Halls of Ivy

Halls of Ivy by Roland Nunez

I gave it 3 suns because I can't find the star shape, although it's more like 3 and a half. I ummed and ahhed between 3 and 4 suns and it just, and I mean just, didn't make the 4. It's still a great rating, I'm picky about my books, a 4 suns means that I want to re-read the book and jump straight into the next one, 5 stars means that I just want to read it non-stop for as long as possible. 3 suns means that I enjoyed the book, I just don't feel an immediate insanity upon finishing it. Not necessarily a bad thing.

Let me start by saying that I’m not an avid mystery reader. But whilst I don’t have a lot of experience with them, I have been known to dip my toes in occasionally. It’s a genre for people who love to figure things out, and can generally remember lots of information they read. I am both of these things. Which may be both a blessing and a curse with this book. Perhaps an experienced reader would have figured out the twists, but I was left rather shocked when they were revealed. Shocked in a good way, that is.

When I first heard about this book my thoughts fled to a show we used to watch called Veronica Mars. A mystery set in an American collage, it certainly had similarities. In fact I could see some of the storylines in this book making a good series on TV. But it is actually very different to the teenage detective story.

For starters, the main character is a PHD student doing her dissertation. In fact it does read a bit like a piece of academic writing with a storyline woven in.

The opening prologue really draws you in. With a mystery set out and the main character voice set out in a concise and frustratingly general way. It’s rather difficult not to keep going just to find out the premise of the prologue. I found that to be true even later on in the book. That it was building up back towards this one scene, but this time we’d know what it was about.

Told through the many voices of the class Ms Cheyenne Winters interviews for her student affairs PHD, the story is intriguing. Winters starts off with a basic study of collage life, but soon get pulled into the greater mystery of serial suicides about campus. Hints of conspiracy and cover up pepper the story.

Jumping back and forth in the time line, the narrative is at times hard to follow. There are a lot of characters, all with relatively small parts; who tell the story between them. This leads to a very rounded, if piecemeal storyline. It certainly kept me guessing, with a gradual build up throughout the book. However there wasn’t all that much action. The action scenes weren’t my favourite, some of them felt rushed, or were more hinted about than actual told. But this did fit in with the rest of the style.

It was quite unemotional in it’s telling, as I said, a bit like a piece of academic writing. The transcripts of interviews used to tell most of the story read like exactly that. Transcripts of study interviews. The in between narrative also switched between times and characters, making it difficult to really get into any specific one. Although I did come to like all of the students, I felt that I didn’t really know them all that well.

I can’t really comment on how realistic the collage was, since I’m British and go to a British uni. There were plenty of aspects I did recognise however; people trying to fit in; people moving rooms to get away from arguments were just a few concepts. Although I think that British introductions at uni seem to involve a lot more alcohol! That’s something to remember for British readers, 18 year olds starting collage can’t drink in the US! I kept forgetting, oops.

So overall, it is a good read and a worthwhile addition to your library. And at 77p for the kindle version, it’s a bargain too!

Happy Reading