the sudden appearance of hope by claire north

Hope is a complicated and rather brilliant woman who is absolutely free to do whatever she wants except for the one thing that's denied her.

This isn't a super-power or a mild tale of the invisible woman. What are the real consequences of living a life where no one can remember you? Turn thief, hacker, and be endlessly jealous of others who can at least have some way to define themselves by how others perceive them? This premise is much bigger than it first appears. The First Fifteen Lives of Harry August brought out being different lives by reliving the whole damn life within one person, and Touch polarized the concept of identity by hopping from body to body while always being the core someone within, and The Sudden Appearance of Hope turns it all around once again. Of course, it's also a very clever novel of freedom and slavery, written within a couple of very interesting premises, but by this point, I'm willing to assume that this great author is always going to push the hell out of boundaries. This was beautifully evocative but just didn't fully click with me.įreedom and Slavery, as written by one of the most dauntless minds in literature, today. This was further hampered by Hope's continual travelling and the prolonged depictions of her changed settings.

The writing, although beautiful, had a strange, hypnotic quality to it that was captivating and yet protracted the novel and buried the story. Hope's story is a fascinating one and promised intrigue and thrills, of which it delivered, but it was too drawn out and dispersed to have any deep impact on me. This makes her an excellent thief and a lonely individual. She does not literally become invisible, but fades from the memories of all those she meets, moments after they set eyes on her. The story follows Hope Arden, a teenager with the ability to disappear. I felt a disconnect from the characters and the plot, as if the author was keeping me at arm's length away, and, despite the beautiful lyrical quality of the writing, this hampered by enjoyment of the book. I really wanted to love the story, as so many people seem to do, but there was something lacking in it for me and I can't quite pinpoint what that is exactly.

So I am definitely in the minority with my opinions on this book.

The sudden appearance of hope by claire north