Members with This Book
Most Helpful Reviews
see all reviews
Liked It “Enjoyed this immensely - strange and funny and unlike anything i've read before.” see full review » see other reviews » |
Didn’t Like It “There was a lot of backstory that I liked quite a bit, but overall I found the book confusing and lacking cohesion. True, everything was connected in the end, but it was unsettling and not always convincing enough for me to suspend disbelief. I did like some of the odd relationships that evolved,...” see full review » see other reviews » |
Newest Reviews
see all reviews-
“Enjoyed this immensely - strange and funny and unlike anything i've read before.”
Claire M wrote this review Monday, August 16, 2010. ( reply | permalink ) Was this review helpful? Yes | No
“Undoubtedly a feat of some sort. Barker's novel of epic proportions manages to do something which most contemporary English literary fiction fails to do, viz. focus on the lower-middle class of English society (amongst other strata). Darkmans is a very modern -- almost benignly -- gothic novel in which a malign medieval spirit exercises a hold on a cast of disparate-yet-interlocked characters in the present. The first few hundred pages are barely over before I realised that Barker's was a very slow tale in which many minute details are mulled over. It is unfortunate that the narrative arch of the novel is bereft of any conclusiveness (despite a great final sentence). Indeed, the novel is also bereft of a middle part too, 800+ pages of beginning is about all you get; a disappointment from a novel of such accute depth and breadth.”
xfmjunky wrote this review Friday, May 14, 2010. ( reply | permalink ) Was this review helpful? Yes | No
“A little disappointing. I bought this book for the sole purpose of it having a lot of pages, and me needing something for the summer holidays.
Marcel Dekker wrote this review Monday, September 21, 2009. ( reply | permalink ) Was this review helpful? Yes | No
I have to say it is a fast read, as Barker keeps pace, and gives the characters enough interesting aspects and actions to want to keep on reading.
The story ends unsatisfactorily though; the plot is not well worked out, and ends with a sigh. Pity, as this work definitely had the possibility to be great.”
“I was mesmerized by this book and read it compulsively, frustrated that I couldn't put it all together myself but then disappointed, at the end, when Barker ties some (but definitely not all) of the loose ends all too neatly. The moment-to-moment details are so perfectly drawn, though, that they make the bigger, weirder (definitely captivating) story of nasty history insinuating itself into the present more immediate and make the loose ends (and not loose-enough ends) all more tolerable. But, really, what happened to Fleet?”
jentaw wrote this review Sunday, September 6, 2009. ( reply | permalink ) Was this review helpful? Yes | No“There was a lot of backstory that I liked quite a bit, but overall I found the book confusing and lacking cohesion. True, everything was connected in the end, but it was unsettling and not always convincing enough for me to suspend disbelief. I did like some of the odd relationships that evolved, and most especially the 2-legged dog. I don't know that I'd read through it again, though.”
Tamara J wrote this review Wednesday, November 5, 2008. ( reply | permalink ) Was this review helpful? Yes | No
“The writing is beautiful and fluid, and the characters are all amazingly three-dimensional and fascinating. For these reasons alone, I loved the book. As I finished, I couldn't shake this nagging feeling that I had missed a much larger point in the subtext, but I don't think this diminshed my enjoyment of the book at all. Big picture or not- I couldn't put it down.”
Lindsay A wrote this review Monday, July 14, 2008. ( reply | permalink ) Was this review helpful? Yes | No
“Horrible book - difficult to follow and pseudo intellectual.”
Allison C wrote this review Tuesday, July 1, 2008. ( reply | permalink ) Was this review helpful? Yes | No
“Just finished this. Amazing book and yet I wanted to scream at the end. It is rather like a psychological mystery in a way and I really, really wanted it to end with all if the i's dotted and t's crossed. No such luck. Instead I was left with a familiar but ultimately mysterious alphabet that left me feeling restless. I would recommend this book as it is intriguing and well written, but don't read it if you need a pat ending.”
Cindy B wrote this review Saturday, May 17, 2008. ( reply | permalink ) Was this review helpful? Yes | No
“Ms. Barker's novel is LONG - 800 pages or so - but it flies by. A funny, sometimes disturbing, a few times scary, look at a few lives in Ashford, England, and what happens when history, language, and a potentially evil jester named John Scogin refuse to be contained by modern life and burst into the present at opportune and inopportune moments. The novel places many questions before the reader and Ms. Barker doesn't provide easy answers or, scratch that, answers at all. I found this a bit unsatisfying in an otherwise great read.”
Vanessa B wrote this review Thursday, May 15, 2008. ( reply | permalink ) Was this review helpful? Yes | No
