Customer Reviews

The Elixir of Youth

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Gillian Bradshaw amply deserves the respect her many fine novels have earned for her. This is not her best book but its still worth a read. Its a deceptively simple first person narrative reflecting both the high intelligence and the emotional and social immaturity of a very likeable but far from perfect young heroine. The book is uneven in parts and does end very abruptly. It reads as if for some reason it had to be not very gracefully edited to fit some predetermined format. Still there's a strong story and some interesting ideas intelligently explored. You could definitely do worse with a few hours of your time.

The plot is a good idea, but the execution is terrible. Bradshaw's writing is on the level of a young writer trying her first fiction. The dialog is stilted, the descriptions are dull. Even with a multi-layered plot, the story feels slow because of the poor writing.