The Great Godden Review
Hi friends! I hope your week has been good. It’s getting slightly colder here in SA and I love it. This week I’m bringing you my The Great Godden Review. This was a super quick and easy read so I hope you’ll give it a try. Let’s jump in!
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Title: The Great Godden
Author: Meg Rosoff
Rating: 4 Stars
CAWPILE: 7.1/10
Genre: Fiction, Contemporary, YA
Content Warnings: Cheating
Format: Paperback
Publisher: Bloomsbury YA
Date Published: July 9th 2020
Goodreads Description: I looked into his eyes and I knew.
Only everyone else knew too. Everyone else felt exactly the same way.
This is the story of one family, one dreamy summer – the summer when everything changes. In a holiday house by the sea, our watchful narrator sees everything, including many things they shouldn’t, as their brother and sisters, parents and older cousins fill hot days with wine and games and planning a wedding. Enter two brothers – irresistible, charming, languidly sexy Kit and surly, silent Hugo. Suddenly there’s a serpent in this paradise – and the consequences will be devastating.
I received a review copy from Jonathan Ball Publishers. All opinions are my own.
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The Great Godden Review
I will admit that The Great Godden is not a book I would pick up on my own. The synopsis is very vague and I still don’t know how to articulate what happened in the book. I received a review copy from Jonathan Ball, and since the book is short I decided to give it a go.
Characters – 5/10
This book is entirely character-driven, however, that’s where it failed a little for me. We never know the narrator’s name or gender, which was intentional. It just made me feel a bit removed from the story since it felt like the narrator was removed. No one ever mentions them by name, so it almost feels like the story is happening at a distance.
We also don’t get enough of the infamous “Goddens”. It’s just some vague mentions here, subtle warnings there, half descriptions all over the place.
The rest of the narrator’s family was more well-rounded. I felt like I knew more about the family, even though only about half of them were central to the plot.
Atmosphere – 8/10
I can already tell I’m going to have some conflicting opinions on this book. But I really loved the atmosphere. My family spends every summer at the beach as well and I could just feel those lazy summer vibes. The beach house setting was the perfect location for this story and it worked really well.
Writing – 8/10
This book is well written. I’m not usually one for flowery and overly descriptive writing, but this book worked for me. If I didn’t have to take regular breaks to rest my eyes I would have read it in one sitting. It was easy to read (besides some of the vagaries) and I enjoyed it.
Plot – 7/10
I’m sort of going to approach this book like a wildlife documentary. While I personally can’t relate or understand the desire to sleep with someone you’ve barely had a conversation with, I did enjoy the look at the human drive to be loved. I mean clearly Kit needs some psychological help. But I didn’t quite understand the fascination with him. This book did have me thinking a lot about the human ability to fuck things up, so in that sense, it was really good.
The Great Godden Review
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Intrigue – 8/10
I was intrigued. Like I said I couldn’t personally relate to the characters, but that’s no fault of the book. It was a fascinating look into the human mind and I really enjoyed it.
Logic – 7/10
The conflict was believable enough. I really liked the twist at the end, because I was wondering how exactly the family would “shatter.”
Enjoyment – 7/10
I did enjoy this book, even though I would have liked it to be more direct. Like I said the descriptions and plot lines are a little vague at some points, but overall it was a fun read.
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Sounds like overall it was a good book. Shame about the characters not being better but glad it was still a good read.
I’m please that despite the flaws, you still enjoyed the story.
It’s good you were still able to enjoy some aspects of the story.
I think this one might frustrate me, I like to know the characters
I’ve never heard of the book before. Good to hear it has a lot of good qualities. Great review.
Bummer that you didn’t get to see as much of the characters as you wanted, but this one sounds pretty interesting. I hadn’t heard of it before!
I’m super intrigued by this one… Excellent review.
Ooh great review. It sounds like for the most part this worked, but it does seem funny to have a character driven story so much and yet have some detachment from the characters themselves? Great review though.