Aghhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh. I have a love/hate relationship with Carol Goodman. Her books totally intrigue me and I can't put them down and I look for another. It is only after I am finished reading that I get frustrated and can find the flaws.This books reads a lot like the Lake of Dead Languages. In fact, in the beginning, I had to keep on telling myself one has a small child and the other a teen. One has a lake (with lots and lots and lots of ice and snow and frost and ice that everybody finds themselves on the edge of) and the other has a clove and a cliff and woods and trees and oh my the woods and the trees and the cliff that everybody seems to always find themselves on the edge of. (They both have NO FREAK'N WAY would I live there cottages in the ice and snow and woods on the edge of the lake and clove.)I do however love the mystery and fantasy and fairy tale aspect of her books...Dead Poets Society lite, if you will. I will continue to seek them out and basically enjoy them. I will say..the last chapter of this served no purpose. She had wrapped it up and then felt the need to add another of wrapping paper to wrap it up again. Sometimes you gotta know when to stop.(One more thing you must know about me: I can't abide by much of what makes it to the best seller mystery/thriller lists these days and this is WAY better than James Patterson, etc., IMO.) I think I have read most of Carol Goodman's works, and this is definitely one of the weakest. Basically, Goodman just seems to be writing the same story over and over again. He first two books were great, but the formula isn't working anymore. Some plot points were terribly obvious, while other's were ridiculous and made no sense. I didn't really like any of the characters, and so whenever one was in trouble, (which happened often), I just didn't care what happened to them. The stories within the story (like The Changeling Girl and Lily's diary) are more interesting, but even they wear thin.
What do You think about De Zomergodin (2011)?
Creepy goings-on at an exclusive boarding school in upstate NY. Great for gothic fans.
—sam
predictable. Not as good as her book "The Lake of Dead Languages"
—sal
