A Stillness of Chimes

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A Stillness of Chimes
Meg Moseley
Multnomah

I don’t normally read “Southern Fiction” but I thought Meg Moseley’s last book, Gone South, sounded interesting, and since I didn’t get a chance to read that one, when I saw A Stillness of Chimes available, I took it. Also, I’m always trying to mix up my reading every once in a while with books in a different genre than what I normally read- the mark of a good writer is one who can capture the attention of even a reader a bit reluctant to dive into a certain genre, right?

I’m still not exactly sure what I thought of this novel; parts of it interested me (and by that I mean the mystery) but for most of it I felt like I was just dragging myself through, and if I hadn’t gotten it for review purposes, I probably wouldn’t have finished it.

It’s not that the writing was bad; Meg Moseley has a pleasurable writing style and the story flowed well. It’s just that it was, as a lot of Southern Fiction is, very slow-paced. And in another trademark I’ve seen in a lot of books in the genre, there are so many characters with secrets and “skeletons in the closet” that sometimes it just feels a little soap-opera-y melodramatic. (I wouldn’t recommend this to younger readers, by the way, for that very reason.) I wouldn’t say there was much of it that I really liked or enjoyed; my motive for finishing was more along the lines of curiosity of how everything was going to turn out rather than a connection to the characters.

That’s not saying that I’m telling you to pass on this book. If you enjoy southern fiction and/or contemporary fiction, you’ll probably like this one better than I did. So while I didn’t really care for A Stillness of Chimes, it was mostly due to my own personal preference in stories and not necessarily because the book itself was wanting. 

Rating: 5

I received this book for free from the publisher in exchange for my honest review.


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