Hot off the Shelf: What I'm reading - 'The Observations' Harris, Jane.

One spoiler, but nothing vital to the plot.

(Yes, I'm trying pictures now!)

I don't really know what to think about this.

I borrowed it from the library, as Goodreads had suggested it, based on the other things I had read. I can see why it flagged as a suggestion. It's the kind of thing I read when I'm looking for a novel that's not too demanding, not too heavy, but with enough of a plot to keep me interested. I seem to lean toward historical fiction for this sort of thing (which is weird, because that genre can often be very heavy going!), usually set in Victorian (ish) Britain. These novels I enjoy are often very well researched, which I like, and are almost more engrossing for me, as (I think I've mentioned before) my knowledge on historical matters amounts to very little. This novel in particular was shortlisted for the Orange Broadband Prize for Fiction in 2007, which reassured me it wouldn't be awful at least.

A lot of these books that I enjoy for 'light' reading seem to be based around a female protagonist, who is of a lower class. She moves to a city, or takes up a position somewhere and some kind of mystery or drama happens, to generalise somewhat. This is sort of the plot in 'The Observations'. What I liked most about this novel, is the narrator, Bessy Buckley. An Irish Girl with a sketchy past that's unfurled slowly throughout the novel, who moves to Scotland and takes a position as a maid at an old, ill-kept manor house. The historical slang she uses and her tone in general is really fun and keeps you well in her mind-set and the era of the novel. Her honesty and openness is what kept me moving through this at the rate I did. Usually with these books I like to read slowly, a bit at a time. But here I quite wanted to know what happened next, as Bessy's reaction to things often mirrored my own, especially her ponderings over the odd habits and directions displayed by her 'missus'.

The story is well paced, neither giving you everything right at the start, nor rushing everything at the end and the characters are well developed and believable. It concludes well, I felt satisfied by the ending. You don't notice, but Bessy's manner of speech alters somewhat by the end, it becomes slightly more refined - but she is still Bessy. Still using some of her slang and still devoted to her missus.

One bad point? I really didn't understand why Bessy had that brief...ahem...'moment', with Hector. It may have been put in to show Bessy's emotions, how low and flippant she was feeling. But she made her revulsion of him perfectly clear for the whole novel, both before and after the 'incident' and her past would have put her off boys such as him (one would assume). That's the only niggling I had. I just don't think she would have done it, should she have been real and had gone through what she did.

Overall probably about 3.5 out of five. A nice example of it's genre. Hopefully within the next couple of weeks I will be visiting some lovely bookshops and libraries to write about on here!

Over and out.