"You're wishin' too much, baby. You gotta stop wearing your wishbone where your backbone oughta be.”
-

susan hill has a way of making one really depressed. it's a dirty trick - narrate the story in a way that brings you close to a particular character, emphasize with him or her, make you feel a connection, give you hope, and then kill them off quickly, in the most unexpected way. bam! everything comes crushing down. you don't even have time to mourn for him or her before the story ends, so it leaves you lingering with a sense of unfinished business. it got me in 'i'm the king of the castle' and it's got me again in 'the various haunts of men'.

i won't be reading any more of her books in a while, i need something happier. actually i would have wanted to read the sequel if only she let freya live. urgh urgh urgh.

i'm off to wallow in my misery.