Download Waiting for the Flood Spires Alexis Hall Books

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Product details Series Spires (Book 2) Paperback 112 pages Publisher Quicunquevult Press (July 4, 2018) Language English ISBN-10 1912688808

Waiting for the Flood Spires Alexis Hall Books Reviews

• I’ve been slowly moving through Hall’s novels, with deep appreciation for how excellent they are. Waiting For The Flood, though a novella, is no less well-wrought, perhaps more so, because of what Hall accomplishes in a shorter work.
  
  Essentially, the plot develops over the course of a few days (perhaps a week) in which flood waters progressively rise in Oxfordshire, threatening the main character’s house, Edwin Tully, as well as those of his neighbors. Edwin is nursing his heartbreak over the end of his ten-year relationship with Marius, in the house they once shared. Along comes Adam Dacre, from the Environment Agency, and offering Edwin something new, if he would only take a chance.
  
  In Waiting for the Flood, Edwin, like Laurie from For Real, is wounded by the abandonment of a partner he thought was his ‘forever.’ They are both just getting by emotionally. He’s intelligent (all of Hall’s main characters are, some in bookish ways, some in self-knowledge.) and shy because of his stutter, which I initially thought was nervousness. His preoccupation with phonetics in the first chapter should have clued me in to this fact. Adam is probably one of my favorite characters, besides Darian in Glitterland, because he brings so much acceptance to his budding relationship with Edwin. Using the house as a structure upon which to shape the novella was incredibly insightful. I won’t give the ending away but do pay attention to the subtle shift in the last chapter. And recipes. Always a recipe 😊.
  
  One wonderful surprise was the depth of these two characters, given the length of the book. There is so much depth to Edwin’s mourning and Adam’s kindness. I should note that this expression of kindness and acceptance characterizes the relationships in Spires – there is a tender benevolence between the leads, even when the characters are acting in ridiculously myopic ways. This appreciation for the delicate emotion attempting to blossom between the characters lends each story an elegant beauty, particularly when the couples finally surrender to their feelings. There’s no intentional cruelty, only a struggle to love well as only people with histories and emotional scars can love. And it’s lovely to see.
  
  This is a five star read, as are all the novels in this series. All worth reading and rereading.
• Alexis Hall is an automatic buy for me. He is one of those writers who handles language so beautifully, and develops characters so fully-rendered and imaginable that one can’t help but fall for them. There is no fat in his narratives, no description that doesn’t turn back to the plot and the characters and whatever relationships—primary or secondary—that matter to the book.
  
  He also seems to be the master of the novella, which is no mean feat; making a short-form novel feel both fully developed and more than adequate in every way.
  
  Edwin Tully is a book conservator at the Bodleian library in Oxford (I’m a curator, that’s an impressive job, really); Adam Dacre is a civil engineer specifically focused on (not always successfully) controlling the flooding of the Thames in Oxford. They meet at the moment a flood threatens Edwin’s street, as he is trying to hide from the pain and bitterness of a failed ten-year relationship.
  
  Interestingly, Marius, the ex, is not portrayed as a bad guy; just a man who was no longer happy with his partner, who, sadly still believed he was happy with Marius. And, even more strangely, Marius’s mother still calls Edwin, because break-up or not, she still loves him. It is only a tangentially important detail, but Edwin’s dealing with his ex’s mother’s outspoken affection for him is one of those beautiful, thoughtful moments that enrich the experience of this little book. She says to him ”You know, Edwin, family is really just whoever sticks around.”
  
  This conversation is her only presence in the book, and I loved her totally for it. It is a catalytic moment.
  
  Adam is a redhead, and that alone would have made me read this. But I also expected that Alexis Hall’s writing and characters would live up to his previous standards, and indeed they all did.