What do readers think of Cloudland by Joseph Olshan? Write your own review.

I agree with the comments several other readers have made that rated this a 3 read. It was disjointed, not a page-turner, confusing, slow paced and a book I had to struggle to finish. Clearly not a book for all of the "psychological thriller" fans out there. My rating is 2.75 overall.

Cloudland is beautifully written with evocative and elegant descriptions of the Maine countryside in winter. One can almost smell the air. Where the book fails is in the characters, who are just not fully developed nor are they, or their actions, believable. People do not behave like they do in this book, some being too saintly, some being entirely too sinful or stupid. I found myself wanting to smack some sense into them!

What could have been a great plot with intriguing characters couldn't make up for a rather disjointed story with too many sidetracks. I just never got the "thriller" part of the story.

When I read this book was described as a psychological thriller I was drawn to the story. However, I found it to be more of a traditional who-dun-it. The reader follows the investigation through the narration of Catherine Winslow who writes a household hints column and who, in the book's opening sentence, has discovered a woman's body near her home. The body is only one of a series of women who are believed to be victims of a serial killer. There were quite a few things about this novel that just didn't work for me. Foremost among them was the way Catherine was involved in the investigation. I wanted to like it but sadly it just didn't grab my interest.

I'd torn between giving Cloudland a 3.5 - 4. I was compelled to finish it, because I was invested and curious as to the identity of the murderer. Yet by the time "he" was revealed, I felt a little deflated, and I'm not sure why. I found Olshan's writing to be very good...descriptive, evocative and with great imagery...his dialogue and even storytelling, not so much. I imagine it must be difficult to write from the perspective of the other sex, but I think he succeeds quite nicely. I liked Catherine very much...appreciated her candor and self-awareness. I didn't find the other characters to be as fleshed out, particularly Paul, Breck, Prozzo and Matthew. I did, however, like Henrietta and Hiram. Overall, a good read but not sure I would recommend. And I feel bad about that, if it makes sense! Thanks for the opportunity to review.

If you're looking for a fast paced, action filled and non-stop suspense thriller, look elsewhere. At times this book moves as slowly as Vermont maple syrup in the Winter. The only things that kept me hanging in there were the seemingly accurate depiction of the down home flavor of New England life, and the desire to see how it all ended up. If you're in the mood for a laid back, easy-going serial killer mystery, this would work for you. It didn't work for me.

Cloudland, a new novel by Joseph Olshan , is clever but ultimately disappointing. A plot taken from the unfinished work of Wilkie Collins promises much more than this story delivers. Stick figures, not real characters, populate the pages. I read with interest a tale hoping I would care about the people tripping over each other. I didn't. To quote Gertrude Stein, "There's nothing there there."

While reading the first chapter I thought that I would really like this book but I found myself loosing my enthusiasm for it as I read further. I just couldn't get myself to like the characters. The plot was interesting but seemed to have too many twists that became more and more confusing. This would probably be a good airplane read.