As Chimney Sweepers Come to Dust by Alan Bradley

As Chimney Sweepers Come to Dust
by Alan Bradley
Hardcover, 392 pages
January 6, 2015, Delacorte Press
4 stars

Twelve-year-old Flavia de Luce is out of her element in this, the seventh installment, of Alan Bradley's series. The start of the novel has Flavia on a ship, mid-way across the Atlantic, bound for Canada, where she will be starting her education at Miss Bodycote's Female Academy. She barely has time to settle into her new home when a body comes tumbling down from the chimney, wrapped in the Union Jack, with an animal skull replacing its head. Her homesickness is gone at the prospect of a mystery to solve and she gets right to work. Her investigations reveals students gone mysteriously missing from Miss Bodycote's, a secret society, and a teacher with a murderous past. 

********************

"The more I deal with adults, the less I wanted to be one." 

I enjoyed this book immensely. Flavia's personality was just what we've come to know and love - she's precocious, quick on her feet, and not afraid of anything. The development of the other characters - her classmates, her teachers, and even the headmistress - were all wonderful and it was easy to distinguish one from another. Miss Bodycote's school and the surrounding city are described in delightful detail, right down to the general store run by the woman who is entertained by Flavia's "charming" accent.

I was a bit disappointed, however, in how disjointed the book felt from the rest of the series. Without access to her attic library, Flavia finds herself without the solace of chemistry for most of the book.  The mystery itself sometimes seemed weaker than past plots, and I'll also freely admit that I missed Buckshaw!  The characters, the setting, the dependable Dogger and Gertrude...the story arcs that had been built up over the series were seemingly abandoned, and this new setting didn't feel quite like home. Things were touched upon briefly during this novel that I wish had been expanded upon, namely Harriet's time at the school and her participation in the Nides, the secret society that Flavia is there to become a part of as well. Secrets were not elaborated on and I hope that Bradley plans on returning to those story lines later to explain in more detail.

In the end, I love this series and so I enjoyed the book. I can't wait, however, for Flavia to be back at Buckshaw, where she belongs.

What to Drink: Reading an English cozy that takes place in Canada almost cries for a warm cuppa while wrapped in wollens.

Backlist Bump: Read the rest of this series. Really. It's fantastic.

 (I received an advanced copy from Bantam via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.) 

Fates and Furies

This book by Lauren Groff was one of the hottest in 2015, and it is certainly a well-written book.  I can understand the buzz based on the fact that it was well-written, and fairly original.  However, I found this one something of a slog, and kept waiting for it to grab me and have that a-ha moment.  For me, that never happened.

Lotto and Mathilde are a young newlywed couple who have just graduated from college, he comes from a wealthy family and has been the biggest fish in his small college town, acting as the lead in all the school plays.  They are off to NYC to find their futures.  But…Lotto’s mom is not happy that her precious boy got married and cuts him off financially.  So, they have to find their way without the money that he’s always had access to.  Added to this, is the fact that he’s not that great an actor, and spends years trying to find the place his genius lies (because for some reason he’s just a genius and can’t possible get a job that’s beneath him to help pay bills and wallows instead)

Eventually Lotto becomes an amazing playwright, the couple continues their lives in wealth and art…and Groff writes the story in two parts, from Lotto’s perspective and then from Mathilde’s.  I found the first half tighter, easier to follow and the second half, from Mathilde’s perspective much looser, more difficult to follow but far more interesting.  The book really has no likable characters.  I found myself not really caring about any of them, which makes it much harder for me to get through a story with any excitement, which even with fantastic writing, makes it fall a little flat for me.  

Beverage pairing is champagne - whether cheap or expensive, it's all about the celebrations with Lotto & Mathilde.