Synopsis: Ada’s gap year trip to Italy on an art history course offers her the perfect opportunity to become friends with the type of people she feels she should be – wealthy, privileged, sophisticated. Obsessed with the loss of her grand home after her father’s death at aged 13, Ada is determined to get back to the life she could have had. All she has to do is prove herself.
Whilst in Venice, one of the group dies under mysterious circumstances, and Ada sees the chance to make herself indispensable to the people she aspires to be like.
Spanning over 10 years, the story follows Ada after the trip to Italy as she strives to maintain the connections to the people she met there. But, Ada is not the only one maintaining a deception and, sooner or later, the lies begins to unravel.
Review: This book was an enjoyable read. I raced through it in a matter of days and loved the sense of atmosphere and descriptions of Italy. It really did create a perfect background for a plot of deception and secrets.
I enjoyed the sense of mystery and intrigue, but based on the book’s description, I expected the death to play a larger part in the story than it did. I couldn’t help but spend the first section of the book waiting for the suspicious death to occur, and then the rest of the book waiting for it to really matter. That being said, the main plot which focused on Ada’s efforts to ‘get back’ to the social position she believed she deserved was interesting.
Ada was a highly dislikeable character though, as a narrator, her motives were always clear. I kept switching between finding her offputtingly annoying and enjoying her misguided attempts at social climbing. It was nice however to see someone entering the world of the rich elite not from a position of naivety but through obsession, manipulation and sense of entitlement. Although not a pleasant character, Ada’s characterisation was extremely well-done. The way she wished to manipulate everyone as if in a book and was so single-minded about getting back to her ‘roots’, despite how this made her appear to others, was very well developed.
Sadly, the ending of the book felt rushed which was disappointing. The whole book covers a span of just over 10 years so whilst it was interesting seeing the characters develop and mature, I wish some of the action was more evenly spread throughout.
Recommend: Overall this book was enjoyable but not spectacular for its mystery which somehow managed to be both at the centre of the plot, and not that important. I would avoid it if you prefer likeable characters but is an interesting take on a person trying to make it into a ‘inner circle’ of friends.
Pages of Eden 