Review of Hattie Vavaseur
Posted: 28 Aug 2021, 08:41
[Following is a volunteer review of "Hattie Vavaseur" by M. Rebecca Wildsmith.]
<i>Hattie Vavaseur<i> is the debut novel by <i>M.Rebecca Wildsmith<i>. It is a concoction of romance, thriller/ mystery, comedy and a few supernatural elements set in the early nineteen hundred revolving around the titular character, Hattie Vavaseur. All in all, it spans more than one genres of fiction with a “literaturesque” touch to it since it’s a period novel based out in the early 1900 England.
The story has been narrated from a third person perspective, following the prevalent status quo and segueing into the past life of the titular character in order to unearth the answers to the pressing questions at hand. Basically, it is rooted in the present with frequent trips to the past with the help of flashbacks from memory of Hattie herself or an external aid, the supernatural kind of course.
The title of this debut novel does complete justice to it since the main focus of the entire novel has been fixated on Hattie Vavaseur only. The novel recounts her story in a layered manner and it successfully keeps the mystery about her alive without stretching it beyond necessary. Its length can vouch for the same. Moreover, the author has been able to paint a story without making it predictable despite it incorporating a lot of clichés regarding the budding romance in Hattie’s life.
Talking about the romantic aspect of this novel, which I think is quite major, I found it somewhat organic and quite natural. But it was too ideal for me; though that might as well be the cynic inside me talking. Any which way, it was decent enough and despite my aversion towards romance, love and anything even remotely related to it, I found the novel to be bearable.
It didn’t have much depth of course be it related to the characters or the progression of the narrative around them. The characters are basic at best and sometimes even feel two dimensional. We are not given much into the “hows” and “whys” of the characters, not even female protagonist’s. She is supposed to be a headstrong woman with character and the groundwork for her being exactly that is also laid out. But it falls short of justifying her personage. The character of Reginald feels a mere prop to support the story of Hattie herself like everyone else’s.
Also, the novel gets a tad confusing when comes to explaining the co-existence of both the living and dead on the same plane of space and time. You do get most of the answers regarding most of the anomalies but then it reduces the level of nuance in this work to almost nil.
There is nothing unique about this book other than the affirmation that <i>M.Rebecca Wildsmith<i> has the potential and promise to write. I was amazed by the proficiency of language used by her at first but then I was able to locate some glaring grammatical and spelling errors. I was disappointed by such mishaps in the editing since the author had managed to use a few obsolete words, maintain a good cache of high level vocabulary and yet she used “breach the subject”. It was mind boggling that someone who knows how to use “paroxysm” so correctly would not be aware of a word as common as “broach”.
I’d still recommend this book though and would like to give it <b>3 out of 4 stars<b>. It’s a light read and you can manage to finish it in a single seating too.
******
Hattie Vavaseur
View: on Bookshelves | on Amazon
<i>Hattie Vavaseur<i> is the debut novel by <i>M.Rebecca Wildsmith<i>. It is a concoction of romance, thriller/ mystery, comedy and a few supernatural elements set in the early nineteen hundred revolving around the titular character, Hattie Vavaseur. All in all, it spans more than one genres of fiction with a “literaturesque” touch to it since it’s a period novel based out in the early 1900 England.
The story has been narrated from a third person perspective, following the prevalent status quo and segueing into the past life of the titular character in order to unearth the answers to the pressing questions at hand. Basically, it is rooted in the present with frequent trips to the past with the help of flashbacks from memory of Hattie herself or an external aid, the supernatural kind of course.
The title of this debut novel does complete justice to it since the main focus of the entire novel has been fixated on Hattie Vavaseur only. The novel recounts her story in a layered manner and it successfully keeps the mystery about her alive without stretching it beyond necessary. Its length can vouch for the same. Moreover, the author has been able to paint a story without making it predictable despite it incorporating a lot of clichés regarding the budding romance in Hattie’s life.
Talking about the romantic aspect of this novel, which I think is quite major, I found it somewhat organic and quite natural. But it was too ideal for me; though that might as well be the cynic inside me talking. Any which way, it was decent enough and despite my aversion towards romance, love and anything even remotely related to it, I found the novel to be bearable.
It didn’t have much depth of course be it related to the characters or the progression of the narrative around them. The characters are basic at best and sometimes even feel two dimensional. We are not given much into the “hows” and “whys” of the characters, not even female protagonist’s. She is supposed to be a headstrong woman with character and the groundwork for her being exactly that is also laid out. But it falls short of justifying her personage. The character of Reginald feels a mere prop to support the story of Hattie herself like everyone else’s.
Also, the novel gets a tad confusing when comes to explaining the co-existence of both the living and dead on the same plane of space and time. You do get most of the answers regarding most of the anomalies but then it reduces the level of nuance in this work to almost nil.
There is nothing unique about this book other than the affirmation that <i>M.Rebecca Wildsmith<i> has the potential and promise to write. I was amazed by the proficiency of language used by her at first but then I was able to locate some glaring grammatical and spelling errors. I was disappointed by such mishaps in the editing since the author had managed to use a few obsolete words, maintain a good cache of high level vocabulary and yet she used “breach the subject”. It was mind boggling that someone who knows how to use “paroxysm” so correctly would not be aware of a word as common as “broach”.
I’d still recommend this book though and would like to give it <b>3 out of 4 stars<b>. It’s a light read and you can manage to finish it in a single seating too.
******
Hattie Vavaseur
View: on Bookshelves | on Amazon