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Books 13 and 14 of 2022
Mar. 11th, 2022 06:23 pmLast night I finished two more books, so here are some quick thoughts.
First up Rachel Clarke’s Your Life In My Hands: A Junior Doctor’s Story. I went into this expecting it to be the tale of a junior doctor. Which to be fair it was. But it was also the tale of the junior doctors’ fight against Jeremy Hunt and co some years ago, including striking. That was interesting, but became repetitive after a while, and not as reasoned as I’d like. I found the medical tales of patients and the doctor’s on the job experiences more compelling. Another downside to the book was that it jumped around in the chronology. So not as successful as I hoped, though I’m glad I read it. Rating 3/5 stars.
Then I finished Victoria Lee’s A Lesson In Vengeance. This was set in an American preparatory/finishing school for the wealthy, and became a story of past mysteries, occult history and a thriller. Frustratingly though I found it disappointing overall. The story involves much of the past history of the school, but this aspect wasn’t as well developed and integrated into the plot as it should have been. There was a satisfying unease throughout, of a is there / isn’t there series of ghostly hauntings. I was genuinely uncomfortable at times walking around the house in the night after reading! And while the book didn’t take the route I expected, where it did go was both unsatisfying, prolonged, and ultimately at the end predictable. So thumbs up for idea and to an extent atmosphere, even if the spooks didn’t reach the levels they should have done. But thumbs down for the plot and overall effect. Rating 2/5 stars.
First up Rachel Clarke’s Your Life In My Hands: A Junior Doctor’s Story. I went into this expecting it to be the tale of a junior doctor. Which to be fair it was. But it was also the tale of the junior doctors’ fight against Jeremy Hunt and co some years ago, including striking. That was interesting, but became repetitive after a while, and not as reasoned as I’d like. I found the medical tales of patients and the doctor’s on the job experiences more compelling. Another downside to the book was that it jumped around in the chronology. So not as successful as I hoped, though I’m glad I read it. Rating 3/5 stars.
Then I finished Victoria Lee’s A Lesson In Vengeance. This was set in an American preparatory/finishing school for the wealthy, and became a story of past mysteries, occult history and a thriller. Frustratingly though I found it disappointing overall. The story involves much of the past history of the school, but this aspect wasn’t as well developed and integrated into the plot as it should have been. There was a satisfying unease throughout, of a is there / isn’t there series of ghostly hauntings. I was genuinely uncomfortable at times walking around the house in the night after reading! And while the book didn’t take the route I expected, where it did go was both unsatisfying, prolonged, and ultimately at the end predictable. So thumbs up for idea and to an extent atmosphere, even if the spooks didn’t reach the levels they should have done. But thumbs down for the plot and overall effect. Rating 2/5 stars.