The fifth Cazalet book, which I'd not read before, because it came out after I read the first four. I'd heard mixed things about the book and was a bit nervous about reading it in case (a) it turned out that something nasty had happened to characters I loved, and (b) the story was a let down.

It was a bit...bitty. There seemed to be quite frequent switches between characters and it felt a bit "mechanical"? The writing wasn't bad, but by halfway through I noticed that there had been no bits I wanted to quote, or that made me cry.

Quite a lot of recapping the previous stories - lots of reminiscing by the characters and quite a lot of recapping by the author

Overall it was disappointing: it felt like a series of vignettes without the same narrative drive as before - like she was clutching for new stories about old characters. There were some nice bits of writing, but nothing as moving as had been in the other books.

I think it's a book you have to read if you've read the others but really it would have been better to have only had the first four.

One thing that did disconcert me was Louise's relationship with her father Edward: in the early books he comes on to her and leaves her feeling extremely uncomfortable and unwilling to have anything to do with him. But in this book no reference is made to that, and she seems sympathetic to him. It's not clear what happened.

One quote I highlighted: Gerald often said he wished he could do whatever was required for her, but he never could. He was neither good at making up his mind nor at acting upon whatever uneasy conclusion he drew about anything". - I know that feeling.

Completed : 16-Jun-2018 (audiobook)