Burning Bright by Tracy Chevalier

Title: Bruning Bright

Author: Tracy Chevalier

Publisher: Plume 2008

Genre: Historical Fiction

Pages: 327

Rating: 3/5 stars

Reading Challenges: Mount TBR; Read Your Book Shelf; Popsugar - Used Book Sale

In the waning days of eighteenth-century London, poet, artist, and printer William Blake works in obscurity as England is rocked by the shock waves of the French Revolution. Next door, the Kellaway family has just moved in, and country boy Jem Kellaway strikes up a tentative friendship with street-savvy Maggie Butterfield. As their stories intertwine with Blake's, the two children navigate the confusing and exhilarating path to adolescence, and inspire the poet to create the work that enshrined his genius.

I have enjoyed some of Chevalier's other books, but this one ultimately fell flat. I didn't find the characters all that interesting. The plot seemed to be nonexistent. The story just didn't go anywhere and I was bored for most of the pages. The other real redeeming portion of the book were the sections depicting London in 1792. I found myself drawn into the city at a time of great upheaval. The writing comes alive in those passages. Otherwise I was just bored.

Remarkable Creatures by Tracy Chevalier

Title: Remarkable Creatures

Author: Tracy Chevalier

Publisher: Plume 2009

Genre: Fiction

Pages: 312

Rating:  4/5 stars

Reading Challenges: TBR Reduction; Mount TBR; A to Z - R; 52 Books - W4

On the windswept, fossil-strewn beaches of the English coast, poor and uneducated Mary Anning learns that she has a unique gift: "the eye" to spot fossils no one else can see. When she uncovers an unusual fossilized skeleton in the cliffs near her home, she sets the religious community on edge, the townspeople to gossip, and the scientific world alight. After enduring bitter cold, thunderstorms, and landslips, her challenges only grow when she falls in love with an impossible man.

Mary soon finds an unlikely champion in prickly Elizabeth Philpot, a middle-class spinster who shares her passion for scouring the beaches. Their relationship strikes a delicate balance between fierce loyalty, mutual appreciation, and barely suppressed envy, but ultimately turns out to be their greatest asset.

I chose this book for our March book club. The book has sat on my shelves for a few years just waiting for me to pick it up. I was drawn in by the premise of a fictionalized account of two of the first female paleontologists. I really enjoyed learning more about Mary Anning and Elizabeth Philpot. I loved the descriptions of finding the various fossils and of the Lyme landscape. The story kept me going through the novel. Unfortunately the writing style gave me pause. Something about the sentence construction occasionally jolted me out of the world. The voices of the two characters didn't quite seem natural. Because of my slight pause, I knocked off a star. A good read, but not the best one...