This post was originally published at Novelicious.com and is now at WritingTipsOasis.com. WritingTipsOasis.com acquired Novelicious.com in June 2022.
Reviewed by Jennifer Joyce
Aged just 14, Fiona Palmer started a relationship with her English teacher. Fifteen years later, Fiona bumps into her former teacher and finds herself drawn to him once again. Fiona is married but she can’t push Henry Morgan from her thoughts as all her old feelings rush back to the surface. As she rekindles her relationship with Henry, Fiona’s memories of their past trickle back and she begins to see them with fresh, adult eyes. Fiona always thought she was in full control of her actions back then but, as a child, was she really as in command of the relationship as she assumed?
Precocious is told from the perspective of Fiona as she recounts her relationship with Henry, both in the past and the present. She is telling the story – from her viewpoint – to Henry and it took a little while for me to get used to this style of writing, especially as the narration seemed quite jumpy at times. I didn’t warm to the character of Fiona, especially as the book moved along. She’s married to a pretty decent bloke but she suddenly starts to find fault with everything he does, as though trying to justifying the affair with Henry. I could understand how compelled she was by Henry and the powerful effect he had on her both when she was his pupil and now, but I couldn’t get past the way she treated her husband throughout the novel.
For me, the pace of the book was also a problem. It took such a long time to really get going and when it did, it didn’t go far enough for me. The concept was interesting but it didn’t grip me in the way I expected it to. I found it frustratingly slow at times and thought there were some unnecessary details and plots that hindered the pace further. Fiona’s friends, Mari and Laura, are brought into the book but their contribution added very little to the plot for me. I wanted them to play more of an integral part of Fiona’s development – perhaps to add another viewpoint of her relationship with Henry – but they seemed to simply murmur in the background and I didn’t think their stories were really relevant.
One aspect of the book I did like was Fiona’s childhood diary entries, covering her relationship with Henry. I liked the voice of the younger Fiona and seeing how the bond between her and Henry changed from an acceptable teacher/pupil relationship to the affair we know they had.
It’s an uncomfortable theme for a book but it wasn’t overly gratuitous and I think it was handled sensitively.
7/10
Precocious by Joanna Barnard is out now.