After absolutely loving 'Room' I had high expectations for the second Emma Donoghue book that I read. Unfortunately, 'The Sealed Letter' had none of the appeal and readability that 'Room' had.

Essentially the plot centres around a couple in an unhappy marriage and their subsequent separation. Set in the 1800s, the novel does offer some very illuminating and anger-inducing points about how women were treated in the period, especially in the context of a marriage. The novel clearly shows how unfair and completely imbalanced the law and the society were in how they would view a woman who has engaged in an extra-marital affair.

The problem I had with the novel was that it just wasn't an interesting read. The subject matter, while being something that I do take an interest in, was not presented in an engaging way, and the whole thing was generally pretty boring. It also dragged on far too long. Approximately 460 pages of bland writing culminating in an ending that was clearly intended to be edgy and dramatic but instead just made me frown at the page in a sort of "Really? That's how your ending it?" kind of way.

Having said all that, the writing was of a good standard, and the way that Donoghue switched between character perspectives was well executed.

On the whole, just very 'meh'.