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Anna Mazzola

Auteur de The Unseeing

5+ oeuvres 331 utilisateurs 19 critiques

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Comprend les noms: Anna Mazzola

Œuvres de Anna Mazzola

The Unseeing (2016) 149 exemplaires
The Clockwork Girl (2022) 93 exemplaires
The Story Keeper (2018) 58 exemplaires
The House of Whispers (2023) 27 exemplaires

Oeuvres associées

Mystery Tour (2017) — Contributeur — 35 exemplaires
Three Things I’d Tell My Younger Self (2018) — Contributeur — 7 exemplaires

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I didn't know what this was about, I read it because I really liked the author's other book 'the clockwork girl', which was a haunting mystery in the 18th century.
This one has the same gripping, eerie atmosphere, but an entirely different setting. From the first few pages it sucks you into the grim, constricting world of facist Italy and dread only grows with every page. From the start it's clear that this will go horribly wrong and I was still glued to the pages.
The author has a true talent for creating a haunted house type feeling and it's great.

One of the downsides was that it felt heavy handed at times. Books should show instead of tell, and I felt like this one did a bit too much telling. Eva spells out every single argument and line of thought in arguments with her Jewish and homosexual friends. She draw a parallel between people keeping their heads low and her mother who was trying to avoid her father's violent outbursts, but made it slightly too obvious. Where is the line between accepting life as a lamb to the slaughter and making the best out of a terrible situation?

Eva chooses the latter. At some point she says: "Of course it bothers me, more than that it distresses me. Sometimes I almost don't want to think about it. Sometimes I just want to be able to live my life, the same as everybody else does, and focus on things I can control."
The main story is slow, following Eva as she does exactly that. The teaches the daughter of a rich bachelor piano and falls for the fake security that his house and money buys.
I felt like the first part had too much about this guy charming Eva. Everyone knows from page 1 that it's a bad idea. He is a facist and his house is possibly haunted, duh.
Instead, I wanted more of her friendship with Mirella, who is jewish and Ettore, who is gay. All they do in the first half is argue. Mirella wants to flee the country and Ettore wants to join the resistance and I would have liked to see more about the three different approaches to the rising facism.
Fight, flight or freeze.

Oh and the dog doesnt die, that's also important.
… (plus d'informations)
½
 
Signalé
MYvos | May 12, 2023 |
A bit slow, & a bit predictable, BUT Mazzola does wonders capturing the sights & smells of 18th century Paris.
½
 
Signalé
thiscatsabroad | 4 autres critiques | Apr 1, 2023 |
A grim historical mystery about automatons, murder and anatomy.
A bit slow sometimes, but I did not want to stop reading
 
Signalé
MYvos | 4 autres critiques | Sep 1, 2022 |
Gothic executed to perfection!
Madeleine infiltrates the clockmaker’s household as a maid to inform the police of the strange happenings taking place there.
The clockmaker builds the strangest and eerily accurate machines, and with young children disappearing in the streets of Paris, the authorities fear it must be him doing experiments to build his machines to perfection.
With the conspiracy reaching all the way to Versailles and the King himself, the ending has a twist you will not see coming.
Quite enjoyed it.
… (plus d'informations)
 
Signalé
AleAleta | 4 autres critiques | Jun 29, 2022 |

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Statistiques

Œuvres
5
Aussi par
2
Membres
331
Popularité
#71,753
Évaluation
3.9
Critiques
19
ISBN
36

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