Book Review: The Book of Tomorrow by Cecelia Ahern
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The Book of Tomorrow is the latest book by Cecelia Ahern. In it we meet Tamara Goodwin a spoilt-brat of a teenager who gets what ever she wants from her parents, usually by stamping her feet and demanding. Tamara, her mother and her father live close by to the city in a Mansion. But then her world is turned upside down after she discovers her dad has committed suicide. Tamara and her mother realise that he was about to loose everything due to some bad property investments and the bank was about to foreclose on the house before he died. He didn’t know how to tell them and couldn’t bare facing the situation he found himself in. |
Tamara finds herself and her mother moving in to the countryside with her Uncle Arthur and Auntie Rose, in to the gatehouse. The gatehouse leads to a castle which burn’t down some years ago and is now a ruin. Tamara thrown in to this new life and is angry and board. Her life routine has completely changed. Now instead of going shopping and having latte’s she has a big breakfast (cooked by Auntie Rose), checks on her mother (who spends her days sleeping) and goes for walks in and around the castle. On one of her walks she discovers a secret garden and meets Sister Ignatius, who eventually becomes a friend but keeps getting confused about her age – thinking she’s a year older than she is.
Then into her life comes the travelling library. Tamara makes friends with Marcus, a slightly older man, who she fancies. She chooses a book, but it’s locked and she can’t open it. After the travelling library is gone, the book opens to reveal blank pages. She decides to keep it as a diary. The the next day she see’s her writing in it revealing what will happen tomorrow. So does she follow what the diary says or do something different to change it? She begin’s to realise that it’s her choices that influence the outcome of a day. While living in the gatehouse with her mother, Arthur and Rose there always seems to be an elephant in the room. Something unspoken and unsaid. Some secret. She investigates leading to revelations and a dramatic ending.
At the end of the book Tamara is happier with her new life and the changes the revelations have brought to her life. Usually I read one of Cecelia Ahern’s books in a day or less, but this one took longer to get into and read. It had Cecelia’s usual touch of magic – in this case from the magic diary and beautiful description of the Irish countryside and mythical castle. As usual with Cecelia’s books it focused on the strength of the human spirit in the characters. However the characters seem to have miraculous transformations, without any major event causing the change in attitudes and values and this makes them feel at bit 2D and fictional at times. At the beginning of the book there is little to captivate the reader and the end of the book seems rushed.
You can buy The Book of Tomorrow by Cecelia Ahern on Amazon.
Write soon,
Antony
