moonstoneTitle: The Moonstone

Author: Wilkie Collins

Date Finished: 26/10/13

Re-Read? : First time read

Challenges? : The Classics Club

Overall: 5/5 – absolutely fantastic

This book was my Classics Club spin book for September 2013…as you can see, I definitely didn’t finish it in time but I loved it all the same.  The return to school has been absolutely manic for me: I have applied to university, written my extended project essay, done numerous speeches and functions as Head Boy and also tried to maintain some kind of social life!  With all this busy-ness I have had next to no time to read and managed only a few pages in bed every day.  If I had had more time, I would’ve definitely finished The Moonstone in September!

The story definitely resembles a Sherlock Holmes type mystery but I love the way the plot thickens and thickens until really we have absolutely no idea who the culprit could be.  We are slowly allowed to find out various details but the suspense and drama is spread out superbly throughout the relatively long novel.  I was totally engrossed in the story and I was literally guessing the whole time!  When the truth finally came out, I was amazed!

The characters are really memorable too, especially as most of them are suspects at least once during the book, so you have chance to really try and analyse each and every one of them.  You have got to love Betteredge and Sgt. Cuff and all the other characters are still sharp in my mind as well.

The various settings are reinforced by the different narrators, which gives personality to the places where the story unfolds and is quite refreshing really, as 600+ pages is quite long for one mystery to take.  I liked the way each narrator had a slightly different tone and manner and the way they broke up the story was great.  Collins’ writing in this novel is really brilliant…I never once anticipated giving this 5/5 – I was quite nervous to read it, as it looked so long!  For a book serialised in 1868, it is extremely readable and I definitely recommend it to everyone!!