Sarah's Library

16/4 - Even without reading a word of this I get a really strong feeling of (most likely unsuspicious) similarity between this and the movie The Missing. Except it's a son who is left behind instead of a daughter and they go on a journey of revenge instead of a rescue mission - it's about the feeling, not the details.

The idea that while I'm out or away from home my whole family will die (probably not due to murder by bandits) sometimes worries me, so this book has already grabbed me by the emotions, just from the blurb. To be continued...

Later - Page 43 - That poor owl, I think that's the saddest part of the whole book so far, even over the murders.
Page 56 - That's a revelation! When Elspeth talked about being a sinner at the beginning of the book I figured she was being overly dramatic (you know, she's a sinner because of lustful, covetous, envious, etc. thoughts). I never expected her to be putting it lightly when she called herself a sinner. She's more than a sinner, it seems, she's an outright criminal. To be continued...

21/4 - This was a really good book, a solid 4 stars, for the first 99% and then it was all down hill for that last 1%. That was a really bad ending to a great book. There was the slow unravelling of Elspeth's story running in the background to the main focus of the book, the hunt for the murderers, and the final reveal of all of her secrets and sins was done perfectly. But then we come to the final scene and the vagueness surrounding who was dead and who wasn't and 

regarding justice for his family and punishment for the murderers. Caleb's thoughts as he watched out the window don't seem to gel with his previous personality. 

 It should have been that simple, but Scott wanted to leave the reader guessing, or wanting more, or some crap like that and so we end up with an inferior ending to a really enjoyable book.