"I write this sitting in the kitchen sink."

I finished I Capture the Castle about a week and a half ago; don't know why I haven't thus far written about reading it, but here goes.

This book was splendidly written. I loved the setting, I loved the style, I loved the characters. I hated the plot with a very real hate. I Capture the Castle was really let down by its plot. I suppose the lack of satisfaction felt by the reader at the end is supposed to reflect reality in some fashion, but the big twist near the end was so unlikely and badly foreshadowed that any resemblance to reality was drowned in a whelming wave of 'Yeah. Right.'
The characters were very well realised and endearing in themselves, but the relationships between the characters were not. Cassandra, the protagonist and narrator of the story is such a detached observer (though her interest and sympathy make her very relatable) that the other characters are never, somehow, given all that is due them.
But watching the movie first alleviated much of this disappointment. Because I already had been so thoroughly disappointed by the film, I already expected the awful storyline (or lack thereof for the first chunk of the book). So I enjoyed the book a lot more than I expected to. Because, after all, it is so very well written. And has a great many quotable lines.

"Noble deeds and hot baths are the best cures for depression."