3.5 starsI first heard of Michelle Cooper's A Brief History of Montmaray a few weeks ago, when it was compared to Dodie Smith's I Capture the Castle, which I adore. So of course I had to find this.A Brief History of Montmaray (The Montmaray Journals, #1)And in some ways, there are a lot of parallels: both narrators are teenage girls, telling their story as journal entries; both live in a relatively reclusive world; and both live the paradoxical world of the impoverished nobility. Sophie is a princess, the niece of the King of Montmaray, a small fictional island somewhere between Spain and England. But she cleans the castle, cooks, and does laundry, as the populace of Montmaray is something less than ten people. The narrator here is delightful: as a writer, it was interesting to see how the voice itself pulled me through the first half of the novel, which was quite slow. And for all that common writerly advice is that the main character has to want something and actively strive for it, Sophie's not that clearly drawn by her desires. Her role is primarily that of a passive narrator for much of the novel, though it's to her credit and the writer's credit that I still found her interesting and sympathetic.Not much happens in the first part of the novel: Sophie pines over Simon, the housekeeper's son, who is living in London like her brother Toby, who's struggling with school. The king is mad, and Sophie tries to avoid him while curtailing the worst of her youngest sister's madcap behavior.But then a pair of SS officers show up on the island ostensibly looking for clues to the Holy Grail, and the novel takes a sudden, and fairly dark, turn into adventure--the pace picks up dramatically at that point. For all that I loved the narrator, I missed some of the delightful first romance in I Capture the Castle. So overall, a novel that I enjoyed but didn't love. I am honestly ashamed at how long this took me to read. It wasn't even the fact that I'm a slow reader (because I'm not) - but that I kept putting it off. "A Brief History of Montmaray" was recommended to me by one of my best friends who gave it a raving review. While I did end up enjoying the novel, it took me until about halfway to get interested. The problem, I found, was Sophie. In the beginning, I found her quite annoying, somewhat frustrating and an altogether unrelatable character - particularly with her almost obsessive unrequited love for Simon Chester. To be honest, it was only my friend's review, my interest in Veronica and my determination to finish that kept me from putting this book down and not picking it back up again. However, my opinion (thankfully) changed and while this is not the greatest book out there, I did end up enjoying it enough to want to read the sequel. Other Characters of NoteI mentioned beforehand that I loved Veronica - and I did. I always get excited when there's a bookish character and she was just amazing. Veronica was not only intelligent, but pursued answers and was active in her political views. On top of that, Veronica somehow managed to manage the household affairs. She was without a doubt my favourite character throughout the whole story. I admire her greatly. I never like Rebecca - not even in the beginning. There's not much I can say without giving anything away, but as the book progressed I liked her even less - to the point where I even wished her dead. Rebecca annoyed me much worse than Sophie - she was useless, slightly mad, complicated things and just vexed me to no end. I really hope she doesn't have a part in the next book, simply disappearing into the shadows (and taking Simon with her, ideally). Henry was... unusual. I did enjoy her antics, and her endeavours to convince everyone that she really was a boy were rather amusing. Toby was great. He sounds like the perfect brother! I did get slightly frustrated at him near the end, but he was great. He had some hilarious lines that made me laugh. All in all, "A Brief History of Montmaray" was an enjoyable read after I got past the approximate half way point and I look forward to reading the sequel. However, I certainly do not believe that it lives up to all those raving reviews.
Do You like book A Brief History Of Montmaray (2009)?
A bit slow-paced at first but a good YA Historical Fiction read.
—lilsecret24
