The Quality of Silence by Rosamund Lupton

I really enjoyed Sister by Rosamund Lupton, so I bought this one (it was on special - and I can't walk past a brilliantly priced book if I might like it) and Afterwards. Basically that means I own every book she has written.

The synopsis of this book had me. A mom, Yasmin, and her deaf daughter, Ruby, head through Alaska looking for her husband, who is presumed dead. However, they are not as alone as they think they are. They are being watched. Insert drum roll here.

This is going to sound like a very mixed review. In so many ways, this was a five star book, but the ending just didn't do it for me. Let me explain.

Lupton is a really good writer. In both this book and Sister, she created characters that felt really real. But, while I really did enjoy both perspectives in this novel, there were some occasions where I felt it was not necessary to have both perspectives on the same event. Yes, some were interesting, I won't deny that. I also enjoyed learning about Alaska from the point of view of the child. Her love and enthusiasm made something, that could have read like a dull textbook, sound fascinating. I also enjoyed Ruby's view on words. In fact, I liked almost everything to do with Ruby. Seeing the world through the eyes of a deaf girl was quite the experience. I particularly loved how Ruby explained words.

Noise: Looks like flashing lights, neon-bright; feels like rubble falling; tastes like other people's breathed out air.

Ruby in Quality of Silence - Rosamund Lupton

The pacing was a bit irregular, though. The first half of the book was a bit slow, and then everything happened. I know that we were learning about the characters at that point, but, although I had no objection, this is something that could put a lot of readers off.

Lupton was a genius at creating the atmosphere. Here, in Africa, on the Sunshine Coast, my feet turned to ice blocks reading about the snow storms. I love it when the book I am reading makes me feel like I am living with the characters. In this case I did. I think this was a magnificent example of writing about snow and weather.

So why did I only give it a 3 star rating (well, 3.5 for my own records)? Because the end was a disappointment. While this strategy worked well for Sister, it just felt like a lazy cop out. Yes, yes, "it is up to the reader to decide what they think happened". Bull shit. Sometimes ending a book on the climax works. In most cases it leaves the reader feeling like they had just wasted a heck of a lot of time to not KNOW. Guessing is not the same as knowing. To go through ALL THOSE DETAILED pages of the relationships of the characters and then leave everything hanging in mid air... The ending did not fit the rest of the book.

I have another book by Lupton here, and I sure as hell hope that she actually finishes that one. Her beautiful prose can be her signature mark, not her 'up in the air, figure it out for yourself' endings.