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A review by sundazebookcafe
The Story Collector by Iris Costello
4.0
Thank you to Viking, Penguin General UK and NetGalley for my advanced reader copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.
Historical fiction is a genre that I return to time and time again, and I really loved the sound of #TheStoryCollector when I spotted it on #NetGalley. The story revolves around three women – Edie, Kitty and Miriam – on their own timelines. Told between the cobbled streets of wartime London, a German WWI camp and the cliffs of Cornwall, England, this book beautifully weaves – and unravels – the stories of these three protagonists who are bound by a long-held secret as the First World War erupts.
For me, this novel felt a tiny bit up and down, here and there. The plot itself is certainly gripping, but there’s a lot going on, as you’d expect from a triple-narrative book. Edie is an artist who has recently moved to a little Cornish cottage that her family inherited. She discovers a tarot deck which, admittedly, is what initially kept me reading! Then, we have Kitty, a German baker and tarot-reader who is forced to conceal her name and identity, among other factors. Finally, there’s Miriam, a nurse in a Prisoner of War camp in Germany.
A strong point of ‘The Story Collector’ is that the characters are beautifully well-developed and you become really invested in their stories. It feels real, hauntingly so. The three strands are equally balanced, too, I thought. Often I’ll take to one part of a multi-narrative more easily than others, but I felt quite invested in each of them. However, I think there’s something funny going on with the pacing as the complexities of the intertwining backgrounds move forwards. The middle part felt gripping but slow at the same time.
Overall, ‘The Story Collector’ moves to a satisfying and compelling ending. It isn’t often that novels with three narratives achieve this, but Costello played it out wonderfully. I truly enjoyed this one!
Historical fiction is a genre that I return to time and time again, and I really loved the sound of #TheStoryCollector when I spotted it on #NetGalley. The story revolves around three women – Edie, Kitty and Miriam – on their own timelines. Told between the cobbled streets of wartime London, a German WWI camp and the cliffs of Cornwall, England, this book beautifully weaves – and unravels – the stories of these three protagonists who are bound by a long-held secret as the First World War erupts.
For me, this novel felt a tiny bit up and down, here and there. The plot itself is certainly gripping, but there’s a lot going on, as you’d expect from a triple-narrative book. Edie is an artist who has recently moved to a little Cornish cottage that her family inherited. She discovers a tarot deck which, admittedly, is what initially kept me reading! Then, we have Kitty, a German baker and tarot-reader who is forced to conceal her name and identity, among other factors. Finally, there’s Miriam, a nurse in a Prisoner of War camp in Germany.
A strong point of ‘The Story Collector’ is that the characters are beautifully well-developed and you become really invested in their stories. It feels real, hauntingly so. The three strands are equally balanced, too, I thought. Often I’ll take to one part of a multi-narrative more easily than others, but I felt quite invested in each of them. However, I think there’s something funny going on with the pacing as the complexities of the intertwining backgrounds move forwards. The middle part felt gripping but slow at the same time.
Overall, ‘The Story Collector’ moves to a satisfying and compelling ending. It isn’t often that novels with three narratives achieve this, but Costello played it out wonderfully. I truly enjoyed this one!