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2.73 AVERAGE
2.73 AVERAGE
Halfway through and I couldn’t tell who was who or what was happening and I just wasn’t invested enough to figure it out
Pluses: Narrative pace, art history knowledge, humor, first 20%
Negatives: too many threads, a bit too much of the super human, ending not satisfying for me, preachy, untranslated or unguessable French
Read it again: no
Recommend to : maybe a bright 12 year old.
Negatives: too many threads, a bit too much of the super human, ending not satisfying for me, preachy, untranslated or unguessable French
Read it again: no
Recommend to : maybe a bright 12 year old.
I read it in Dutch, translated as 'de Caravaggio kunstgreep'
This book doesn’t feel properly edited there’s just so much random stuff in it and the dialogue is whack
I really struggled with this book and I wish I had read the reviews first!
The concept of this book intrigued me and the description of artworks and other (real) art thefts were the only parts I enjoyed. The "solve" felt rushed and haphazard, and there were an awful lot of one sided conversations. Characters were introduced and then forgotten, only to be brought back into the narrative much later. The description and attitude towards women in this book was offensive. Overall, not a huge fan.
The concept of this book intrigued me and the description of artworks and other (real) art thefts were the only parts I enjoyed. The "solve" felt rushed and haphazard, and there were an awful lot of one sided conversations. Characters were introduced and then forgotten, only to be brought back into the narrative much later. The description and attitude towards women in this book was offensive. Overall, not a huge fan.
Avoid at all costs! This novel is simply a waste of time. Bad plotting, one-dimensional characters, condescending tone and weird involvement by foreign entities that made the story hard to follow at times. Charney tried too hard to make it a Dan Brown-esqe thriller.
I didn't get on with the writing in this book at all I'm afraid.
loved the art history but story was hard to follow, ultimately unsatisfying
Entertains on two fronts; serves as both a good mystery and a good general education on the history of art.
This book is essentially a mystery, a genre that I am rather unqualified to rate appropriately. Overall, I think the mystery aspect of the book was entertaining and not overtly obvious, so probably successful.
More than that, however, I adored this book. It is easily one of the best I have read. Of course, all of my reasons are selfish and probably not applicable to most people. This book appealed to all of my favorite things.
It made me feel smart. Scattered, untranslated phrases in French and Italian made sense to me. Of course they were simple, conversational terms, but I was proud of my ability to read them. That being said, I think most of them could be understood in the context of the book without being able to translate them, so I hope no one is turned off by that. There are truly very few sentences in the book that are not in English, and none of them contain major plot secrets, so you would miss nothing even if you ignored them completely. For me, though, it was a satisfying discovery that I could translate them.
The art works mentioned in the book brought to mind specific mental pictures for me. I loved the chance to flip through my mental art rolodex, and this reminded me exactly how much I love art history. I am newly motivated to continue pursuing an art historical graduate education in some sense.
Overall, this book made me feel good about me. It's not really meant to do so, but it appealed to all of the things I am proud of, and so gave me a better sense of my own academic ability and worth.
More than that, however, I adored this book. It is easily one of the best I have read. Of course, all of my reasons are selfish and probably not applicable to most people. This book appealed to all of my favorite things.
It made me feel smart. Scattered, untranslated phrases in French and Italian made sense to me. Of course they were simple, conversational terms, but I was proud of my ability to read them. That being said, I think most of them could be understood in the context of the book without being able to translate them, so I hope no one is turned off by that. There are truly very few sentences in the book that are not in English, and none of them contain major plot secrets, so you would miss nothing even if you ignored them completely. For me, though, it was a satisfying discovery that I could translate them.
The art works mentioned in the book brought to mind specific mental pictures for me. I loved the chance to flip through my mental art rolodex, and this reminded me exactly how much I love art history. I am newly motivated to continue pursuing an art historical graduate education in some sense.
Overall, this book made me feel good about me. It's not really meant to do so, but it appealed to all of the things I am proud of, and so gave me a better sense of my own academic ability and worth.