A Half-Forgotten Song Blog Tour: Review

A Half-Forgotten Song: A Novel

Author: Katherine Webb
Genre: Adult Historical/Literary Fiction
Release Date: May 28, 2013
Publisher: William Morrow

Description:

A spellbinding tale about the power of love, the danger of obsession, and the unfaithful nature of memory. A Half Forgotten Song is by turns haunting, heartbreaking and joyous.

1937. In a village on the Dorset coast, fourteen-year-old Mitzy Hatcher has endured a wild and lonely upbringing, until the arrival of renowned artist Charles Aubrey-along with his exotic mistress and their daughters-changes everything. Over the next three summers, Mitzy sees a future she had never thought possible, and a powerful love is kindled in her. A love that grows from innocence to obsession; from childish infatuation to something far more complex. Years later, a young man in an art gallery looks at a hastily-drawn portrait and wonders at its intensity. The questions he asks lead him to a Dorset village and to the truth about those fevered summers in the 1930s.  

A Half-Forgotten Song is a work of literary fiction that chronicles the life of Mitzy Hatcher during the summer of 1937 when renowned artist Charles Aubrey brings his daughters and his mistress to the small town that Mitzy lives in with her family. That summer and the following three summers, will forever change Mitzy's life, along with the lives of those who were involved in Aubrey's life. Scandal turns to obsession, secrets, heartache, and love.

Webb did an impeccable job with her novel. Her writing style flowed effortlessly and I was transported back in time alongside the characters from the very first page. The descriptions of the time and the various settings of the novel were done in such a way that I could simply close my eyes and I could vividly imagine the scene unfolding around me.

The characters in the book were very realistic and believable. They all had unique personalities and flaws that made them easy to identify with - I felt as if I knew them all personally, like I was taking part in the narrative myself. The author wrote the characters with such earnestness that even their mistakes and character flaws make the reader love and sympathize with them. We feel every emotion with intensity and vigor. All the characters are written with this amount of depth, so the heroine doesn't feel over-developed and the other characters are just as rounded, which I feel make the story all the more enchanting. 

The novel swept me away from the first page and didn't release it's hold until the last word. There aren't many times when a piece of literature makes a lasting impression on a reader, but this is one that I will be thinking and speaking about for a long time to come. Webb did a wonderful job bringing not only the past to life, but making the all the emotions and consequences of these people come alive before our very eyes. It is an enthralling look into history and a beautifully written piece of literary fiction. Highly recommended for lovers of literary and historical fiction.

Katherine Webb was born in Kent in 1977 and grew up in rural Hampshire. She was educated at a local comprehensive school and sixth form college, before reading History at Durham University. A childhood fascination with ruined castles and the secrets of the past has carried forward into her fiction, which incorporates historical story lines and explores how past events can reverberate in the present.

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