This is novel’s setting tone and style is highly reminiscent of “Downton Abbey”, Edith Wharton, andHenry James. If you enjoy any of those three like I do, you’ll at least find this novel mildly interesting.

Like DA, this novel has several elements of soap opera. It has many predictable moments, public humiliation, men and women with mother issues, love affairs and love squares. Most of the characters are not well drawn. The writer has just enough about each of them, but not enough for me to find it remarkable or anywhere near a character study.

I really only liked Cora the protagonist towards the end. I identified with her because even with her spoilt upbringing, she is straight forward and frank. I felt bad for her as well. As a result, the ending left me dissatisfied. It reminded me about how I felt with the ending of James’s A Portrait of a Lady. I wasn’t exactly ecstatic or pleased with how it ended. It just ended almost abruptly.

It did make me reflect how the rich in those days had such insufferable lifestyles where you had to host so many parties, live in idleness and all the gossip and the social machinations that goes with it. It really makes you think how things are better without such foolishness especially for women.

This was a decent debut novel, and it got better as the somewhat predictable plot progressed. I started to care for the characters as it went on, but I don’t think this is an outstanding work. It suited my day of recovering from illness. It was a fine read for my mood.

Read Dec 22 2013.

The last young adult I read set in an American boarding school fell short, but this one is much more interesting.

It is funny and has a few hand drawn comics done by the protagonist, Winger aka Ryan Dean West. There is this sense of timelessness in the book too. There is actually very little technology mentioned in the book, but it’s focussed more on the rawness and alienation of being a fourteen year old boy. The author captured the craziness of that time well or from what I vaguely remember as a teenager.

The book has some random, funny and poignant moments. The ending was particularly intense. It did make me cry a little. I thought it was moving and a big testament to the characters and the various forms of friendships. Friendship and loyalty were big themes in this novel and Smith drew that out well. The characters were well developed in a short period of time and there was a lot of pathos without being preachy or sanctimonious. The ending was handled well.

Read Dec 15-16, 2013. This was my 65th book of the year which was my GoodReads reading goal. I was well ahead of my reading up until the busy October-November I had. In any case, I will do my best with my next goal of 70. I haven’t raised it the last couple of years, but I think it’s time that I should.