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| Sleep, Pale Sister | 
 enlarge | Author: Joanne Harris
Publisher: Black Swan
Category: Book
List Price: £7.99
Buy Used: £0.57
You Save: £7.42 (93%)
New (22) from £3.00
Avg. Customer Rating:  11 reviews
Sales Rank: 17810
Media: Paperback
Edition: New Ed
Pages: 400
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.6
Dimensions (in): 7.5 x 5 x 1.2
ISBN: 0552771783
Dewey Decimal Number: 813
EAN: 9780552771788
ASIN: 0552771783
Publication Date: September 1, 2004
Availability: Usually dispatched within 1-2 business days
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| Customer Reviews: Read 6 more reviews...
 This book shouldn't have been woken up June 11, 2008
3 out of 4 found this review helpful
Joanne Harris says the book was re-published due to demand. I wonder who from? One of the main characters is an artist who is some kind of paedophile ('He likes children, he picks the youngest' when he visits the brothel). We are supposed to believe that he doesn't even recognise it is his wife he is visiting at the brothel. Her mind/body have been taken over by the brothel madame's dead daughter in a bid for revenge. There's also a plot to kill Mr Chester (as his wife must call him). It's load of nonsense. Like another reviewer, I had to keep checking the front cover to see if this was a Joanna Harris novel, but for a different reason.
Note to established authors, do not agree to have your early novels published/re-published until you are 100% certain they will not ruin your reputation as a writer.
Whilst the paedophile is seeing the young girl at the brothel (who is really his wife in some kind of trance and taking on the persona of someone else) his manuscript reads '...then I wanted her again and I plunged into her like a dolphin into a wave'. Nuff said.
 Sleep, Pale Sister May 3, 2008
0 out of 2 found this review helpful
First Joanne Harris I read two years ago, all I can say was best book I'd read in a long time. I agree, very goth, very sinister, but all the same brilliant composition and read. However not recommended for anyone who hasn't read or are into JH, but almost certainly one of her better books even if it was her earliest.
 A spooky Gothic tale November 6, 2007
4 out of 6 found this review helpful
Reading the introduction to the reprint of this early work of JH, you get the impression that she's a bit embarassed by Sleep, Pale Sister. There's no doubt that it stems from a time before her considerable skills were fully honed. It reads almost like a first draft and is a rather rambling, unwieldy novel. That said, I really did enjoy reading it. Not being much of a fan of the Gothic genre, I did find all the purple prose a bit over the top - but then that's the nature of Gothic, so I can't complain. One thing I always like about JH is that she doesn't shy away from darker themes and that's certainly the case here. Her protagonist is guilty of about the worst crime imaginable and she doesn't flinch from giving it to us both barrels. The same was true of the depiction of the rotten underbelly of rural France in 5 Quarters. So, all in all, fun, spooky, creepy and enjoyable, but only a taster of the better things to come from this excellent writer.
 Sleep, pale novel September 12, 2007
4 out of 6 found this review helpful
I am a great fan of Joanne Harris, and like many other readers I was keen to find out what this early work was like. As others have pointed out, Sleep, Pale Sister has many recognisable features which Harris develops in other books, but for me the interest ended there - at mere curiosity. I had to force myself to finish it, hoping with every page that it would reveal one of those famous twists of plot, but no.
I'm afraid this was the most boring book I have read for many years. I found the endless laudanum-induced dreams and sinister story-telling episodes tedious and repetitive.
If you are hoping for more along the lines of her other books - don't bother with this one.
 A Lost Gem Rediscovered June 20, 2007
7 out of 8 found this review helpful
I understand that this book disappeared without trace when it was first released. Goodness only knows why. Lacklustre promotion, I can only imagine because it's a wonderful book. Echoes of Dorian Gray but without the covert mysogyny. Darkly magical. Literate and hugely enjoyable.
Unlike a previous reviewer, I loved the device of having the four narrators and had no problem descerning which was which. Indeed, it simply increased my admiration for the author's skill and dexterity.
I loved Chocolat but I couldn't get on with Five Quarter's of the Orange at all. What does it matter? Sleep, Pale Sister is a stand-alone success.
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