Jonathan Barnes (2) (1979–)
Autor(a) de The Somnambulist
Para outros autores com o nome Jonathan Barnes, veja a página de desambiguação.
About the Author
Jonathan Barnes has a BSc in Biological Sciences from the University of Sussex. He has been writing since the age of 21 and under a pseudonym has published four novels. He cam across the Bates method in 1983 and, as a wearer of glasses himself, decided to investigate it from a biologist's mostrar mais viewpoint. He found it logical and consistent, and since practising it has been able to improve his eyesight and discard his glasses. (Bowker Author Biography) mostrar menos
Séries
Obras de Jonathan Barnes
Associated Works
The Conception of Terror: Tales Inspired by M. R. James - Volume 1: An Audible Original Drama (2019) — Autor, algumas edições — 88 cópias
Etiquetado
Conhecimento Comum
- Data de nascimento
- 1979
- Sexo
- male
- Nacionalidade
- UK
- Locais de residência
- London, England, UK
- Educação
- Oxford University
- Ocupação
- novelist
- Pequena biografia
- Jonathan Barnes (2) graduated from Oxford University with a first in English literature. He reviews for the Times Literary Supplement and lives in London.
Membros
Resenhas
Listas
Prêmios
You May Also Like
Associated Authors
Estatísticas
- Obras
- 29
- Also by
- 6
- Membros
- 1,852
- Popularidade
- #13,892
- Avaliação
- 3.3
- Resenhas
- 157
- ISBNs
- 198
- Idiomas
- 13
- Favorito
- 2
I really didn't like this book, which makes me feel bad, because I really wanted to. That, and I hate writing negative reviews. I am NOT happy about this, people. But that may be the subject of another post. Someday. Maybe. For now, I'll just go on being unhappy about this situation.
So, anyways, back to the book. I went in thinking it would be a mystery/thriller about a literary hoax. Here I was, expecting a fast-paced, exciting journey across England as our insightful academic searches for clues to uncover the secret of Matthew Cannonbridge and how he got to be England's most famous author. Great story, right? Well, not quite. Turns out, there's a whole lot of supernatural forces involved in the creation of Cannonbridge. Now, I don't usually have a problem with the presence of supernatural elements in a story. In fact, most of the time, I quite like it. But in order for that to happen, I have to understand what is happening. With this book, I just went from confused to more confused. I just could not make sense of what was happening, and that really frustrated me. Of course, that may just be me, and someone else reading it could actually make sense of the whole thing much better than I did.
The characters were also very unrelatable and generally unlikeable. The story jumped back and forth between the modern day, where Toby Judd starts his investigation into Cannonbridge, and the past, where Cannonbridge himself goes on to meet a wide variety of important authors, like Mary Shelley, Charles Dickens and Oscar Wilde. I was actually quite intrigued by this idea, of seeing the hoax take place while at the same time following the present-day investigation. That was back when I thought this story revolved around a hoax. As the story progressed, I started to doubt the usefulness of this device, and actually became very annoyed with it at one point. My excitement at the idea that we would see Cannonbridge influence the greats of English literature just vanished, as I felt these chapters to read more like an endless parade of big names with almost no very little weight on the story. The characters' motivations, and even most of their actions, made very little sense to me, and I had a very hard time seeing where they were coming from.
Even though this wasn't a long book (less than 300 pages), I found it extremely difficult to go through with it. I actually considered DNFing at several points, but just kept going hoping that it would get better later on, or that it would have a wonderful conclusion that would just blow my mind. It didn't. I was left just as disappointed at the ending as I had been throughout the whole read. I was really sorry about this, because this book had so much potential. But, for me, it failed. It failed as a thriller and it failed as a supernatural. I wasn't thrilled at all! I was just bored for the most part, and confused for the rest. Now, I'm glad I finished it, and I'm ready to move on.… (mais)