Take a photo of a barcode or cover
3.7 AVERAGE
3.7 AVERAGE
I am Kelly Link’s fifth biggest fan, after her mom, husband, and her writing super group comprised of Cassandra Clare and Holly Black. I’ve loved and envied her stories for 20 years now, and instant match from the first sentence I read in a slipstream anthology in my college Radical Sci Fi and Fantasy class. I’m saying all of this so you know how hard it was for me to mark it down a star. Link’s short stories are all unimpeachable five stars in my book. The Book of Love, her first novel, is a four. If it was a four for me, it might be a two or unreadable for you, so proceed with caution. Check it out from the library before buying. I think some of the Linkian magic that works so well in a short story is lost when examined and rehashed and expanded upon in a 600+ page format—still loved reading it, but it definitely will only truly resonate with Linkheads who, like me, “get” her (Love ya, Kelly! Text me!).
challenging
dark
mysterious
sad
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Generally quite enjoyable and engaging. There is so much inventiveness behind this story, particularly the way that Bogomil and company engage with the human world. Some of this sort of feels like a film that would be released in the 80s, and I'm not sure I can elaborate further on that right now. There was a pervasive sense of bleakness to this that I really couldn’t shake, even though I get the sense Link is trying to get at something somewhat heartfelt and sentimental.
My single biggest gripe is that the length felt overly self-indulgent. This book absolutely did not need to be over 600 pages, and I would even venture to argue that this story could've been told in half the page count while still accomplishing what it sets out to do. The verbose nature of the dialogue and prose contributes to this (why does Carousel, for example, speak in the way that she does? She's only six years old). There are a lot of instances in which you hear the writer herself speaking rather than the characters. I've not read any of Link's other fiction, but this became a bit tiresome after page 400, especially as one starts to wonder what possibly could be so important to warrant an additional 200 pages. The mystery of their deaths is unnecessarily drawn out, and the cast of characters too broad.
My single biggest gripe is that the length felt overly self-indulgent. This book absolutely did not need to be over 600 pages, and I would even venture to argue that this story could've been told in half the page count while still accomplishing what it sets out to do. The verbose nature of the dialogue and prose contributes to this (why does Carousel, for example, speak in the way that she does? She's only six years old). There are a lot of instances in which you hear the writer herself speaking rather than the characters. I've not read any of Link's other fiction, but this became a bit tiresome after page 400, especially as one starts to wonder what possibly could be so important to warrant an additional 200 pages. The mystery of their deaths is unnecessarily drawn out, and the cast of characters too broad.
dark
emotional
funny
hopeful
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
this book is long as all hell. it took me longer to read than most books. now that that's out of the way– i've never read any of kelly link's short stories, but i definitely will be now. because if she won awards for those, and this is the novel she put out on her first go-round, wow. i took my time here partly because i was savoring each bit of this story in a way i don't often experience. link's writing is dense in the sense that it's packed with colorful detail, choppy in the sense that it mimics patterns of thought so wonderfully that her characters were immediately sympathetic. there are certain cultural references she makes that i feel inclined to applaud her for, due to how currently relevant yet unforced they appear in context. i am not the hugest fantasy reader, and despite the clear supernatural plot that surrounds the book, i would even go so far as to say it's character driven. and oh, what characters they are. how i felt for each one of them, . insane, that's all i'm saying.
Spoiler
even the ones that ended up not being real
adventurous
funny
mysterious
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
Could not get into it. Hard to follow.
adventurous
dark
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
medium-paced
I think I wanted to like this book a lot more than I actually did. I really liked how the perspectives shift between characters as a sort of “tag you’re it” but it was just too long and dragged out.
emotional
funny
mysterious
reflective
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
adventurous
dark
emotional
sad
tense
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
While this book follows a very unique storyline, I was confused if this was YA or not (in a cringey way). Anyways I don’t think I’d recommend someone read it, but I’d appreciate talking about it with others. Laura acted especially YA, yet the magic system is very unique (e.g. the balance of life, death, and the in between)