3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Just get past the first 50 pages..., November 23, 2004
If you can get past the first 50 pages of this book, you will find that it starts to grow on you. I put the book away, came back after a week, plowed on--and then I finished the last 3/4 of it in a flurry, needing to know what happened next.
As you read, the characters become more alive and rounded, and their interests and experiences more developed, nuanced, and believable. The novel also has an ending that keeps you kind of guessing as to what eventually Greg tells himself about his own sexual identity. It is not a foregone conclusion that he will "come out" to himself or continue to think of himself as "definitely not" gay. The author has created in Greg a teenager who is still able to be quite turned on, physically, by girls, but who hasn't yet discerned whether his attraction to Jordan is something more than just aesthetic (he's a truly beautiful swimmer for Greg to watch and photograph) and platonic (he's a low-key but deeply-thinking friend).
About the novel's language: I am an American, and this book is thoroughly British, so I have no idea whether the dialogue is appropriately realistic. Do people say "yobs" and "gits"? I didn't care, because as I read, I became more convinced that I could see it happening.
The novel tries to weave together some big themes besides sexual identity, including the value of religion (trust in God vs. trust in the physical world, including sex), the tragic fighting of World War I, and, underlying both of those issues, the meaning/meaninglessness of suffering. I was skeptical that all this could be pulled off, but the author succeeded. Only occasionally are there too text-book-like phrases (such as the "3 questions of theodicy" put into the mouths of "normal" teenagers--but hey, I kind of like that "too-smart-for-real-teens" kind of talk once in a while, too. Think Dawson's Creek).
As I reflect on the book, some of the minor characters stand out most brightly. Greg's crude friend Gizzard is completely imaginable, as is Dean, the punk who causes him problems, and Dean's selfish mother. Their brief appearances deserve notice. Even more brightly drawn, but given too small a part, is Tanya. Tanya at first repulses Greg with her blatant sexual desire; she later proves to be a refuge for him (the most descriptive language about sex I've read in a teen novel occurs in Tanya's and Greg's encounter); finally, near the end, she appears in Greg's wet dream, her body blending (as in a dream) with the body of Jordan, the swimmer. I may go out on a limb here and state that Newbery seems able to create more believable "bad" characters than "good" ones. But it's said that it's harder to write good characters than bad.
Finally, as someone who did some "bargaining with God" in my own teen years, I can say that I found believable this novel's recurrent issues of wanting to believe in God, asking God for a sign (especially when something tragic occurs), and yet still basically thinking that God probably doesn't exist. The answers to the novel's questions are left hanging in the air--literally!--at the novel's conclusion, the meaning of which will be well debated by those who have read the book.
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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
The Shell House, January 25, 2003
By A Customer
This review is from: The Shell House (Hardcover)
i got this book for boxing day and i wasnt seen until the next day!!, i sat down and enjoyed this book so much, it ties in romance, teenage problems and history, the teenage conflicts are so sad at some points i was in tears. id recomend this to anyone with a heart.
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5.0 out of 5 stars
Excellent, February 13, 2011
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...
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