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Home > Books > Fiction > Modern Fiction Books > T Modern Fiction Books > The Outcast - Sadie Jones

User Reviews

for The Outcast - Sadie Jones

Rating Summary based on 8 reviews

  • 5 Stars
    		3
  • 4 Stars
    		4
  • 3 Stars
    		1
  • 2 Stars
    		0
  • 1 Star
    		0

Detailed rating

  • Characters
  • How does it compare to other works by the same author?
  • How does it compare to similar books?
  • Readability
  • Story
  		• 4.5
  		• 1.9
  		• 2.6
  		• 4.3
  		• 4.0
Previous page Next page Page 1 of 1 | 1 to 8 out of 8 Review(s)
  • 66 of 66 Ciao users found the following review helpful
    Picture of brokenangelkisses

    Level 6 brokenangelkisses

    Member since 24/11/2003

    Reviews written: 175

    5 Stars The Outcast: a dark tale of feeling unloved 24/10/2011
    User recommends the product

    Advantages Advantages easy to read; well written; sympathetic characters; interesting context

    Disadvantages Disadvantages sensitive subject matter may by disturbing to some readers

    I had never heard of this book until it was selected as a book group read. The plaudits on the back cover suggested it was written in a similar style to ‘Atonement’ so, having loved that book, I was keen to read this. The premise Under the neat façade of the church-going, lunch-attending 1950s middle classes, rural life is full of familial abuse and misery. Lewis Aldridge, returning from jail at the tender age of nineteen, is frustrated by the polite hypocrisies of this world. A social outcast who is convinced he is broken, his actions quickly grow wild. Kit Carmichael, four years younger, has ... more
  • 76 of 76 Ciao users found the following review helpful
    Picture of CPTDANIELS

    Level 8 CPTDANIELS

    Member since 14/06/2003

    Reviews written: 395

    5 Stars Struggling with the tragedy 04/05/2012
    User recommends the product

    Advantages Advantages Excellent thought provoking novel

    Disadvantages Disadvantages Prologue was wrong

    Synopsis of the book: The war is over and Lewis Aldridge life changes dramatically when the man he only has distant memories of returns. Being an only child he has always had a very close relationship with his mother and he feels this is threatened by his father returns. And while he settles back easily into civilian life Lewis struggles to form a new relationship with this man. His mother is very unconventional and has a free and easy way about her. One day she takes Lewis to the river for a picnic and in a freak accident she drowns in front of him. There is no-one around and despite Lewis's ... more
  • 34 of 34 Ciao users found the following review helpful
    Picture of Rhiana

    Level 6 Rhiana

    Member since 03/04/2009

    Reviews written: 144

    3 Stars Oh Lewis..... 15/08/2009
    User recommends the product

    Advantages Advantages Great charaters, good depiction of the era

    Disadvantages Disadvantages dreary and depressing at times, some scenes I found uncomfertable to read.

    I have had this book on my bookshelf for quite a while, and finally got to it this week. I'd read some very positive reviews on it, knew it had been a Richard & Judy book club book and had been both won and been shortlisted for awards, so was looking forward to it and had quite high expectations. The Plot The book begins in 1957 and Lewis Aldridge has just been released from prison (for a crime we are not told of until later in the book) and is making his way back to his home town of Waterford in Surrey. It appears that no-one in the village is pleased to hear of his return, least of all his ... more
  • 48 of 48 Ciao users found the following review helpful
    Picture of fizzytom

    Level 9 fizzytom

    Member since 21/07/2003

    Reviews written: 972

    4 Stars We need to talk about Lewis 10/08/2008
    User recommends the product

    Advantages Advantages Superb characters, very evocative, compelling story

    Disadvantages Disadvantages Seems somehow lacking

    Nineteen year old Lewis Aldridge is released from prison - for an offence we aren't fully informed of until much later in the book - and returns to Waterford, his childhood home where his stepmother is nervously expecting him. He receives a frosty welcome not just from his stepmother and his father, Gilbert, but from most of the residents of the village. Only two are remotely pleased to see him, and for very different reasons. Sisters Tamsin and Kit Carmichael couldn't be more different. Kit lives in the shadow of her lively and attractive older sister; she is the one who takes the beatings ... more
  • 54 of 54 Ciao users found the following review helpful
    Picture of kingfisher111

    Level 9 kingfisher111

    Member since 05/02/2006

    Reviews written: 1056

    5 Stars I couldn't cast this book out! 20/04/2010
    User recommends the product

    Advantages Advantages great book

    Disadvantages Disadvantages none

    I was looking for something a little different to read and a friend of mine recommended The Outcast by Sadie Jones. It is this author's first novel (although she has now written another) and it had been short listed for the Orange Broadband Prize for Fiction in 2008, as well as being recommended by Richard and Judy. I was so glad that she lent it to me though, as I thoroughly enjoyed every single word and read the entire book in a matter of days. The Outcast is a truly moving and poignant book. The Daily Mail described it as 'devastatingly good' and I find myself agreeing with this most apt of ... more
  • 56 of 56 Ciao users found the following review helpful
    Picture of burtybookworm

    burtybookworm

    4 Stars A sad little book ! 15/10/2008
    User recommends the product

    Advantages Advantages Unusual story, well written, great characters

    Disadvantages Disadvantages Very sad! You might want to stop reading, but don't!

    I've just finished reading this book, and I have to say it is one of the saddest books I have ever read - heres why. THE PLOT The Outcast is about a boy called Lewis Aldridge and his life in a small town outside of London post WWII. The book begins with Lewis leaving prison at the age of 19 for a crime we are not yet told of to head home to his family. We are then taken back to Lewis' childhood beginning when his father returns from war and things take a dramatic change for Lewis..... Despite their middle class surroundings and the return of her husband, Gilbert, from war, Lewis' mother is ... more
  • 42 of 42 Ciao users found the following review helpful
    Picture of mummy2harry

    Level 8 mummy2harry

    Member since 12/04/2007

    Reviews written: 818

    4 Stars Not an outcast from my bookshelf 31/10/2007
    User recommends the product

    Advantages Advantages Good story,interesting read, well researched

    Disadvantages Disadvantages Some graphic and disturbing scenes, some characters a bit weak

    I was lucky enough to receive this proof copy from Waterstones, the second such book I have received from them, so I felt quite lucky when this one arrived at my house! I will be honest and say that this is not the sort of novel I would go for, as you can see from my other book reviews, but I wanted to read it with an open mind, and I did actually enjoy it in the end! Sadie Jones is an upcoming author and The Outcast is her first novel. I am always a bit wary of debut novels as sometimes they are not the authors best, but I made sure I had no pre-conceptions about this. I couldn't find out ... more
  • 11 of 11 Ciao users found the following review helpful
    Picture of CharlieK

    CharlieK

    4 Stars A powerful first novel about a repressed era. 01/08/2008
    User recommends the product

    Advantages Advantages A beautifully written and subtle recreation of a boy's inner torment in the 1950s.

    Disadvantages Disadvantages Ever so slightly overlong and starts going round in circles a little by the end.

    I greatly enjoyed Sadie Jones first novel, which is a tale of a tearaway teenager in the 1950s and how his family's repression leads his behaviour to worsen rather than improve. The book was a rather odd choice for Richard and Judy's Summer Read Book Club as it is a rather darkly themed book, but whatever time of year you read it you won't fail to be affected by the story and its realistic characters. The book beings in the 1940s when the protagonist Lewis is a small child. His father returns from the war and upsets an idyllic existence he has with his mother Elizabeth. One day, he and his ... more
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