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3.67 AVERAGE
3.67 AVERAGE
emotional
mysterious
reflective
sad
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
I felt like the first half of the book went around in circles as the characters traipsed all over the place, but the second half picked up dramatically~ in both storylines~ and shared a compelling history unknown to so many of us.
I'm an enormous fan of Elizabeth Kostova and with this third novel she did not let me down! This book was intense and captivating while being touching and heart wrenching as well. There were some aspects that I found not as well rounded as her previous two novels, some of the twists and turns left me feeling frustrated like the characters weren't getting anywhere (I think the characters were frustrated too). Overall this was a very thoughtful book and clearly a lot of love and effort were used in its creation.
A great intertwining of history and the present it shares an important narrative that is too often ignored. If you want a compelling read that also yanks your heart out pick this book up right now! I can't wait for Kostova to write more!
A great intertwining of history and the present it shares an important narrative that is too often ignored. If you want a compelling read that also yanks your heart out pick this book up right now! I can't wait for Kostova to write more!
Fast-paced story with an exotic background. Enjoyed the mix of the past and present events in the book. I enjoyed the main character, Alexandra, and how she grew as the adventure of finding the owner of the urn twisted and turned. Fun read.
Fascinating and enthralling tale of Bulgaria. She's a fantastic story-teller and now I have added Bulgaria to my list of countries I want to visit.
I really liked The Historian when I read it years and years ago, and I didn't know that the author had a relatively new book out. I didn't like The Shadow Land as much as The Historian, and I found myself skimming the more historical half of the book. It didn't really hold my interest the way her other book did, but it is written in a very similar style, which I liked. I'd give this book 3 stars.
Loved the characters and story. Another great novel from Kostova!!!
So frustrating! I loved the story, the descriptions of Bulgaria. The writing was just terrible in ways the editors should have caught. I think the author can do much better in future books but this one showed first time flaws. She had a lot of sentences like: for some strange reason a cat was in the road cleaning itself. That's a paraphrase but the cat had nothing to do with anything and no reason that it should be strange which was a word used aLOT without any further description, when there was opportunity to explain what was strange or interesting she didn't do anything with it. She could have really added to the story with sensory descriptions of events and sensations that were just strange without any description or explanation as to why it was strange, why it was interesting, why it was in the book. Great potential but this was a disappointment.