Hellllllllllllllo readers and happy Thursday, *eee* tis nearly the weekend. I’m currently working on a little bit of an update on my little book blog, the new theme is wonderful but I would love to hear your thoughts as to ways I can better the blog and make it more enjoyable. Whether it’s more social media, or more links, more pictures I would love to hear your thoughts. Today I have a rather short novella that I read over some mushroom soup on my lunch break. It was a lovely short read, and one that I’m interested to see what happens next.
“Jess had been intensely occupied with wiping Olivia’s face. He couldn’t tell if she was breathing or not and was too afraid to check for a pulse. The idea of losing her when he had only just found her was beyond consideration. Resting his forehead against hers, he began speaking softly to her, ‘Please don’t leave me. Please hang on. There’s so much to tell you.'”
A powerful derailment on the Madrid Metro throws the lives of three people together and changes them forever as they are forced to see life from a different perspective: Olivia Polansky the American poet, Jess Wilkinson the Londoner on holiday and Maritza Caballero de Lezcano a Panamanian widow on a mission to rectify the wrongdoing of another. Madrid Metro is a story of hope, faith, endurance and love despite injustice, tragedy and disappointment.
So, as the blurb suggests, this rather short novella, follows the lives of three strangers that are thrown together when a terrible train derailment occurs. The three, Olivia, Jess and Maritza are suddenly acquainted with each other and find that they are far from strangers and that their lives interlink in ways that they would not have believed possible. The book follows them as Jess and Maritza continue to visit Olivia who is in a coma in hospital. Both have links to Olivia, Jess’s stemming from a paragraph she once wrote in a book for him (Olivia is a writer) and Maritza has connections through her husband who once took everything from Olivia. The book follows the three as they come to terms with not only what has happened to them but also these new relationships which are beginning to grow between the three.
In terms of writing style the descriptions are very evocative; the author really puts time into building the description, not only of the landscape but also of the characters; Olivia is a wispy waif like character but she is prone to outbursts despite her slight build. Jess is a sweet-heart, gentle with an emotional side his persistence to see Olivia wake up is tender and wonderful. I must admit that the feelings that brew between the two of them did seem a little overwhelming and a little pushed as to make the story but I think in the next book if this is explored more deeply then it will feel more authentic. Maritza is a wonderful character, stubborn and brutal her encounter with Jess (there is quite a violent exchange of words on the train between herself and Olivia) she begins to break down everything she has known of her life.
Technically the writing is strong as seen in this description of Jess,
‘He had a copious amount of unruly golden brown curls that his fingers got lost in whenever he tried to smooth them. His eyes were as blue as the Caribbean Sea on a sunny day. They were full of feeling and were crowned by two eyebrows like marquees that spoke a myriad of emotions all on their own as they arched and dipped,’
and the writing is technically strong grammar and punctuation wise.
My only slight complaint was how short it was; I thought the author managed to pack in a lot of plot and descriptions but it felt a little too short. If it wasn’t a novella I feel we would have learnt so much more and although it’s sometimes nice to read something so quick, it felt like the book didn’t give me enough. I know there are going to be additional books which I will definitely look into reading, but for me I would rather have had two sandwiched together than two terribly short books.
Overall this is a short entertaining read with a real start to becoming a great book. For me it was too short to really think yes this is brilliant because it didn’t quite give me enough and yet double the pages it would still be a short book but just pack more of a punch in terms of content. A sweet read but too short for my liking.
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mylittlebookblog 
A most talented first novel author. Short flashes of portic prose, in this novella, remind me of her ability, also, as a fine poet, as proved in her published works.
Definitely 🙂 couldn’t have put it better myself! xx