Jennifer RYAN : The Chilbury ladies' choir

Kent, 1940. In the village o fchilbury, tjhe vicar closes the choir after th emen leave for th efront, and the women take umbrage... until the arrival of music p rofessor Primrose Trent, that is.

With her encouragement, they resurrect themselves as The Chilbury Ladies' Choir, find unity and strength in music, and support each other through heartbreak and turmoil when the war lands on their very own doorstep. But when some are trying to sabotage the choir from th einside, is song alone enough to stop this community tearing itself apart ?

 

 

Apparently, I'm part of the very, very few people that aren't enthusiastic about this novel (sorry Brenda !).

It's not a bad novel per se, the author has made thorough research on that period, I read it entirely, but I wasn't caught up in it and it has to do with the characters that so many readers related to. They seemed rather stereotypical to me, two dimensional rather than actual people. The only character that I warmed up to was Kitty, a lively, healthy 13 year-old. Apart from that, none stood up the pages for me. At one point, there is a bombing and Mrs Tilling rushes to find out if someone is still alive, and I couldn't help but wonder why ? A few pages ago, she couldn't stand the sight of him and barely managed to be civil to him ! A lot happened off pages that we are told, but were not shown. I liked Sylvie well enough, she's very discreet but feels true, I found her the better written character in all this, but she was few and far between.

Here and there, there were a few sentences that opened the possibility that the whole story could have been better, better written, more profound, but it only lasted the time to read said sentences. 

It's a first novel from a writer who works in non-fiction, so she will probably evolve. There is a Q&A at the end that was short enough, but interested me more than the whole book ! What Jennifer Ryan said there was personal and more compelling. However, as I said, I'm one of the few who didn't adore this book, so don't mind my advice and try it.