The Third Person

The story of a very unpleasant 13 year old girl who despises her mother, is terribly jealous of her little sister and perpetually longs for the father who abandoned them, this novel is surprisingly engaging, mainly because of the way the author so well captures this person and her point of view, clearly illustrating the partiality through which we all view our little worlds. At every step we know that what she's seeing is not the whole picture, that her prejudices are masking the reality she's moving through, the one she doesn't want to see or admit to. you feel for her, though, and somehow even root for her too, even when she's being very bad.

This is a very impressive and unsettling literary novel. Lizzie, the narrator, is 14. Her father has left home and her mother doesn’t seem to be coping too well in his absence. Lizzie spends an unhealthy amount of time holed up in her bedroom, practising her calligraphy, tending her Victorian bottle collection and making devious and elaborate plans. These generally involve eloping with Mr Phillips, the shopkeeper (if only he would stop being so obtuse and realise that he and Lizzie are destined to be together), or exacting revenge upon people who have displeased her (there is no shortage of candidates, although her younger sister provides a particular focus for Lizzie’s ire).

But things don’t turn out quite as Lizzie hopes – and although the novel contains a fair amount of humour, it ends up exploring some fairly dark territory (which I won’t say any more about for fear of spoiling the plot). What really made this novel work for me was Lizzie’s narration - which I found utterly compelling, in spite of the fact that she is hardly sympathetic, being both highly manipulative and at times vindictive. Overall, the novel reminded me of a cross between Zoe Heller’s “Notes on a Scandal” and Iain Banks’ “The Wasp Factory.” For a slightly longer review which (among other things) explains this possibly slightly bizarre comparison in more detail, see:
http://www.paulsamael.com/blog/the-third-person

This is SUCH a good read it totally restored my faith in Smashwords, which frankly I had found largely full of dross and awful teen angst vampire erotica (well, shudder, dross to be frank).

But this is frankly right up there with any "regular" book you may buy - I would not have the nerve to fault the characterisation. I have the greatest respect for the author offering this work freely and shall be seeking to reward her in any way I am able!

Very good book. While somewhat lacking in character development, The Third Person was an excellent read that kept me hooked to the end.