The Probable Future
2 journalers for this copy...
Bought this yesterday in the cut price bookshop in Helmsley.
Well, this one has been sat around a couple of years waiting to be read, and now I've read it. To be honest it's not my favourite Hoffman book so far. I don't know whether she's getting broody about death these days or sentimental about long drawn out deaths, but this one and The Ice Queen are my least favourites.
Well, I mean, it was all right, it wasn't awful or anything like that. So basic plot - it focuses on a family, the Sparrows, who always have baby girls - just the one seemingly per generation. On her thirteenth birthday the girl gets a special power - the youngest, Stella, gets the ability to see how people will die. Her mother can dream other people's dreams etc. The original Sparrow, Rebecca, couldn't feel pain and the arrows are those shot at her by little boys. She ended up being drowned as a witch.
The mother, Jenny, is estranged from her own mother and living in Boston with her daughter. She's seperated from her looser husband. And when Stella forsees a woman's death and persuades her father to try and help, he ends up implicating himself in the murder instead. With all the journalists, it's decided it's best if they move back to the Sparrow family home in a country town, where stubborn grandmother is slowly dying.
And that's about it really. The real murderer turns up at the end to chase Stella and kill her, except then he disappears back into the plot without any conclusion or explanation - either that or I missed it! And the relationships between the three Sparrow women are exhausting. The daughters all hate their mothers, the mothers hate their daughters. So there's so much bitching and carrying on at one another, that I can't say I really took to any of the characters. Plus I am not a fan of teenagers, and for a 13 year old Stella seemed to be very precocious and older than her years.
There's almost a family-witch element as if this is another version of Practical Magic, although I much prefered Practical Magic to this one.
Well, I mean, it was all right, it wasn't awful or anything like that. So basic plot - it focuses on a family, the Sparrows, who always have baby girls - just the one seemingly per generation. On her thirteenth birthday the girl gets a special power - the youngest, Stella, gets the ability to see how people will die. Her mother can dream other people's dreams etc. The original Sparrow, Rebecca, couldn't feel pain and the arrows are those shot at her by little boys. She ended up being drowned as a witch.
The mother, Jenny, is estranged from her own mother and living in Boston with her daughter. She's seperated from her looser husband. And when Stella forsees a woman's death and persuades her father to try and help, he ends up implicating himself in the murder instead. With all the journalists, it's decided it's best if they move back to the Sparrow family home in a country town, where stubborn grandmother is slowly dying.
And that's about it really. The real murderer turns up at the end to chase Stella and kill her, except then he disappears back into the plot without any conclusion or explanation - either that or I missed it! And the relationships between the three Sparrow women are exhausting. The daughters all hate their mothers, the mothers hate their daughters. So there's so much bitching and carrying on at one another, that I can't say I really took to any of the characters. Plus I am not a fan of teenagers, and for a 13 year old Stella seemed to be very precocious and older than her years.
There's almost a family-witch element as if this is another version of Practical Magic, although I much prefered Practical Magic to this one.
Journal Entry 3 by Apechild at -- Controlled Release, -- By post or by hand/ in person -- United Kingdom on Sunday, February 6, 2011
Released 13 yrs ago (2/7/2011 UTC) at -- Controlled Release, -- By post or by hand/ in person -- United Kingdom
CONTROLLED RELEASE NOTES:
I am sending this onwards to a bookmoocher in Warrington. Happy Reading!
I chose to read this week as had a lot going on and didn't want a book with a lot going on it.It fitted the bill. an easy read but ending was a bit abrupt,like entry below it didn't really clear up what exactly happened to the murderer.Put back up on bookmooch ans was quickly mooched.so now on its way to USA
