Customer Reviews

Blue Place

5 star:		(32)
4 star:		(8)
3 star:		(5)
2 star:		(6)
1 star:		(5)

 

 

Destined to become a classic of the genre. This is a rip-roaring, unputdownable, cracking page turner. A stunningly well paced narrative, building from a slow burn start to an ending that delivers a devastating blow.

Aud Torvingen - 6ft Norwegian Uberbabe. Ex-cop, and now bodyguard, self-defence expert, freefall skydiver, master carpenter, glacier climber and top horticulturist to boot(!!). A lethal killer. Super-cool, confident and in control. But becomes fallible as soon as she falls in love with Julia Lyons-Bennet, the woman whom Aud has been hired by, to protect.

This is a bitter-sweet love story, with a strong central character that you care deeply about. In Aud Torvingen, Nicola Griffith has created the quintessential Lesbian Icon. Intriguing, complex and believable.

By the very nature of the genre you know a tragedy is just waiting to happen. And the bad guy is screamingly obvious. But this doesn't matter. It is the journey that counts.

The narrative takes you to places you don't usually come across in this genre, and has a beautiful sence of time and place. Very evocative of the Norwegian landscape, mixing as it does myth and fable, the fjells, local cuisine, character and temperament.

The novel itself is reminiscent of David Lindsey's 'Requiem for a Glass Heart' in it's central Lesbian relationship, breakneck narrative thrust and killer ending.

Like all great novels 'The Blue Place' leaves you desperate for more. But how can any future installments ever hope to compare with such an astonishing and accomplished work - and one that is so obviously a one off.

A pleasure to read this outstanding novel. Extremely Highly Recommended.

I love Amazon for offering the ability to see other readers' opinions of a book, but now I'm going to think twice before believing everything I read here. I feel a little like I was tricked into buying this book by the numerous positive reviews, so now I'm taking the time to warn other hopeful searchers: turn back while you still can - it wasn't that great. After reading the book, I was far from impressed. In a word, it was: underdeveloped. The characters had little or no depth, the plot was overall pretty boring, and the writing very basic. It didn't take me anywhere, and I couldn't even care one wit about the ending or what happened to the characters. When trying to relate to the narrator and/or her story, I only ever felt like I was reading some anti-climactic manifestation/fantasy of the author's own identity. And about the "steam" factor, suspense, or sexual tension: Griffith must've left it with the rest of the character/plot development. It's like the author can't quite bring herself to fall into the romance of the world/characters she's created (like she doesn't want it to be another cliche lesbian romance novel with the usual stereotype characters) so instead, her book suffers from technical hang-ups, a cheesy array of writing techniques, and two-dimensional characters that, ironically enough, all lend themselves to exactly what she's trying to avoid. In the beginning, I was really looking forward to liking the main character and wanting to read the sequel, but by the end I found myself wondering what all the hype was about and wishing I'd never spent the money in the first place. If you're looking for anything as remotely interesting as, say, a Sarah Waters or Jeanette Winterson or even a John Irving or Stephen King novel, look elsewhere. I've read worse (hence the 2 star rating), but I've also read far far better, so I just HAD to speak up and say that the book was not nearly as good as its reviews suggest. Even some of the truly cliche, predictable xena/gabrielle-type romances I've read (see: Lucifer Rising) were eons more satisfying than this.

I loved Griffith's _Ammonite_... beautiful rich characters, detailed setting and intricate plot. I was hoping for an equal treatment of the detective novel format. Griffith's language in _The Blue Place_ is still incredible, especially the first time Julia and Aud spar <purrr>. However, the plot development is significantly weaker, with many logical gaps and hanging threads. For example, near the beginning, she references Aud's 60-year-old handmade quilt, which no one else has ever seen. It would have been nice to at least mention it near then end as a point of loss. The bad guy (I won't mention who) isn't a clear picture, despite his importance in Aud's life.

It's a good read, tho! Enjoy!

Griffith's usual excellent prose is harnessed to a story that's not really a traditional mystery, but is definitely a page-turner. Lots of physical action and emotional action, nicely blended. Griffith's always exploring some edge of whatever genre she writes--don't know why anyone would expect her to stay in sci-fi or to write a 'traditional' thriller or mystery. This book is completely different from Slow River, but every bit as evocative and haunting.

Characters and environment, relationships and the effects of the choices we make--those are Griffith's strengths and they are certainly demonstrated once again in The Blue Place. If you want a cozy mystery, stick with Miss Marple. If you want a noir-character study in the general neighborhood of Vachss' Burke or Jane Whitefield (when she's having a really bad day) then this is a new alley for you to explore.

Wow.

I don't know where to start.. this book was emotion embodied. Utterly enchanting.. frustrating, beautiful, heartbreaking, glorious.. just EMOTION. It struck my heart deeply and left a mark. I actually cried once.

If you're looking for a book that highlights the struggles of lesbians in a homophobic world, or a strictly butch/femme romance, or even a lush romance novel... Look elsewhere.

The Blue Place is gritty, cold, harsh and even painful at times. The realism is startling and it can be quite heartbreaking. But whoever said happiness could not be truly felt without sadness read this book. There's no attempt to sugarcoat the harsh reality of life in this book. Pain and agony are in full force and on display for all to read.

But that's what makes the love story beautiful. There's no perfection here.. no sweet romance whose only problem is the irritating habits of one partner. No torrid love triangle and explicit sex scenes.. It's just LOVE. Real love. Beautiful love, painful love.. love. And in writing this, Ms. Griffith has enchanted me utterly.

The Blue Place is a beautiful novel, not because of its lush scenery (though it is), its exquisite descriptions (though they are), but because it portrays humanity in a real, yet beautiful way. Julia and Aud are not perfect, nor is their relationship. But you can honestly come away from the book feeling that they really loved each other. Truly. And I don't encounter many books I can honestly say that about.

If you're interested in beauty that is not all wine and roses, but comes with pain and hardship, between two women who are not goddesses or perfect in any way, if you are interested in love, real love, human love..

I highly recommend you acquire this book.

Reality was never so real.. and beauty so beautiful.

Nicola Griffith's novels are focusing more and more astutely on the struggle to separate from family, the transition described as eloquently by Gail Sheehy as by the new-age spokesentity Michael. Slow River deals immediately and instantaneously with these themes, presenting its POV character with a crisis that forces her to do this work years before she might normally be inclined to. The Blue Place shows us a more likely (if no more realistic) example of the transition.

Aud Torvingen had a horribly alienated childhood, and has evolved into a grownup devoid of emotional awareness, revolving around her parents by means of a thorough-going denial of her vulernability. This material could be taken over the top, but Griffith handles it like the master she is. The book can be read simultaneously as high post-camp and a movingly realistic portrayal of the coping mechanisms of avoidance and obsession taken to extremes.

Once the series plays itself out, I think we're going to look back on this book as a remarkably introduction to a character who is going to go down into her own private Hades, and then emerge smaller and wiser. I look forward to the insights that Griffith will offer.

In the meantime, the book is enjoyable as character study, as travelogue, and as thriller. I highly recommend it.

somehow I was lucky enough to spot this book while browsing in a book store....it is an exceptional piece of writing. Aud is a memorable character, one that does not come along very often. I hope the author writes a sequel. I want to know what happens to Aud after the end of this story. I found the sense of intelligence and of body that fills the writing compelling. The change in tone between the Georgia part and the Norwegian section is perfectly done. I have reread this story three times. Highly recommended.

To say well written does not do Blue place justice. Nicola Griffith has given us a landmark book of prose. Her descriptions paint pictures, her characters live. Normally I skim books. I savoured this one. I am buying the hard cover so that Blue Place can be in my permanent library, a reference to how to write. I reccommend all of her books to everyone, but I save my unlimited praise for Blue Place. Enjoy it!

This is just the most amazing book: sexy, gut-wrenching, exciting, funny, unexpected, and full of stories-within-stories (like the troll fairytale) and things that'll make you think. While I was reading I believed in Aud. I was with her on that glacier fighting for her life. Unbelievably exciting. And at the same time I could smell the ice, hear the birds. I don't know how the author did all that at once..

What surprised me about this novel was the sly sense of humor. It's different, sort of foreign, but it flicks out and gets you when you're not expecting it and lets you know Aud is smart as well as fast and frightening.

This is a great book. If only Aud was real.

I'm mostly a science fiction reader, though I also love a good literary mystery. I first discovered Nicola Griffith when she won the Nebula Award last year. It turns out that every book she touches wins one or another award. Her anthologies as well as her novels have been multiple award-winners. I recommend them all.

Griffith's SF is very traditional relative to the genre (though it deals with non-traditional themes). In contrast, The Blue Place is quite genre-bending. Its mystery is not very mysterious; its thrills seem more flash than fire. And yet it has plenty of style, and plenty of substance. I like it a lot, and I recommend it to you, too.

Aud Torvingen is the heart and soul of the Blue Place. Her attention and genius is all external, which means her point of view offers up a rich stream of information about her world (which is a big part of the pleasure of the book). Her experience of her interiority is either blocked or attenuated. Her relationship with violence is constantly startling, and the true love she experiences in this book takes her completely by surprise. It's these interior blind spots that drive the suspense in the novel for me. I found myself completely carried away by the startling contrasts between Aud's hyper-competance and her closedness.

Write the next novel quickly, Nicola! I can hardly wait to find out what happens to poor Aud.