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There are currently 25 member reviews
for Palace of the Drowned
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Carol E. (Bradenton, FL)
If you like the gothic genre, this book is for you.
I like thrillers, and requested this book for an early review because it is described as a thriller. The author, Christine Mangan, has a PhD is gothic literature and she has written a 21st century gothic novel here which does not thrill, but does have scary, gloomy, "something terrible is about to happen" moments throughout the book. The protagonist, a writer, is a lonely, disturbed, "weak" woman who does not undergo any arc of transformation, nor find any hero to rescue her. The writing is good but the plot is not strong enough and the story does not ever lift out of the gloom. It wallows for far too long. As you can tell this book is not my cup of tea, but fulfills its intention and will please those who like the endless twists and turns of gothic mystery and despair.
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Mary M. (Swansea, MA)
Palace of the Drowned
In my opinion Palace of the Drowned fell a little flat compared to Christine Mangan's first novel Tangerine. (This thought ironically mirrors the plot line of Palace of the Drowned.) And yet, while I didn't like it as much there were definite elements in it that kept my interest throughout. These include descriptions of Venice in the 60's, the haunting/eerie tone of the story as well as the build up of tension that instills in the reader a keen desire to find out how it resolves. I am glad to have read it!
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Karen S. (Epping, NH)
Palace of the Drowned
2.5 stars. I read and loved Tangerine. So I was excited to get an opportunity to read and review Palace of the Drowned, to be published in June 2021. I have traveled to Venice twice and I thought the description of the city was spot on. So atmospheric! However the characters were hard to warm up to. Frankie was just not that interesting and Jack, why name a female character Jack? It was distracting to me. All in all an ok read. I'm just tired of the stereotypical weak female in distress storyline. Thank you to Bookbrowse and Flatiron books for this advanced copy in exchange for an honest review.
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Lois B. (Eden, VT)
Atmospheric
If you like a sense of eeriness and gloomy atmosphere then you might enjoy this story. As a reader it kept me on the edge mostly because I had no idea what was going on with the main character; so many things are "hinted" at and I found myself constantly trying to nail down the storyline. The ending was okay, but it left me feeling that there were so many other ways it could have ended. The author's previous novel, Tangerine, has been on my TBR list for awhile. This book has left me more inclined to read it so that's a good thing!
My 3 stars is because it was good but not great. But I'll be anxious to read the next one.
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judith ross
A Tangled Web
“Oh what a tangled web we weave, when first we practice to deceive.” This is the quote that comes to mind in my review of this new novel by the author of Tangerine, which was a favorite of mine. This thriller is very slow to unravel. Frankie, the protagonist suffered a breakdown a while ago and goes to Venice to a friend’s palazzo to recover and resurrect her faltering writing career. She is approached by a strange young woman who claims to be a huge fan. This stranger ingratiates herself into Frankie’s world. Frankie’s dearest friend Jack, the owner of the palazzo, is delayed in her plans to meet Frankie in Venice. Mangan drops tiny hints throughout the novel that make the reader question who are the good guys and who are not. The reader is stumped throughout most of the novel, never quite feeling sure what to believe. That constant feeling of doubt and suspense, created by the author is a sign of a good plot and great writing. The theme of ambition is well addressed in the novel. My rating is not higher due to some unresolved plot lines and a very unexpected ending.
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Terri O. (Chapel Hill, NC)
Palace of the Drowned
Palace of the Drowned is suspenseful and atmospheric, but its sinister undertones never quite pay off. The best character in this book by far is Venice. The author did a wonderful job describing the city in the off season and then the historic flooding of 1966. The human characters seem less successfully rendered. Neither of the main characters, Frankie and Gilly, are very likable, and I found their actions and their motivations at times inexplicable. For a supposedly strong, independent woman, Frankie easily gives in to her editor at a crucial point late in the book. And Gilly's motivations are never clear to me, even after the plot is fully revealed. Although I enjoyed the book while I was reading it, I was ultimately disappointed when I got to the end.
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Barry E. (Boynton Beach, FL)
The Life of an artist
Attracted to a description of this book as a "literary thriller" and taking place in the great city of Venice, I enthusiastically delved into the lives of the three main protagonists: Frankie - the author, Jackie her best friend, and Gillian the aspiring author and much younger of the three.
Frankie, sensitive, single, not immune to criticism is suffering a downer from the not well received publication of her latest novel has just physically accosted someone she believed wrote the poor review. At Jackie's suggestion she takes a break from her life in London traveling to Venice in the Winter only to be subsumed by what she feels is a depressing life in general. There she meets Gillian who inveigled herself into Frankie's life under false and suspicious pretenses.
More of a dissection of a life of an artist cum three women with life crises then a literary thriller, I enjoyed the prose used to describe each character's dilemma at a special time in their lives-mid life crisis versus starting a anew.
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