Last Song of Dusk

OK, so having invested far too much time in this book, I am not investing much more in the review. Frankly I am amazed by so many gushing reviews for this book.

Things in this book that didn't work for me:
- It is set in the 1920s. The dialogue is ridiculously modern, it grates against the setting, far too much.
- There is a parrot in the book, which holds full conversations with its owner - rubbish.
- The genital descriptions are ridiculous to the point some actually make no sense: Example: “...a member between his legs that was lonely and strong willed and utterly gorgeous inside its own confusion...” er, what?
- Every character is over the top - the good ones are ridiculously good, the bad ones are ridiculously bad. Too obvious, no realistic flaws.
- There is a character present for a third of the book who is set up as the protagonist, or villain, and yet when the characters move house we don't hear about her again? Weak. She is replaced by a house as the evil character... yes, I know.
- There is a house, who becomes a character - yes magical realism, which when successful can be subtle and provide an ethereal background to a story (even though I am seldom a big fan), however here is is clumsy and the voice of the ‘character' of the house is so badly written it seems like it was written by a schoolboy.

As a final point, I was just caught up in the story line. For me, the overwritten nature of the prose, the modern dialogue, terrible characterisation and clumsy foreshadowing distracted from what limited story there was.

The story line had potential, it is an interesting enough overall setup, but didn't deliver for me.

2 stars.