Dear Mr. Knightley

by Katherine Reay

[Lianne]

This review in its entirety was originally posted at caffeinatedlife.net: http://www.caffeinatedlife.net/blog/2013/12/09/review-dear-mr-knightley/

Dear Mr. Knightley is told in an epistolary format, which is quite fitting as not only does the reader learn more about Samantha this way through her perspective but it touches also on a dying art that reflects Samantha’s interests and the sort of books she reads. The plot is pretty straight forward, following Samantha as she relays to they mysterious Mr. Knightley about her life and her experiences in the programme and the people in her life.

I thought Samantha was a very interesting character who clearly had a lot of issues to resolve at the start of the novel. I found myself very sympathetic to her plight, especially as some of the problems she had were issues that I can relate to on some level: failure, the desire to do her best, wanting to connect with other people but at the same time watching out for herself. It was interesting to see how Sam slowly overcomes her problems and her own personal feelings of failure and despair and become stronger, more courageous in facing the outside world and reaching out to those around her. I also appreciate how gradual these changes are and how everything contributes to her change.

While I appreciate Sam’s character development over the course of the novel, I did find myself wondering a little bit about other aspects of her character (for lack of a better explanation). Save for a few kind people, she had a horrible childhood–to the point of spending a few months out on the streets–and I’m surprised that, for the most part, she’s still relatively good-natured: she's not rude or nasty towards other people, she's not rough at the edges. She can be socially awkward and very distant but she’s strangely self-contained, which sometimes felt a little inconsistent.

The secondary characters and the development of Alex and Sam's relationship was also wonderful to read. Overall, I enjoyed reading Dear Mr. Knightley, I couldn’t quite put the novel down once I really got into the story because I wanted to know what was going to happen to Samantha and Alex next. While I more or less figured out the big reveal at the end, I thought the character journey was really interesting and how Samantha and Alex’s story progressed.