Feb Book Club: The Cicada House

This month we changed up the pace with the Cicada House by Ella Ward.

The synopsis:

This is a magical love story. Where, despite what I have just told you, the most extraordinary thing to happen is a woman learns to forgive herself.

When Caitlin inherits a significant sum of money on her fortieth birthday, she decides to break the habits of a lifetime and throw caution to the winds. She’s about to tell her husband Paul that they’re leaving London on a once-in-a-lifetime journey to Eat Pray Love their way around the world, only ... she doesn’t tell Paul that, because before the candles are lit, he tells her that he’s very much in love with someone else. After a drunken night trying to console herself, Caitlin books tickets to Australia - anything to get as far away as possible.

What does the world feel like when it’s ending for you, and no-one else? What does life feel like when you are running away from it? This is a story that begins in a way you expect, and ends very far from there.

It is a story of creaking English hallways and vast Australian skies. Of hands that feel like warm sandpaper. Cicadas that sing so loudly they drown out the grief. Of white wine and an old piano and children who want their parents back from the dead. It is a magical tale of travel and mystery. And a very human tale of sex and loss and seawater and the primal joy of coming home.

This is The Cicada House.

For me; the strengths were absolutely the descriptive language and how much I connected with the country seaside town and lil’ beachside shack. I could see it SO clearly.

Caitlin was a main character I found frustrating in parts. I wanted to wrap her up in hug and shake some sense into her all at once.

The twist was one I DID NOT seem coming and it did feel a little out of place. I wonder if I did a reread I would pick up more of the subtle notes though? A journey I enjoyed going on but one I feel I still haven’t made sense of.

3.5/5 ⭐️ from me.

You can purchase a copy of The Cicada House by ‘Ella Ward’ here