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Product Description
Review
"Riley writes with shivering urgency, in goosebumps."
--"Guardian" --This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.
--"Guardian" --This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.
Review
"Riley writes with shivering urgency, in goosebumps."
--"Guardian"
--"Guardian"
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
A narrator is struggling to come to terms with... what? Life...? Love...? I'm left uncertain. Nothing happens, nothing is resolved, nothing is changed, gained, learned and so I felt that there was no real story here, just a bunch of isolated moments strung together. Take one out, and nothing at all changes. Life is like that, yes, we know, but I don't think that open-ended approach really works in books: as a reader I want something to get my teeth into, and someone to care about.
Which brings me to the narrator, who is flippant and irritating but thinks she's incredibly smart and witty and deep. Interspersed with a lot of detailed accounts of her indie outfits and Converse are endless descriptions of her every movement are a lot of words about the sky and the pavement, desperate to seem cool rather than tell the truth. She's self-obsessed and completely non-committal about anything, and frankly, it's boring.
Woman cannot survive on atmosphere alone. And I defy you to eat an avocado with just your hands.
Which brings me to the narrator, who is flippant and irritating but thinks she's incredibly smart and witty and deep. Interspersed with a lot of detailed accounts of her indie outfits and Converse are endless descriptions of her every movement are a lot of words about the sky and the pavement, desperate to seem cool rather than tell the truth. She's self-obsessed and completely non-committal about anything, and frankly, it's boring.
Woman cannot survive on atmosphere alone. And I defy you to eat an avocado with just your hands.
11 of 14 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
There are few books which really touch me in the way that this one does. It is gorgeous and painful, wonderful and tragic all in the same breath. Most importantly and skillfully of all, it captures that once-in-a-lifetime moment that we all experience - the moment where we should stop, act, grab hold of the things that are precious to us and hold onto them with religious fervour, but somehow we don't. We keep walking on, abandoning the beauty in front of our face, in the vain hope that there is something better round the corner.
At the heart of this novel lies one question. What if this moment, the one that is happening here, now, is the only chance I'll get? What if this is the only time I might ever find the one person who can make me happy? Should I gamble everything on this moment? What if I'm wrong? Worse still, if this is the moment - if this is "the one", what happens if I do nothing? Will I have lost the only chance I EVER had to be happy?
This book makes me feel 19 years old again, makes me cry and yearn and wish for salvation all at once. I haven't read anything as touching or as true in a long long time.
At the heart of this novel lies one question. What if this moment, the one that is happening here, now, is the only chance I'll get? What if this is the only time I might ever find the one person who can make me happy? Should I gamble everything on this moment? What if I'm wrong? Worse still, if this is the moment - if this is "the one", what happens if I do nothing? Will I have lost the only chance I EVER had to be happy?
This book makes me feel 19 years old again, makes me cry and yearn and wish for salvation all at once. I haven't read anything as touching or as true in a long long time.
7 of 11 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
i think this was a lovely detailed description of people and place but mostly the main character whose realy disfunctional.she doesn't do a good job of coping with life but while she's floating about writing notes on her arm with her biro you realy warm to her and want to wrap her up and look after her.
i haven't read cold water yet so i don't know if i'd feel different if i'd read that first.
you realy get a feeling your reading about the author in this book.but personaly i like the sound of her,it made me want to meet her.so i did.well kindof.i went to an event she did in london with two other authors(helen walsh and clare sudbury(sp?))and she mumbled into her book and she was just like you'd think the character would be.i didn't talk to her though coz she didn't look like she wanted people to talk to her.
if you liked this book you'll probably like the books by the other two authors:brass by helen walsh and the dying of delight by clare sudbury(sp?)
i haven't read cold water yet so i don't know if i'd feel different if i'd read that first.
you realy get a feeling your reading about the author in this book.but personaly i like the sound of her,it made me want to meet her.so i did.well kindof.i went to an event she did in london with two other authors(helen walsh and clare sudbury(sp?))and she mumbled into her book and she was just like you'd think the character would be.i didn't talk to her though coz she didn't look like she wanted people to talk to her.
if you liked this book you'll probably like the books by the other two authors:brass by helen walsh and the dying of delight by clare sudbury(sp?)
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
Maybe even five stars..
Contrary to general belief, I actually found Sick Notes much better reading than Cold Water. I felt that Cold Water was at times a little affected, and as somebody who resides in... Read more
Published on 10 July 2004
Duvet reading
Essentially Sick Notes is a companion piece to Riley's debut Cold Water, in that the main characters, scenarios and settings are so similar. Read more
Published on 25 Mar 2004 by A. Slatcher
"I don't want a lover, I just want to be sick"
I loved 'Cold Water' - ok, most people did. And so I should be glad that 'Sick Notes' is pretty much 'Cold Water 2' or 'Return to the Cold Water'. I am, oh, I am... Read more
Published on 10 Mar 2004 by H. L. Barrell
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