Disappointing I think and regret

I’ve listened an hour or two writing this, and write with a heavy heart. The language is polished as you would expect. I’m sure the story and telling made sense to Jenni but it makes no sense to me, I fear. My fault more than the author, perhaps.... I think I might read for myself.

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3 people found this helpful

Beautifully written but a but a bit long winded

While the narration and quality of writing was wonderful (and at times even poetic), there was a tendency to go off into tangents with each character’s thoughts. This was an interesting way of story telling as it follows several characters and time lines surrounding this one area but some of these drag on a bit or don’t really go anywhere. With that said I’m satisfied with the main plot and how it all ends. If you’re looking for something a little outside the box then I’d recommend this, just be warned that while this is an average length for an audiobook, it can feel a lot longer with the pacing.

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Another great story by Jenni.

A tale through Edinburgh time. Twisty, turny and weird as f. Really enjoyed this work. Would recommend to those looking for a journey into the strange.

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4 people found this helpful

Leaves you wanting more

The story left me wanting more, in a good way! I felt it was a snapshot into each character’s slice of time, and left me wanting to learn more about Jessie. I guess this might have been the author’s point - it was a life cut short and then decades, centuries move on… worked great as an audio book too!

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Weird. Intriguing. Dark.

I’d imagine this to be very Marmite: Some may love it; but too weird, complex and dark for me. Enjoyed the many references to Edinburgh though.

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brilliantly written and performed

such a gripping book where the 9 storey building becomes a malevolent character in its own right

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Worth a look

I struggled to get into this book at first, glad I persevered though, I think you have to really get the characters and then it makes a lot more sense and becomes absorbing!
The narrators were great I love a Scottish accent anyway, the American one less so but he wasn't irritating, the story still unfolded well in his chapters, however I really didn't rate his attempt at a Scottish accent 😆

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Fantastically dark.

Another fantastic novel from Jenni Fagan (if you haven't already, listen to Panopticon and Sunlight Pilgrims, you don't be disappointed!). Luckenbooth is fantastically dark, and brings to life to undercurrent of Edinburgh, touching on all the best Scottish literary tropes. It's a fiery novel too, with strong political sentiment weaved through the characters lives. A very profound novel for the world we live in today.

The characters are strong and I feel as though I've met each one personally. The narration is great, with actors taking several characters each. This isn't an issue as the writing and performance set them apart. One of the Scottish accents is off which grates a bit, but thankfully it's not a main character, so we don't encounter much of it.

I highly recommend the book.

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9 people found this helpful

Wonderfully Queer in Many Ways

CN. Referenced Intersex/ Transphobia, Domestic Abuse, Murder, Ghosts

Sometimes I feel I need to justify my reviews, even though I know that all reviews are subjective nonsense and ascribing numbers to art is very silly quite frankly, but I come from the world of reviewing indie Tabletop Roleplaying Games and service staff, which essentially means I start at five and take off and add as I go. More often than not, if something is genuinely brilliant and effects me significantly, I can look past a fair bit and still very much feel comfortable about giving something five stars. With Luckenbooth, there was very little to look past and a lot I adored and even more I liked very much, so this was a five for me, while my experience may shake out as a four or even a high three for others. In fact, the only issue I had was with the tired bullshit about women being there at the beginning and end of life, which is utter shite for so very many cis women, even if you're a transphobic bellend, which, thankfully, Fagan appears not to be (judging by this book and knowing nothing else about them).

Luckenbooth, I have learned seems to really divide people and I'm genuinely fascinated as to why good hearted people wouldn't like it. This is not me saying if you don't like it you're bad or anything like that. I am a sworn protector of the joys of subjectivity. It's simply very easy to understand why, to use Fagan's vernacular, cunts, wouldn't like this book. It being Queer as hell and filled with awesome women (and men).

The story takes place over a number of decades and revolves around the lives of various people who come to live in the tenement building at 10 Luckenbooth close in Edinburgh, which, from the very cursory websearching and at least one real life figure I recognised, seems to be a real place, though the veracity of these stories wasn't the least bit important to me. For various reasons many people find themselves trapped in the building, haunting it, both figuratively and literally, over the years, as the stories meander between the figures and the years, overlapping on interesting ways.

The first line of the blurb (awful things. Never read them until the book is finished, me) and everything else mentions the Devil's Daughter and her complex relationship and families, there is an awesome lass who I am unsure if the text was being explicit about being intersex or trans, but either way she was rad as hell and part of a secret drag ball culture (which I absolutely would have loved to have seen explored more!), there's eloquent, horny triads that combine elements of Squid Game and True Romance in my mind (complimentary), a brave man with an affliction I can very much empathise with, a sapphic spy, a gay poet and his ace(?) lover, and more in this housing association of horrors, joys, pain, fear, and love in this fascinating novel.

The most exciting, interesting, dirty, awful, and glorious elements of human (and devil) nature are explored, contained, and trapped within the walls and pages of this book. These are explored through the stories themselves and exalted by one Mr Burroughs who gets into some truly fascinating pontification on the metaphysical that bizarrely reflected a conversation I had the night before I got to that part, which was spooky.

I suppose it is more accurate to say this is a collection of lives loosely, and sometimes more strongly, bound together through a building and its history more than a novely novel. But what even is a novel? Honestly, after reading Carmen Maria Machado's 272 Viewings of Law & Order: SVU, I believe anything could be a story and the world would be a richer place for more weird and deconstructed narratives. This isn't anywhere as out there as that, but it also isn't a neat bow novel story and that might be a deal breaker for some.

Personally, I absolutely loved it and just how much of a celebration of Queerness of all kinds it was!

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Compelling, Unusual Story

I downloaded this book, as I had previously listened to The Panopticon, which I loved and as a consequence I have decided that, Jenni Fagan is one of my favourite discoveries.

This is a very unusual book, but beautifully written and performed, my only complaint is that there were a couple of very interesting characters who left the book without us finding out what happened to them. I imagine it was because there was so much going on, that some fell by the wayside?

Jenni Fagan doesn't shy away from foul language, or foul people, so probably not for the easily shocked.
For everyone else, give it a go, with an open mind.

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1 person found this helpful