Hagstone is writer and artist Sinéad Gleeson's debut novel. For an alternative perspective to mine watch @EricKarlAnderson • Hagstone by Sinéad Gle... or @BobTheBookerer • Weekly Reading Wrap-Up...
I must admit when I heard Eric’s review there was something that made me think it wasn’t for me. Appreciate the way you highlighted what you enjoyed Ros and then made a good case for why it didn’t quite work. Thanks for the review!
I am reading it , and was waning slightly so listened to you review and agree entirely- I will finish it - a great review - I also want to read her essays
So glad I saw this review. I also expected the mysterious island sound to be much more important. I thought it was going to be the voice of the ancient spirit of the island and result in some special enlightenment for Nell. So I was also disappointed that it seemed unimportant in the end. I wanted more exploration of the women’s community. I did enjoy the book, but expected to have it take my breath away, and it didn’t.
It's reassuring to hear that from you Linda. Yes exactly, I wanted the sound to be more significant. And I would have loved more on the community. It could have been amazing and was just good.
I’ve just finished this and I had a similar reaction. Beautiful writing about setting, main character, the life of an artist, isolated communities. But the ending didn’t work for me and I wanted more about the sound and the communities and less about the actor.
I was avoiding spoilers but yes the ending was disappointing. And I wish she hadn't introduced the actor at all. It weakened the focus didn't it? So promising though.
I tried reading Constellations by this author, but I couldn't really get into it. Maybe it was because it was not quite what I expected, maybe it was the writing style or a mix of both. The layout of the story/her reflections seems a bit arbitrary to me.
