Book review: 'blueeyedboy' by Joanne Harris

I've had an account over at Goodreads for a while. I really like it as a website and the way it works as a social networking site with a difference, and I post up the occasional super-short review. I like doing this mainly because it helps me remember what I've read and what I thought of the book in the immediate aftermath of turning the final page. I just wrote one and noticed it gave you the option to share your review through a blog so I thought I'd give it a go! If this works well and my readers are interested, I may post some more in future!

Blueeyedboy by Joanne Harris
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I thought I would love this, as I recently read Joanne Harris's 'Gentlemen and Players', which I thought was a superb book, and was told this was in the same vein.

It has considerable similarities, based again on the idea of concealing your identity, and even set in the same town (the fictional school that formed the setting of 'Gentlemen and Players' also features in this novel). I liked the concept - the idea of characters hiding behind online identities, the blurring of the boundaries between fact and fiction. But I ultimately didn't get drawn into this book. The way it's told, through a series of fictional/semi-fictional blog posts by the two main characters, caused the narrative to lose momentum a little, and as a result the suspense didn't build enough for me and the twist at the end, while clever, didn't deliver the punch I was expecting.

Still, it's interesting, intelligent and well-written. I would still recommend this book, but perhaps not as strongly as some of Joanne Harris's other work.

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I am a massive book lover and something I always wanted to do on my old blog but never got around to (there was always too much fun day-to-day stuff to write about while I was in Australia!) was to share some of my all time favourite books, what brought me to them and why I love them. Hopefully I'll get started on that soon!