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3.57 AVERAGE
3.57 AVERAGE
DNF Loved the cover and the potential of the storyline, but it was too slow for me. Struggled to even get 100 pages in, guessed the mystery early on. Read spoiler reviews to confirm before fully giving up on this one.
What a garbage book. I bought it hoping for light and charming but instead got plodding and infuriating. The root problem is the terrible writing, which is best described as "teacherly" -- you can practically hear the notes from a high school English teacher on imagery and metaphor. To make matters worse, the narrator is insufferable from the jump, making everything that much more tedious and laboured. I hardly know why I finished it, other than morbid curiosity.
This was a cute book - nothing too deep, but fun with a little mystery and plenty of literary references.
All of the characters were awful people, and I figured out the "mystery" by the end of the first chapter, and I'm generally terrible at solving mystery novels before the protagonist. The only decent character in the novel is the bookstore itself. But otherwise it reads like the rough draft of a precociously pretentious student in a junior high English class.
hopeful
lighthearted
mysterious
reflective
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
Eh. It was boring. I didn't believe in any of the characters.
Things I enjoyed:
- the puzzle to figure out Miranda's past
Things I didn't enjoy:
- the writing style (too basic)
- Miranda's severe emotional immaturity (I can't stress this enough; I've never been more annoyed.)
- Jay's storyline
- Malcolm
Once we figured out gist of the twist, the falling action seemed to drag on a bit much.
- the puzzle to figure out Miranda's past
Things I didn't enjoy:
- the writing style (too basic)
- Miranda's severe emotional immaturity (I can't stress this enough; I've never been more annoyed.)
- Jay's storyline
- Malcolm
Once we figured out gist of the twist, the falling action seemed to drag on a bit much.
I liked the idea if this book a lot more than I liked the book itself. I enjoyed reading it, but could never believe in it. It was much too complicated for what needed to be told, and far too much depended on chance. This was a first novel by this author and I certainly will read a second.