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Lynn Coady

Forfatter af The Antagonist

13+ Works 825 Members 32 Reviews 1 Favorited

Om forfatteren

Lynn Coady was born in Cape Breton. She has a Bachelor of Arts from Carleton University and an MFA from the University of British Columbia, in Vancouver. She has edited an anthology of new writing from Canada's east coast called 'Victory Meat,' and a novel called 'Mean Boy' has been sold to vis mere Doubleday Canada. She writes for newspapers and magazines from time to time as well. Her title, Strange Heaven has won the Dartmouth Book Award in 1999, the Atlantic Bookseller's Choice Award in 1999, the Air Canada/Canadian Author's Association Award for Most Promising Writer Under Thirty in 1998, and was shortlisted for the Governer-General's Award for Fiction in 1998. Her title, Play the Monster Blind, won the Canadian Author's Association's Jubilee Award for a short fiction collection in 2001, was shortlisted for the Stephen Leacock Award for Humour in 2000, was shortlisted again for the CNIB Award, and The Writer's Trust Award in 2001. (Bowker Author Biography) vis mindre

Includes the name: Lynn Coady

Image credit: photo: Christy Ann Conlin

Værker af Lynn Coady

The Antagonist (2013) 212 eksemplarer
Hellgoing: Stories (2013) 132 eksemplarer
Strange Heaven (1998) 115 eksemplarer
Saints of Big Harbour (2002) 102 eksemplarer
Mean Boy (2006) 91 eksemplarer
Play the Monster Blind (2000) 62 eksemplarer
Watching You Without Me (2020) 62 eksemplarer
The Three Marys (2014) 2 eksemplarer

Associated Works

McSweeney's Issue 47 (2014) — Bidragyder — 53 eksemplarer
Sex and Death: Stories (2016) — Bidragyder — 43 eksemplarer
The Oxford Book of Stories by Canadian Women in English (1999) — Forfatter, nogle udgaver29 eksemplarer

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Actual Rating: 3.5

Thanks to Netgalley and the publishers for a free e-copy in exchange for an honest review.

Wow, this was a hard one to rate. It wasn’t a bad read and I actually was quite invested in the outcome, but it was not necessarily a captivating book.

This book follows Karen. When her mother suddenly dies, she’s forced to move back home to Nova Scotia and take care of her disabled sister Kelli. Even though she’s new to everything, at least Trevor, a hired caregiver — and close friend of her mother — is always there to help. Karen grows to depend more and more on him, while at the same time feeling uneasy with his presence; he’s pushy and bossy and seems to make himself a tad bit too comfortable in their home. But what right does she have to say anything when she was the absentee daughter who left to live her own life, the one who only called home once-a-month because it was what was expected?

The plot for this book definitely started out a little too slow for my liking, and it also wasn’t the type of story I was expecting. From the original blurb I thought it would be more thriller/mystery and to be honest I think it does the book a disservice to market it that way — it’s a lot more contemporary/family. I didn’t really get into it until about 40% in. After that, even though I was more invested in the developments between Trevor and Karen, it still very slow, as if we were trudging towards an end result that I already saw coming. Nevertheless, I really appreciate the realistic and subtle way in which emotionally and mentally abusive relationships and questionable power dynamics were portrayed.

At its core, Watching You Without Me was not very character-driven, and Karen was not very likeable because it felt like she kept making bad decisions. HOWEVER. And this is a huge however: I get it. I completely understand the difficulty of recognizing toxicity and bullying when it’s happening to you, and the difficulty in taking any action at all. It feels like Karen does well not as an individual, but in representing a concept, and I’m okay with that.

The writing style was overall pretty good. There were no lines that jumped out at me for their eloquence and it took me a while to get invested, but as a whole I felt like the book wrote a good story and made its reader think.

Overall, I think this would be good for a reader of contemporary fiction, especially one who reads about navigating dysfunctional family dynamics or taking care of a family member with disabilities.
… (mere)
 
Markeret
CatherineHsu | 5 andre anmeldelser | May 27, 2021 |
I enjoyed this story about Karen, who has returned home after 20 years to deal with the death of her mother, and the long-term care of her developmentally delayed older sister. She comes to rely on Trevor, one of her sister's support workers. This novel builds tension slowly. Told from Karen's perspective, we can see her coming to terms with her relationship with her mother, her past choices and her next steps. Very well written, with complex characters that I really wanted to find out how they ended up.… (mere)
½
 
Markeret
LynnB | 5 andre anmeldelser | Sep 19, 2020 |
Wonderful,very funny and insightful. Couldn’t put it down,great writing. Just a massive treat.
 
Markeret
alans | 5 andre anmeldelser | Jul 23, 2020 |
I haven’t read a book set in Nova Scotia before, so I was really looking forward to this book. Karen has returned for the first time in ten years. She’s been dealing with the guilt over the death of her mother from cancer
 
Markeret
brangwinn | 5 andre anmeldelser | Jul 19, 2020 |

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Statistikker

Værker
13
Also by
3
Medlemmer
825
Popularitet
#30,925
Vurdering
½ 3.7
Anmeldelser
32
ISBN
50
Sprog
1
Udvalgt
1

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