A Gathering Light

[Lulu]

When Mattie Gokey is given a bundle of letters to burn she fully intends to execute the wishes of the giver, Grace Brown. When Grace Brown is found drowned the next day in Big Moose Lake, Mattie finds that it is not as easy to burn those letters as she had thought. And, as she reads, a riveting story emerges - not only Grace Brown's story but also Mattie's hopes and ambitions for the future and her relationships with her friends and family.


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[Harriet]

I'm halfway through this and I don't really feel compelled to finish it, the plots quite thin and kind of boring. I don't quite understand why it's won the Carnegie Medal, but I can see why most people would like it.

[Sara]

I just finished reading this. Loved the central character and liked how lost she was and thought her feelings of inadequacy were well expressed. It was good how Donnelly tied together real and imaginary events and characters. Each character was described so vividly too. The plot switching between times and places worked really well.

It ended a bit quickly though, especially when you consider the guilt Mattie felt about leaving her family, which seemed to disappear far too quickly.

[Kats]

I felt the same way too Sara.

I loved the story as a whole though.

[Harriet]

Bah, I guess I should finish it.

[Adrian]

I thought Mattie was a great central character, with the proviso that I always knew she was going to head off to study in NY. The farm poverty was a bit Angela's Ashes (and that's not a compliment), but the hotel story was well written, and I certainly wanted to know what happened to all the characters.

It's one of the few TV book club books (R & J I guess but it could have been Page Turners) that I'll go back and re-read.