The Gingerbread House by Maeva Park Dobner

I began reading this novel at the recommendation of Absinthe via her blog {http://glooomysunday.blogspot.com/}. I'm sorry to say my reaction to the novel was quite different. Generally I prefer a story remain focused on a very small cast of characters and the protagonist of course. Ms. Dobner is bold in writing this multi-focus novel, wherein the attention shifts from one major player to another. Kudos to her for managing it and this is a quality I've not yet encountered in any other Gothic...however, I find it distracting. :-(

Ms. Dobner's book is also very moody. Some of that is of course due to the shifts in focus; but even the main protagonist's moods and the atmosphere around her can change rather suddenly. I prefer that a tone/mood be set from the get-go in a Gothic, and it's maintained (until the very end of course, when everything's been resolved and "happy"). To that end I didn't feel relaxed with the book...and to be honest, my husband's moody enough! ;-P

Overall I didn't have the patience for the book either, and will admit I didn't read to the end. Perhaps some day I will. Hopefully I haven't done it an injustice, but I simply wanted to get on and read a Gothic (in the process of that currently) which gripped me from the get-go and has all the character/atmosphere/speed "settings" I prefer.

Will defer rating the book. Maybe it's one of those "you either like it or you don't" things. And mine is merely a subjective opinion of course.