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Title: Contrived imagery, but a great setting
Review: The Mermaid's Chair didn't draw me in. The plot was rather standard with bizzare elements like a compulsion to chop one's finger off guilt for a drammatic death sort of tacked on. I was eager to read about the area where this was set, but everthing felt so contrived that I couldn't really buy the story or the characters. The affair with the monk seemed unlikely piled upon contrived. I was not a huge fan of The Secret Lives of Bees either, but it was better than this.
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