The Exile of Sara Stevenson: A Historical Novel Book

I really wanted to like this book. Even when the editor's note compared it to novels like Wuthering Heights and The Time Traveler's Wife (both of which I loathed,) I persevered in my hope that this would be a good read indeed. And while I didn't find this novel as objectionable as the others, I did it find it sorely lacking in several areas.

The first was characterization and, possibly due to this, sheer likability. There is nothing to recommend the protagonist beyond the author's putting admiring words into the mouths of the supporting cast. She's flighty, willful and pretty doggone stupid, and she has all the intellectual depth of a puddle. The character of Kate is presented merely as a foil, and while there was promise in the reason behind her betrayal of Sara, it's just resolved neatly and as a moral victory for the latter. The men are stock characters drawn straight out of romance novels: all of them good-looking and tormented bla bla bla. I didn't like any of the characters (except maybe Mary Mackay,) and cared for their plights even less.

I don't know if the author was aiming for a spare writing style like I admire in writers like Howard Norman, but it didn't work. There were many times, too, where an outmoded synonym was used for no apparent reason other than to prove that the author could use a thesaurus. Also, the amount with which the narrator blasphemed was at strict odds with the way in which she noted the colorful language of others, so you can add a supreme lack of self-awareness to her list of less-than-endearing qualities. Don't even get me started on the selective Scottish accents.

And finally, the editing was spectacularly sloppy. The number of typos of words that clearly passed spell-check but would never escape the eye of a discerning editor made me actually angry.

Hope this doesn't ruin the book for you, Meredith! :P

I received this book gratis as part of Goodreads' First Reads program.