I do find it really hard to read proofs when they haven’t been formatted correctly- having the start of words be missing makes the reading experience a bit of a guessing game.

was an ok read but whoever thought it was ok to have 2 characters sharing the same name made a mistake as it made it confusing

This is billed as covering serious racial and political issues, which it kind of did, but from the point of view of a very wealthy family in NYC who own an island in Maine. Nazism, anti-semitism & racism are viewed through the lens of the perpetrators which lends an odd distance and, as there is no kind of redemption, almost an acceptance of the status-quo. The part with Elsa and Willy was really odd - far too short so that it felt included as some kind of plot device that would lead to events on the day of the party.

There were also too many characters to relate to any of them, and the two Evelyn / Evies were very confusing!

Having said all of the above, it was still an enjoyable read but could do with some editing down - it's a bit long-winded.

This is a family saga spanning multiple generations. It’s a story of family, secrets and privledges.
It is told in three timelines from three different perspectives. This book highlights how society has changed over time.

A slow start but a good read.

It took me a while to really get into, and start to enjoy this book. I struggle when characters from different generations share the same name. If I time out for a short while I am then lost wondering who I am reading about.

I found this hard going - dense and detailed but not particularly rewarding. This is probably me - I mean "Its me not you" - so perhaps I'm being polite or maybe this is for a different audience.

This is the saga of the Milton family who were old school bankers. It begins in 1935 and covers three generations. The family buy a small island in Maine. The island has a house built on it so the famiky use it for their summer vacations. It looks at the attitudes the Anglo elite had against anyone they thought was different.

I did find this book to be confusing. There were lots of characters and the time periods jump all over the place. The characters are obsessed with there self importance. There is a lot of repetition in the description of the island. The story touches on anti Semitic and racist feeling towards the upper class society. It was also hard to define who was narrating as it was told from multiple points of view. The book felt a little disjointed.

I would like to thank NetGalley, Penguin Books (UK) and the author Sarah Blake for my ARC in exchange for an honest review.

There is a LOT of reading in this one, and with very little dialogue it is a long, solid read.

The Milton family are a bit of a dynasty in New York; the 'young' Miltons, Ogden and Kitty are a bit of a golden couple. With a secure place in society, three wonderful children - cared for by their nanny - and Ogden's business flourishing, their future seems certain, until tragedy strikes . . .

This part of the novel was my favourite! I really enjoyed the characters, the period details and everything about them. Then the timeline started moving, focusing on different generations and the story moved backwards and forwards without warning. Even a date at the beginning of each chapter would have made it easier. Working out where we were in the family tree grabbed my attention, taking it away from the story and, to be completely honest, I struggled through the pages. I did learn details I was unaware of historically and those I really enjoyed. This is very much a social commentary-cum-family saga and I just wished it would make up it's mind which. It didn't set my world on fire - it was a family history with a few high points and a lot of low points along the way. I'm happy to give it three stars.

My thanks to publisher Penguin for my copy via NetGalley. This is my honest, original and unbiased review.

My thanks to Netgalley and to the publishers for the opportunity to review this novel.

The Guest Book explores the lives of a privileged. moneyed American family, the kind of family who is affluent yet will not allow this to be discussed in society. The novel starts in 1935 and follows three generations of the family as they progress through the years. Despite early tragedy the family prospers, buying their own holiday island in Maine, where they and their friends spend the summers.

Over time the third generation of the the family move away from the focus of business and money making, always assuming that there will be enough to support them and to keep the Island in the family, but this turns out not to be the case. As they confront this reality, other realities in the life of the family come to light and their treatment of individuals causes that history to be viewed in a new light.

The structure of the novel is quite complex, moving back and forward in time and with a focus on different individuals, making the reader work quite hard to understand and follow the narrative arch. This makes for a much more challenging and enjoyable reading experience, rewarding the effort the reader has to put into the novel as a whole. It is a really interesting commentary on the role of the smaller society which was in control of finance and banking in the past and their attitudes towards ethnic, racial and religious minorities.

This is a sweeping novel. I wasn't sure what I was going to get when I received it, but it was a complete roller-coaster...and in some ways reminded me of Gone with the Wind, it was so vast. It would be easy to describe this novel as a tale of a rich family headed by a couple Kitty and Ogden who are touched by tragedy early on who buy an island, I think to remove themselves from their grief, but it is so much more. This is a story of attitudes towards class, race and religion, the three subjects we're told are taboo in polite society. I enjoyed it but felt it was over-long and there were areas that I felt dragged the reader out of the story with too much minutiae. It was otherwise beautifully written.

A novel about status, society exceptions , wealth and privilege.

It's an odd read this one. A lot of toing and froing from one place to another which takes you on an journey but where you never really land in one place with one character long enough to get to know them. There's quite a wide cast of characters too which for me was a little too much to really get to know any one of them in any great depth.

What I did like however is the way the author uses current issues of race, identity and privilege to create a novel of family and human relations. It's a multigenerational family saga which looks at death, ownership and carrying on the family name and honour .Children who want to change the past but to keep a focus on their own present, people who see a family heirloom, house or in this case, a ;legacy or a noose around their neck.

Just goes to show that money is not the panacea to any of lifes problems

I very much enjoyed this book. Spanning decades of time, the story gives us an insight into the lives of the Milton family. Rich, powerful and struck by tragedy, they purchase an island to spend end their summers at.

I loved the way the timeline jumped about, always leaving you wanting more. The characters were well described and interesting.

Where this book falls down, is a lack of resolution. The reader learns an answer, but it is never explained. It just is. I’d have liked more chance for the characters to react to the secrets, lies and decisions we discovered along the way.

All in all this is an interesting and well written family saga and I will be sad to let Crocketts Island go. Thank you to NetGalley and the publishers for my copy of this book.

I was excited to read this book as I thought the blurb was really intriguing. Unfortunately, I did not read very far into the novel (only 2% on the Kindle) as there were words intermittently missing from the text, only partial words printed and there also seemed to be a recurring issue with the diphthong ‘‘th’ being omitted. As such, I found it too distracting to continue reading as I was becoming frustrated with trying to surmise meanings and anticipate where the omissions would occur next. This is a real shame as it’s no reflection on the narrative or the way the book has been crafted but it means that the reader’s enjoyment is marred as you find yourself concentrating more on the physical printed word as opposed to the story.

This is one of those books for me where I applaud the author's intentions but don't think they really feed through into an accomplished novel. Blake (whose The Postmistress I loved) takes her cue from current identity politics and, as a white author, puts white privilege under scrutiny. She is really thoughtful about history and where it is located, on the way it shapes us, even traps us, and weaves in cultural theory as well as important ongoing projects such as the 'stumbling stones' initiative (die Stolpersteine) started by artist Gunter Demig in Germany where brass paving stones are embedded outside the last place a Jewish person lived or worked before they were killed or rounded up by the Nazis. Blake's extensions to this idea (what if the same thing were done for black slaves in the US? what if stones marked the responses of passers by?) are about making history material and visible, and one of the themes of the book is about silencing and speaking out.

Yet, with such an acute foundation, the narrative feels like it's flailing around a little and never really comes together incisively and with taut direction. The multigenerational saga format is disrupted by flitting around in time and place - and while I get the reason for this juxtapositioning, it makes for uninvolving reading. The proverbial cast of thousands (ok, I'm exaggerating) means we don't always get up close and personal where I wanted to.

Blake is clearly using fiction to engage with absolutely contemporary issues - I just wish the fiction has been smoother to match the interest of the underlying ideas.

Though the poor formatting undoubtedly affected my ability to get into the book, I was, on the whole, able to fill in the missing words and so I decided to stick with it - and in the end I’m glad I did. The story did take a long time to get going, and there were times in the first half that the different narratives and time lines felt disjointed, but the skilful observations, the elegance of the prose and the creation of the characters was superb. By 50% in I was completely engaged, as the different narratives became stitched together with intrigue. An interesting and thought provoking read, this is a book to be studied and dwelt upon, and I defy anyone not to be struck by the powerful presentation of the opening tragedy.

I had the same problem as the other reviewer. Unfortunately, too many missing letters within words made it too distracting to enjoy pursuing this book.

Has anyone else tried to read this only to find major parts of words missing? I persevered for a while but it's just too frustrating to read!