10 Sept 2013

The Hypnotist's Love Story - by Liane Moriarty

This is a book that delivered on my expectations. It has an interesting storyline: girl meets boy, boy has stalker, girl is hypnotist who discovers that the stalker is a client. Although perhaps rather unlikely, this thread does provide an ideal vehicle to play with some ideas. Importantly [for me], the story has a clear beginning, middle and end; also there is a straight, simple timeline.

The book is written from two perspectives: Ellen, whose world is described in the third person, and Saskia, who speaks directly to the reader. This device means that, even though the viewpoint changes frequently, the reader [well, this one anyway] is never lost. It is quite a long book [over 400 pages], but I felt that this was about right, giving the author the opportunity to look at details and not rush to the end.

Ultimately, the book is about love, as implied by the title, and explores different kinds of love, how love can change over time and how one's own perception of loving and being loved is not a constant.

Overall, I enjoyed the book and would read further work by the author.

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