Review of Hattie Vavaseur

[OTrain Disene]

[Following is a volunteer review of "Hattie Vavaseur" by M. Rebecca Wildsmith.]

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4 out of 4 stars

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Hattie Vavaseur is a crime fiction novel by M. Rebecca Wildsmith. It is filled with suspense and mystery. It is also coated with supernatural elements to give you a different experience. It is about Hattie Vavaseur, who lives in a grand mansion and seems to be forgetting a lot of things, especially about herself. This book is unbelievable. It is engaging, hilarious, and sad.

The book opens up with Hattie leaving the funeral service. On the way back home, she thinks back about the service, about how it was conducted. She thinks of people she saw who pretended to be crying and those who genuinely cried. She doesn’t know how she herself was and how she felt at the time. It is all so strange. Her driver takes her to a big house, where she resides. This house is so strange because of how enormous it is. Plus, it rarely has any mirror. It’s all just so confusing for Hattie.

The house has an owner who Hattie just knows as the master of the house. He keeps to himself and rarely talks to her. He even dines privately, separated from her. Hattie hates the colour pink, but the room she would be using is painted in that colour. It is all so confusing. She meets Vemelda, a medium who talks strangely and tells her strange, unbelievable things.

Is it strange that Vemelda does not get along with the master of the house? Not only do they not get along, but he also doesn’t want her anywhere near the house. Why is that? Is Hattie ready for the reality check that Vemelda will tell her about? What will that mean for her and her existence?

I love the original plot of this book more than anything. It is something unique and special. It is not very usual for one to read such a book that is filled with plot twists that would leave your jaw on the ground right after picking it up. Hattie was one character that you can’t help yourself but love. She was as strange as her world and existence. Sometimes she tended to annoy me because I found her to be naïve, and I didn’t find that fitting for a person her age. But I understood later that that was just confusion and fear. She had just found out the biggest thing that she couldn’t have ever imagined. She had to make peace with the reality, and I must admit, she handled the whole thing splendidly, unlike the master of the house who was in denial the whole time.

The book is plot-oriented, meaning it is more about the story and its twists than it is about the characters or anything. That’s why I kept the summary brief as much as I could so I don’t spoil it for you. The characterisation was spot on, and I liked it. The book didn’t have a lot of casts. They were all just enough. Each character played their role. The dialects were different. That’s because it was set in England in the 1920s and with many characters from America. So, as can be expected, their speech and dialects were bound to be different. The author paid great attention to that, and she executed it all amazingly.

The pace of the book was steadily slow throughout the book. This didn’t get tedious because the book was short. Only 187 pages long. This slow pace set the soft tone that befitted the nature of the plot. I think, had the pace been any faster, the book would have been different. It’s either it would have felt rushed, or it would have felt way shorter. So everything worked well. I loved that we only knew nearing the end who the villain was. But in the beginning, we didn’t. This created perfect suspense.

There isn’t anything I disliked about this book. My expectations were met and even exceeded. I understood why the book had more narration than dialogue, although I love books with more dialogue than narration. That was because the key was in the plot and not necessarily in the characters. With narration, the attention was deflected to the plot more. But that doesn’t mean the story felt like it was told. It actually felt like the opposite. The descriptions gave out just enough to draw the pictures in my mind, but without giving out too much to spoil the experience.

With everything I have said above, I am happy and proud to rate this book four out of four stars. It more than deserves it. This is a must-read for those who love crime thrillers. The fact that it was professionally edited because I didn’t find any errors was the icing on the cake.

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Hattie Vavaseur
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[Amy Luman]

I read another review on this same novel and was very confused, but still intrigued. Now I understand that it is plot-drive so I know why the descriptions were so vague. I’m gonna get this one since I now want to know about the guy who owns the house.

[Ellylion]

This book is absolutely wonderful and full of surprises! I loved Hattie so much! Really hoping for a sequel Writing style became my favorite feature of the book. Thanks for this insightful review!

[Soraya Bayah]

You wrote a superb review that covered all the aspects of the book. The fact that you later started liking Hattie shows that the characters were not just there to push the plot, despite the book being plot-oriented. Thank you for the critical and helpful review! I now know I will wholly enjoy this one and not be disappointed.

[Nwaka Chukwuemeka]

I love reading book that keeps me in suspense and this is one of the books, I must read, it sounds captivating. Great review.

[IconReviews]

This sounds like an interesting book. I like when a book can be book hilarious and sad at the same time. Hattie seems like a well-developed character

[Mildred Echesa]

The beginning of your review sends chills in my bones and am a little bit afraid but at the same time really mesmerized by it.

[honeybear_11001]

I love that you said the book is unbelievable. I can't wait to read it. This is my kind of reading. Thanks for the wonderful and detailed review.

[marta baglioni]

I absolutely adored this book, so I am really happy to see that you enjoyed reading it as well. It's really difficult to believe this is the first novel of the author: Rebecca Wildsmith has a bright future in front of her, in my opinion. Thank you for this amazing review!