the friends in this book talk---man, makes me a bit nostalgic for my youth and a time before I became a bit jaded....

There really haven't been a huge number of books in my daily reading these past few years, that bring thoughts (and memories) like this to mind and put me in a contemplative mood. And in this respect, I think this novel put me very much in mind of the work of Madeleine L'Engle, an author who I've long admired---so for me that is high praise.

Both the flashback and the current-day story-lines are quite interesting, but the majority of the novel deals with the present day---the text isn't evenly divided into past/present sections. There are three major plot-lines in the book, and none of them is wrapped up in a neat little bow, though I will say that the ending in general has a hopeful tone. I really liked this book, and gladly recommend it.

(Not to mention, the entire sub-plot about the volunteers working on the remnants of the house and gardens of this once-stately manor seems tailor-made for me---just the sort of thing guaranteed to grab my interest!)

Interesting... the flower on the cover is a calendula, which symbolises grief, despair, and sorrow---quite appropriate for some of the WWI portions of the novel...


Tags : Amazon.com: The Shell House (9780099455936): Linda Newbery: Books,Linda Newbery,The Shell House,Random House Children's Books,0099455935,Children's & young adult fiction & true stories,Children's 12-Up - Fiction - General,Social Issues - General,Children: Young Adult (Gr. 7-9)

The Shell House Linda Newbery Books Reviews

This was one of those books that disappointed me because I got the feeling that it had the potential to be so much better.

I should probably say that I'm older than the age group this book is intended for, which may bias some of my views. For young teenagers who don't have much exposure to gay fiction, I could see this being a good starting point.

One of the best things going for this book is its page-turning nature; I put off some work for an hour and a half towards the end because I just had to finish it. The ambiguity of Greg's sexuality is also a nice change from the standard; having been through my own long sexual identity crisis, I thought that it showed a nice range of doubts and questions.

A major problem, for me, lies in the relationship between Edmund and Alex. This is one of those books where we know they're in love because we're told so, not because it's evident from their behavior. It's obvious that they like each other and are attracted to each other, but their relationship should have been given more time to develop so the reader could feel the complete emotional impact. Alex in particular deserves much more time than he's given; his "alternate ending" to Edmund's poem hints at a lighter aspect of their relationship that could have balanced some of the angst.

Edmund's family and the family of the girl they want him to marry, Phillipa, are cardboard cutouts of stodgy and unaccepting Representatives of Oppressing Society. The scene where Edmund talks to the minister is a tired retread of a lot of better-written scenes that pit homosexuality against religion, to the point where I found myself successfully predicting the gist of the next line the whole way through.

The last part of Edmund's story, however, stuck in my mind, and belongs in a better book where the emotions are developed enough to suit its highly dramatic nature.

Faith and Jordan didn't fascinate me very much as characters, though they were just interesting enough not to be boring. A lot of the time I wanted to get back to the Edwardian part of the story, but when I did I was disappointed.
Linda Newbery doesn't seem to be well known in the US ---she's written a great many books, but precious few of them appear to have been reviewed on the American site. It's a pity, because this is the second book I've read written by this author, and both have been excellent.

This book really took me back a few years, to that half-forgotten period of my late teens. Do any of you remember hanging out with your friends and chatting up a storm back when everything was so new, and your whole life just waiting to be explored? I haven't thought about those talks for a while, but all sorts of topics would come up in these earnest conversations---the nature of good and evil, what life is all about in the grand scheme of things, what sort of religious beliefs one does (or doesn't) hold, and why... And that's just how the friends in this book talk---man, makes me a bit nostalgic for my youth and a time before I became a bit jaded....

There really haven't been a huge number of books in my daily reading these past few years, that bring thoughts (and memories) like this to mind and put me in a contemplative mood. And in this respect, I think this novel put me very much in mind of the work of Madeleine L'Engle, an author who I've long admired---so for me that is high praise.

Both the flashback and the current-day story-lines are quite interesting, but the majority of the novel deals with the present day---the text isn't evenly divided into past/present sections. There are three major plot-lines in the book, and none of them is wrapped up in a neat little bow, though I will say that the ending in general has a hopeful tone. I really liked this book, and gladly recommend it.

(Not to mention, the entire sub-plot about the volunteers working on the remnants of the house and gardens of this once-stately manor seems tailor-made for me---just the sort of thing guaranteed to grab my interest!)

Interesting... the flower on the cover is a calendula, which symbolises grief, despair, and sorrow---quite appropriate for some of the WWI portions of the novel...