Reviews

I was really excited for a retelling of a Greek myth however, for me this book fell short. I’ll start with the good, 1800 London is an amazing setting for the Minotaur myth, the links between the sewers/streets and the labyrinth was imaginative and believable and the writing style was enchanting.

My issue is with the overall style, the book was a Dickensian twist on the age old question of what makes man vs beast, without the nuance of Shelley. I’m not sure if this was due to the main narrator only being 10 but for a character driven book there was not enough time taken to delve into any the characters psyche.

There were definitely the beginnings of character development however, this fell short for me. In addition the (3) female characters in the whole book were forced into such dull archetypes eg Sally-Anne is just “mother” and only has one catch phrase, and it felt like the author made 0 effort to build them into the theme of man vs beast as opposed to the male characters who had been fleshed out a little (although still not enough to really explore the “once a monster?” theme).

In the end I believe that the author made a conscious decision to write a character focussed book with an incredibly nuanced theme, but did not really make an effort analyse the characters decisions or explore their reasoning enough to produce this.

wayward's review against another edition

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dark emotional hopeful mysterious reflective tense slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.75

donna_bx's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional hopeful sad tense slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

I so wanted to like this book more, as the beginning was fantastic and it captured me. But about 60% through I started to drift, and my attention was waning.

I did however like the intertwining of mythology with Victorian times. That was great spin.

The narrator was fantastic and he brought Minos to life, as well as other characters. But for me, the story lasted too long.

bunnmj's review against another edition

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dark emotional mysterious slow-paced

2.5

karenthebaron's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional funny hopeful informative inspiring mysterious reflective sad tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

I liked the consistency of the writing, the theme and the characters a lot in this novel. I particularly liked the final point of the narrative. The characters seemed quite vivid in my mind's eye.

thewhisperingpages's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional hopeful mysterious medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

I liked this book a lot, but it wasn’t special to me in the way that the Toymakers was. The Toymakers tore out my heart and left me thinking about it for years after, but this one didn’t have the same effect as much as I wanted it to.

I love Dinsdale’s characters so much. Obviously the complicated character of Minos is noteworthy, as he’s the central character in the book. His complexity the nice man who befriends Nell and the monster hidden deep deep inside are constantly at war. But actually my favourite character was Nell. Her story of learning what’s right and how to stand up against Murdstone who doesn’t have her, and certainly not Minos’, best interests at heart. I loved her journey and her absolute faith in Minos.

The narrator was good, but not noteworthy. I liked the voice that he did for Minos, as it combined the man and the monster really well together and gave hints about his character, but other than that, none of the characters voices really stood out for me.

I definitely want to read some more of Dinsdale’s novels because I did enjoy this a lot, but I’m sad it wasn’t as good as the Toymakers.

I received this gifted copy in exchange for an honest review. Cross posted to thewhisperingofthepages.co.uk

dani_luff's review

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adventurous emotional hopeful mysterious tense slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? N/A
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.75

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