Claire's Head

I'm very surprised at the lukewarm reader reviews of this book. I was riveted - it was a classic quest story but with a truly innovative twist. The relationship between the three sisters was very finely drawn; each came through as a clearly separate individual, but the special link between Claire and Rachel, which was what motivated Claire's search, was very telling - how could the reviewer above have missed it? It was classic older-younger sister - hero worship, emulation, protectiveness - in addition to the fact that they both suffered the same debilitating headaches - they were, in a sense, mirror images of each other - they had to find each other to have any chance of pain relief. One reviewer above suggested the relationship between Claire and Stefan should be 'beefed up'. For what reason? It was a beautiful, subtle and very realistic relationship, and made a great foil for the later emergence of Brad. One reviewer above suggested that the fact that the pain was not life-threatening presented a 'problem' with this book! But the fact that it's not life-threatening IS the whole point! Duh! If your pain is life-threatening you can plan for your death, await the pain's inevitable worsening. There is a clear downhill trajectory. But for Rachel and Claire there was no relief in death to look forward to and no clear way ahead, no guidelines as to what course or direction it would take - hence their constant feeling around for new or old triggers. Yes, the descriptions of pain were repetetitive - but again, that was the whole point. The descriiptions had to be repetitive because the migraines themselves were repetitive. At first I too got a bit irritated with the constant descriptions of the headaches, but the more I got into the book, the more I realized how important this repetitiveness was because it helped you to really understand, get inside the head of, Claire and Rachel, and you could feel how all-consuming their pain was - how their whole lives revolved around the pain. As for the ending, it was perfect! It was an ending of poetry, hope and resolution. It kept me guessing all through - I thought it was going to be a tragic ending. But it was profound and beautiful. A wonderful, haunting book. Normally I would four stars (5 is for perfection, an exceedingly rare event)but I feel I need to balance the unjustified criticisms above. Thank you Catherine Bush - keep writing!