Chime by Franny Billingsley
| Chime by Franny Billingsley | |
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| Category: Teens | |
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Reviewer: Robert James
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| Summary: Hit and miss witch story which you may find enjoyable or frustrating, depending on your tolerance for ornate writing and some strong rural English dialects. | |
| Buy? Maybe | Borrow? Maybe |
| Pages: 368 | Date: April 2011 |
| Publisher: Bloomsbury | |
| External links: Author's website | |
| ISBN: 978-0747583813 | |
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Briony is a witch. She's ready to be hanged now, please. She's an engaging and captivating central character struggling to cope with the death of her beloved stepmother and looking after her slightly deranged twin sister Rose. And she can talk to the Old Ones, a crew of supernatural spirits who are best compared to ghostly rejects from Cold Comfort Farm. Chime is in turns beguiling, frustrating, enjoyable and annoying.
The immortal opening lines I've confessed to everything and I'd like to be hanged. Now, if you please. may be my favourite of the year so far. They perfectly capture Briony, a complex narrator dealing with grief, guilt, and the stirrings of first love with the golden-haired Eldric. I was hooked straight away – but somehow, I found myself falling out of love with the book as I read on. This was most notable when reading the dialect of the Old Ones, who sound more like a bunch of country bumpkins than supernatural creatures with any real power, and it stopped me from ever really becoming particularly bothered about Briony's struggle against them.
As well as some of the dialogue, my other main problem was with Billingsley's writing style. There's no question that it's lyrical – however there were points where it was, if anything, rather too ornate and flowery, slowing down the story to a snail's pace.
To balance up, I should point out that Chime has some really good points. The development of romance between Briony and Eldric was good, feeling really natural as they shared interests rather than just being thrown together and falling hard for each other straight away. Briony herself was a fantastic narrator apart from the times when Billingsley's writing style grew too overpowering for me – I particularly liked her frequent sarcastic comments such as Lots of people are harmless, but that doesn't mean I have to like them. Fans looking for a leisurely paced read with a good central romance may well fall in love with this one – but not, overall, one I'd recommend particularly.
I'd like to thank the publishers for sending a copy to The Bookbag.
Further reading suggestion: For a lyrical and romantic novel rather more to my tastes I'd recommend the fabulous What I Was by Meg Rosoff.
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