Reviews for Coldwater

The average rating for Coldwater based on 2 reviews is 3 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2009-02-24 00:00:00 Markus Kirschner I loved the idea of this book! Mardi McConnochie deserves much praise for turning her curiosity about the elusive Bronte sisters into a work of fiction. She plunks the literary trio onto the island of Coldwater, a penal colony off the coast of Australia. The sisters live there with Captain Wolf, their unyielding father. Theirs is a life of isolation, with time spent on household chores, cooking, and sewing. Their fates are soon changed as each of the sisters grow weary of their stagnant existence. The dynamics between the sisters are important, and their quarreling and shifting alliances allow you insight into their different personalities and temperaments. The first half of the book is the most interesting and the elegant writing style is impressive. It is fun to realize that Charlotte and Emily mirror the characters of Jane Eyre and Catherine Earnshaw (both in acts and narrative style). That said, the second half of the book is a bit hokey and takes a melodramatic turn (lots of wind-swept hair, gasping, stormy weather, darkness, and screaming). It is supposed to be tragic but ends up reading as overwrought and a little bit silly. Still, this is a wonderful story that will leave you wanting for more details of the Bronte's lives.

Review # 2 was written on 2011-06-23 00:00:00 Mary Twiggs Another book I really wanted to like, but came away from disenchanted. It's a gothic tale of three young girls trapped on an island that's literally a prison - a convict prison in early white settlement Australia. Told in the vein of the Bronte sisters (of whom the author is apparently a great fan), the novel read unfortunately almost as fan fiction. The names of the key protagonists are all from history, there are nods to Jane Eyre and Pride & Prejudice, as well as the hystrionics of Wuthering Heights. I could possibly have gotten over all of that as it's quite a good story, but the chopping and changing between four points of view was an unnecessary and confusing complication. I don't understand why the author chose to do that other than to show she had mastered her story and this wasn't fan fiction. Don't get me wrong, there are passages of beautiful writing and the story does attempt to address the horror of being trapped by the circumstances of your life, but it did not draw me in as it should have, as its artifice was all too apparent.