The Wisdom Of Sally Red Shoes by Ruth Hogan

3.5 Stars

This is a book about death.  Sounds a little bit off-putting when you put it like that I suppose, but there's no getting away from it.  With chunks set in a local Victorian Cemetery (which I have to admit sounds absolutely glorious and the sort of place I can imagine wandering around) and Masha's preoccupation with drowning there really is no getting away from it.  This does not make it a gloomy book, or a Gothic Fantasy, it is actually quite a redemptive book with an overriding moral that life is for the living and to not do so is somehow cheating the memory of those that have gone before.

What spoilt the book for me was Alice, it was so painfully obvious almost from the start how that one was going to work out.  Once she got sick I knew what her role in the book was and how Mattie and her fitted in to the story - after all they are unknown to Masha and never meet her so why would they be there?  Knowing this so early on did spoil the book slightly for me but I cannot over a better explanation for how to weave that particular story thread in.  I was also a little annoyed at the relentless optimism and cheeriness of Sally Red Shoes herself and Kitty Muriel - somehow it felt forced and unrealistic.

Masha was a beautifully complex character and I did find myself myself willing her out of her pit of despair.  For her to start living instead of existing.  The way this is achieved is by hard work on Masha's part, there is no quick fix or revelatory moment that wipes her grief away.  Instead she becomes aware of the awkwardness her overbearing grief is creating for others, how her closest friends and family are still treading carefully around her as though Gabriel has only been dead months rather than years.  Watching her blossom and develop is wonderful and any character that can call her car Edith Piaf has to be okay by me.

Overall a solid tale that is all about people rather than plot.  Well executed but just not quite right for this reader.