'I Capture A Castle', a story of two halves - BOOK REVIEW
I Capture A Castle - A story of two halves
1 - the first half of this novel seemed initially to be 'traditional', in a bland, inoffensive way, though there was a certain charisma scattered throughout Cassandra's inner dialogue. Her voice is established as naïve, albeit interesting. By the half way mark, very little has happened in terms of 'plot'.
2 - the second half, in contrast, carries many of the characters as they fly through emotions and action. The narrator changes her thoughts/mind/opinion of surrounding characters repeatedly. The reader feels increasingly that their judgements of characters have been ill-founded, misled by Cassandra's perspective. Apparently minor characters emerge from previous insignificance - for example, Cassandra takes her younger brother seriously for the first time. in terms of plot - everything happens. At times, it is hard for the reader to empathise with emotion that seems to have arisen (to the point of extreme intensity) within the narrative space of four pages. As the book progresses, Cassandra's internal monologue becomes increasingly complex and grapples with more existential themes - religion and faith, the concept of imagination and the work ethic required for creativity - the scope of this novel widens dramatic. the novel ends on a surprisingly 'forward- thinking' (modern?) note.
With reflection, the chaotic progression of 'I Capture A Castle' was quite a clever tool for depicting a teenage girl's evolution. The final destination of Cassandra's lurching character arc is, in the end, worth the whiplash - but I think this could have been achieved with a smoother plot line, and the story would have benefitted from it. A few of the chapters were almost entirely submerged in the rushed and clumsy, leaving me close to giving up - which, to be clear, would have been a massive shame.
This book made me think about...
- unrequited love and its colossal pain
- frustrating creatives
- empty churches
- the 'novels-that-entirely-erase-dead-maternal-characters-in-two-introductory-sentences' sub category