‘Sleep Pale Sister’ is an early Joanne Harris novel and has a slightly unformed feeling in comparison to, say, [b:Chocolat|47401|Chocolat (Chocolat, #1)|Joanne Harris|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1388674628s/47401.jpg|2930558]. It is a ghostly gothic melodrama, chiefly notable to my mind for the variations in character awareness of this. The two male narrators sometimes comment wryly that their lives resemble a gothic novel; at other times they forget it and are filled with such uncontrollable dread that they knock back laudanum until the situation improves. One of the female narrators, meanwhile, is the one turning all those depicted into players in a ghostly gothic melodrama. To my mind she was by far the most interesting character, perhaps because she remained the most mysterious. The titular pale sister, Effie, was largely a pawn and thus pitiful. Both leading men, however, were absolutely hateful. Their cavalier attitude can be summed up as, ‘Well I wouldn’t say that murdering women was a hobby of mine, but it’s bound to happen now and again isn’t it.’

The atmosphere of the whole thing is certainly oppressive, although I wouldn’t call it frightening. The relatively slow pacing creates definite tension and I was intrigued to see how events would play out. Nonetheless, the inconsistent level of self-consciousness within the narrative prevented me from being swept away by it. While it does not read as a pastiche of gothic melodrama, with a few changes I think it could have. Perhaps that would have worked better for me? As it was, I liked the imagery and theme of the Furies (as well as the cats named after them!), yet found myself observing the characters more dispassionately than I’d expect for such a melodramatic book. ( )

Sleep Pale Sister. As dreamy and ethereal as its title, as ghostly sweet as the cover art promises, that is Harris’ beautifully told gothic master piece. Read it and agree with me ( )

I put this down after 100 pages. It just didn't grab me, unfortunately. ( )

Masterful! One of my favorite writers of all time. ( )

This was not my favourite of Joanne Harris' books. I found it readable but the main character was not my favourite.

It's one of her earlier novels, and it's written in a sort of neo-gothic style, which I thought was interesting but I wasn't really sure I liked. It's a pretty angsty book and I remember it being pretty morbid.

I think the biggest problem I had with it is that the main character is male, and most of Joanne Harris' main characters are female. I found it a bit slow in places, and while it was cohesive it just wasn't my favourite of hers.

But, after reviewing a few of Harris' books that I read, I'd love to read some more of her work again soon. ( )