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I have a huge weakness for seventies Gothic novels in yellowing paperback, and it turns out 
genarti's family's cottage has PILES of them. I grabbed the shortest-looking one this time around, since I wanted to make sure I'd have time to finish it before we headed home. This turned out to be Mary Stewart's Thunder on the Right, aka the ONE WITH ALL THE NUNS.
...OK there is only about two actual nuns in it, and they're not very important, and then one semi-evil fake nun who swoops around dressed like a fifteenth-century Spanish noblewoman and exuding predatory lesbian subtext. But she's NOT A REAL NUN! Mary Stewart wants to assure us of this! She's just a bitter nun wannabe who also serves as convent bursar and evil interior decorator.
The actual plot of Thunder on the Right is -- well, there's not very much of it; a sheltered young lady decides to drop in on the convent to try and talk her favorite cousin out of joining up. Alas, when she arrives, it turns out her cousin is TRAGICALLY DEAD! ... or IS SHE?? Something sinister about that fake nun convent bursar and evil interior decorator suggests otherwise!
Meanwhile, our heroine's long-lost Sensitive Musician crush is hanging around perennially disappointed because he keeps thinking she's running dramatically into his arms to MAKE OUT! and in fact she's just really stressed out by the whole dead-or-maybe-missing-cousin issue and would like a hug and some friendly support. This happens multiple times and every time it triggers at least a page of hilariously angsty internal monologue. Man, I love Gothic novels.
I mean, this is not really a particularly memorable Gothic novel, and does not rank high in even the limited Mary Stewart pantheon that I've read, but as yellowed-paperback-lakeside-vacation-reading it serves exactly the proper function.
PS: Thanks everyone who weighed in on my post about links! I'm going with Goodreads for now as the most useful suggestion for serving the desired functions of a.) having lots of other opinions besides mine, b.) offering non-Amazon links to buy the book from, and c.) being something I can do relatively consistently for old and new books alike, even though it probably still puts money in Amazon pockets but YOU CAN'T HAVE EVERYTHING.
This entry is cross-posted at Livejournal from http://skygiants.dreamwidth.org/419557.html. Please feel free to comment here or there! There are currently
comments on Dreamwidth.
genarti's family's cottage has PILES of them. I grabbed the shortest-looking one this time around, since I wanted to make sure I'd have time to finish it before we headed home. This turned out to be Mary Stewart's Thunder on the Right, aka the ONE WITH ALL THE NUNS.
...OK there is only about two actual nuns in it, and they're not very important, and then one semi-evil fake nun who swoops around dressed like a fifteenth-century Spanish noblewoman and exuding predatory lesbian subtext. But she's NOT A REAL NUN! Mary Stewart wants to assure us of this! She's just a bitter nun wannabe who also serves as convent bursar and evil interior decorator.
The actual plot of Thunder on the Right is -- well, there's not very much of it; a sheltered young lady decides to drop in on the convent to try and talk her favorite cousin out of joining up. Alas, when she arrives, it turns out her cousin is TRAGICALLY DEAD! ... or IS SHE?? Something sinister about that fake nun convent bursar and evil interior decorator suggests otherwise!
Meanwhile, our heroine's long-lost Sensitive Musician crush is hanging around perennially disappointed because he keeps thinking she's running dramatically into his arms to MAKE OUT! and in fact she's just really stressed out by the whole dead-or-maybe-missing-cousin issue and would like a hug and some friendly support. This happens multiple times and every time it triggers at least a page of hilariously angsty internal monologue. Man, I love Gothic novels.
I mean, this is not really a particularly memorable Gothic novel, and does not rank high in even the limited Mary Stewart pantheon that I've read, but as yellowed-paperback-lakeside-vacation-reading it serves exactly the proper function.
PS: Thanks everyone who weighed in on my post about links! I'm going with Goodreads for now as the most useful suggestion for serving the desired functions of a.) having lots of other opinions besides mine, b.) offering non-Amazon links to buy the book from, and c.) being something I can do relatively consistently for old and new books alike, even though it probably still puts money in Amazon pockets but YOU CAN'T HAVE EVERYTHING.
This entry is cross-posted at Livejournal from http://skygiants.dreamwidth.org/419557.html. Please feel free to comment here or there! There are currently
comments on Dreamwidth.