Reviewed by Lianne on
I was approved of an ARC of this title from the publishers via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
The View from the Tower is an intriguing novel in that there is a lot going on underneath the surface, a lot of things that Helen had no idea about. It’s interesting and startling in that, as the reader is learning about these things from Helen’s perspective, the reader also realises that Helen was pretty much out of the loop the whole time.
However, I found that I never really connected with any of the characters; I didn't care how their story was going to wind up at the end. I found Helen to be rather frigid and just somehow found herself in a complex web of relationships. I wish the author had also fleshed out her flashback scenes with Federico because I never once got the sense that Helen truly cared enough about Federico–and vice versa?–to understand why she chose him and stayed with him for as long as she did. I just wasn’t convinced, which made the later scenes especially disconnecting.
Overall The View from the Tower was an okay read for me. The plot wasn’t as thrilling as I thought it would be and at times the story seemed to stall, it felt rather narrative-dense. However I enjoyed the segments involving Italian politics and the political scene during the 1970s.
Reading updates
- Started reading
- 7 January, 2014: Finished reading
- 7 January, 2014: Reviewed