What's Left Unsaid by Deborah Stone - Revision history

Sue at 15:03, 18 November 2023

2023-11-18T15:03:34Z

Sue at 14:45, 4 September 2020

2020-09-04T14:45:14Z

Sue at 11:35, 18 August 2018

2018-08-18T11:35:52Z

Jill at 11:29, 18 August 2018

2018-08-18T11:29:15Z

Jill at 11:28, 18 August 2018

2018-08-18T11:28:46Z

Jill at 11:26, 18 August 2018

2018-08-18T11:26:47Z

Sue: Created page with "{{infobox1 |title=What's Left Unsaid |author=Deborah Stone |reviewer=Jill Murphy |genre= |summary= |rating= |buy= |borrow= |pages=256 |publisher=Troubador |date=July 2018 |isb..."

2018-08-14T16:30:36Z

Created page with "{{infobox1 |title=What's Left Unsaid |author=Deborah Stone |reviewer=Jill Murphy |genre= |summary= |rating= |buy= |borrow= |pages=256 |publisher=Troubador |date=July 2018 |isb..."

New review

{{infobox1
|title=What's Left Unsaid
|author=Deborah Stone
|reviewer=Jill Murphy
|genre=
|summary=
|rating=
|buy=
|borrow=
|pages=256
|publisher=Troubador
|date=July 2018
|isbn=978-1789014921
|website=
|video=
|cover=1789014921
|aznuk=1789014921
|aznus=1789014921
}}

We'll soon have a review of this book.

{{amazontext|amazon=1789014921}}
{{amazonUStext|amazon=1789014921}}

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 ''What's Left Unsaid'' is a sympathetic but honest look at the ways in which our lives and our most precious personal relationships are as affected by what is ''not''  said as they are by what ''is'' said. Secrets are like pebbles in ponds: the ripples they leave are insistent and persistent and bear down upon us whether we like it or not. Deborah Stone's novel illuminates this truth and gives us pause for thought about our own lives and the things we ourselves are keeping hidden. It's written with honesty but also with compassion and understanding.
-More like this, please! I'll be interested to read whatever Deborah Stone writes next.
+More like this, please! I'll be interested to read whatever Deborah Stone writes next.  We can recommend [[Me and My Shadow by Deborah Stone|Me and My Shadow]].
 We can also recommend [[Iron House by John Hart]].

@@ Line 23: / Line 23: @@
 The book is delicately written, handling some distressing events with great sensitivity and building tension well. Annie is a challenging woman and at times it is hard not to dislike her but, as the book goes on, you can see why she became as she is. The fog of her dementia is also handled well, with Stone showing rather than telling. It's sad. Sasha, I wished the best for, as she struggles to maintain a good relationship with her recalcitrant teenage son whose usual adolescent angst is compounded by resentment at discovering family secrets that had been kept from him.
-''What's Left Unsaid'' is a sympathetic but honest look at the ways in which our lives and our  most precious personal relationships are as affected by what is ''not''  said as they are by what ''is'' said. Secrets are like pebbles in ponds: the ripples they leave are insistent and persistent and bear down upon us whether we like it or not. Deborah Stone's novel illuminates this truth and gives us pause for thought about our own lives and the things we ourselves are keeping hidden. It's written with honesty but also with compassion and understanding.
+''What's Left Unsaid'' is a sympathetic but honest look at the ways in which our lives and our most precious personal relationships are as affected by what is ''not''  said as they are by what ''is'' said. Secrets are like pebbles in ponds: the ripples they leave are insistent and persistent and bear down upon us whether we like it or not. Deborah Stone's novel illuminates this truth and gives us pause for thought about our own lives and the things we ourselves are keeping hidden. It's written with honesty but also with compassion and understanding.
 More like this, please! I'll be interested to read whatever Deborah Stone writes next.
 {{amazontext|amazon=1789014921}}

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 |reviewer=Jill Murphy
 |genre=General Fiction
-|summary=Absorbing story of family secrets, the breakdown of a marriage, and a parent with dementia. Delicately written, handling some distressing events with great sensitivity and building tension well
+|summary=Absorbing story of family secrets, the breakdown of a marriage, and a parent with dementia. Delicately written, handling some distressing events with great sensitivity and building tension well.
 |rating=4
 |buy=Yes
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 |date=July 2018
 |isbn=978-1789014921
 |cover=1789014921
 |aznuk=1789014921

@@ Line 27: / Line 27: @@
 ''What's Left Unsaid'' is a sympathetic but honest look at the ways in which our lives and our  most precious personal relationships are as affected by what is ''not''  said as they are by what ''is'' said. Secrets are like pebbles in ponds: the ripples they leave are insistent and persistent and bear down upon us whether we like it or not. Deborah Stone's novel illuminates this truth and gives us pause for thought about our own lives and the things we ourselves are keeping hidden. It's written with honesty but also with compassion and understanding.
-More like this, please.
+More like this, please! I'll be interested to read whatever Deborah Stone writes next.
 {{amazontext|amazon=1789014921}}

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 }}
-Sasha has a lot on her plate. Husband Jeremy is distant and absent and the marriage needs work. Son Zac is entering a rebellious adolescent phase and it's hard to know how to redirect him. Mother Annie, an alcoholic, is beginning the journey into dementia and has never been an easy person at the best of times. Thank heavens for her lovely dog, Sebastian, and his unconditional love.
+Sasha has a lot on her plate. Husband Jeremy is distant and absent and the marriage needs work. Son Zac is entering a rebellious adolescent phase and it's hard to know how to redirect him. Mother Annie, an alcoholic, is beginning the journey into dementia and has never been an easy person at the best of times. Thank heavens for her lovely dog, Sebastian, and his unconditional love. Zac decides he would like to make a film about the family, which should be a positive, affirming project. But, in the course of interviewing Annie for it, he stumbles across a long-kept family secret about the sibling he does not know. This secret propels Sasha back twenty years to a night she would rather forget, and Annie back decades further to a different but equally traumatic one.
 ''What's Left Unsaid'' was an absorbing read. It's told in alternating first person perspectives by Sasha, Annie and Joe and takes us into a post-war past as well as an unfolding present. Joel's entries are short interjections and often really rather profound. Annie's memories are jumbled and confused but reveal so much about the ways in which events from childhood and youth have brought to bear on her adult life and especially her relationship with her daughter. Sasha's is a journey of discovery, really. I quickly became invested in all three characters and deeply curious to uncover the secrets being carried through the years that were clearly such burdens for all concerned.