This was an interesting one. A short piece of fiction, it features a girl who is on a trip with her parents, a professor, and some students, on a two week summer experience living as ancient Britons. Silvie’s dad is obsessed with the lives of people who lived thousands of years ago, but she is nowhere near as enthusiastic. She and her mother are forced to go along with him on annual trips where they camp, eat, sleep, and dress like their ancestors would. The deeper you get into the story, the more you realize that there is something wrong with the obsessions of this tyrant of a man who loves to control every aspect of his wife and daughters lives almost as he loves living and learning about the lives of ancient man.
There are a few triggers in this book, those being verbal and physical abuse, bodily harm, sexuality, and poverty. They are by no means very extreme in my opinion, but those who are sensitive to those topics might get upset or uncomfortable reading some of the passages.
Besides wanting to mention the triggers, I wanted to talk about the unique writing style. I’m trying to think of another book I have read that is written in this way, I think Tropic of Cancer might be one. There are no quotation marks used or new paragraphs created when a different character speaks. The words and conversation just flows continuously, and I was kind of surprised that I found myself actually liking it. It did mean slowing down my reading a little bit so that I could make sure I was reading from the correct characters perspective in my head. I know I am not the only one who creates voices for different characters in their head that they switch to when reading from that person’s point of view. Or am I?
Additionally, I wanted to mention the artwork. The cover is beautiful, I love the plants and the picture they make and the use of only the single bright green color. There is also some chapter art within the book that is very nice to look at. It’s a very small book, but it is so lovely.
So, to conclude, I liked this story a great deal. This is a great weekend book, you can probably even finish it in one sitting. If you need an easy book to get back into reading, or if you need a break from long books, I’d say try this one out.
Nonfiction and Nonsense 