Reviews tagging 'Blood'

The Book That Wouldn't Burn by Mark Lawrence

13 reviews

dkamada's review against another edition

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adventurous hopeful mysterious reflective medium-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? No

5.0

Time is trippy and so is love
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eviethebookworm's review

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challenging dark emotional informative mysterious tense slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.5

I have so many thoughts that it’s hard to articulate them all.
But first, let’s discuss what the book is actually about. 

The Book That Wouldn’t Burn is about a vast and eternal library. The two protagonists begin in opposite situations – Livira begins having never stepped foot inside the library, while Evar begins having never stepped foot outside of it. 

Both their stories intertwine with each other through time and worlds. Everything comes back to the library and the knowledge it holds – and whether it can be truly harnessed before fire ignites. 

Livira and Evar are juxtaposed in a way that conveys the extreme nature of the library that is the anchor point for the narrative. Livira is endlessly curious and adaptive. Evar is penned in by his circumstances. They really are like two ends of a spectrum in that one is forced to explore and the other is confined. 

Lawrence incorporates several contemporary literary references that tie our own world in the fantastical one he has created. Nods to Alice in Wonderland and Wizard of Oz reinforce the theme of entering a world beyond your own. Although giving The Raven the true name of [spoiler*] is just ridiculous. I immediately fell out of the book. 

I did struggle with the pacing a fair bit. The beginning had a good flow but it waned as the pages went by, and it didn’t pick up again until almost three quarters of the way through. This came down to information and detail being repeated unnecessarily. Something mentioned in Chapter 20 doesn’t need to be retold in Chapter 24. It makes for a dense read, which left me wondering if I got my hopes up too soon in the start.

Having said all that, the big reveal was both infuriating and riveting. All the foreshadowing clicked into place! But a lot of the foreshadowing was smothered by the aforementioned density of the bulk of the novel. The last 150 or so pages convinced me that it was worth sticking it out. Which was a relief. 

If you enjoy a high fantasy novel that hones in on the concept of knowledge, then go for it! Just know you’re signing up for a hefty boi that can feel cyclic. But it all ties into the theme, really. It’s a great think-piece of a tale – something that will have you pondering the nuggets that the author has woven into each chapter. 

Review TL;DR:
Rating: 3.5/5 stars
Strongest elements: Multiple POV narrative, prose, literary referencing. 
Content warnings: Fire injury, blood, gun violence, racism, classism, slavery, kidnapping, murder, war, injury detail, genocide, death of a parent, death of a child, grief.
Similar titles/authors: The Book of Doors by Gareth Brown, The Library at Mount Char by Scott Hawkins.
Genre: High fantasy

*Edgarallen
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peregrinwho's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional funny inspiring mysterious medium-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? It's complicated

5.0

The first 20% of this book can seem slow, with Evar's chapters in particular being repetitive, but only because they're setting up a world, characters, and several questions. After that point that feeling falls away as answers start to come, and it's really difficult to put down the book so you can chase more of them.

Everything I thought was set up for a specific pay-off later was indeed paid off. It gave me so much joy to see the story unwinding to those points and being able to scream, "yes! I was right!" as characters solved the mysteries. A satisfying story with a fun journey. I laughed, I cried, I sat staring at the wall contemplating some of the author's words like a nexus point as the world turned around me. Can't wait to follow these characters into the next book💜.
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hannxm's review

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adventurous challenging dark emotional funny hopeful inspiring mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? No

5.0

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theaceofpages's review against another edition

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

3.5

"To discover that you can read in a language you never knew existed is a surprise. To be instructed to stop reading, in person, in that language, on the first page of a book, is perhaps an even greater one."

A library seems like a great place to hunker down with all that's going on in the outside world. Especially one this large and magical.
I mean, it's so large that somewhere is apparently always burning and most aren't even aware!
It was my favourite part of the book and I would absolutely love to be able to explore it and all its secrets. I loved Livira but found myself not quite as interested in Evar (which surprised me because I usually love libraryish characters). The book started off strong but I found myself losing some interest towards the end before things picked up for the ending (well, not really the ending ending since there will be a sequel)
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sophielillybeth's review

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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? No

4.25

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dips's review

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adventurous challenging dark mysterious reflective medium-paced
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes

5.0

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ashley_mrose530's review against another edition

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adventurous dark mysterious tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

It's taking me some time to figure out what I'm going to say about this book tbh.
I want to start off by saying that I did have fun with this book. The second half was actually pretty crazy with all the twists and revelations we get. It was so fun to watch those play out and be surprised by them.
That being said, I didn't get as immersed in this book as I wanted to. The beginning was really slow for me and though I think it was more or less necessary so we could understand the characters and the world, it did still drag for me.
And I'm not sure if it's because of that or something else, but I didn't really care for the characters as much as I wanted to either. I didn't connect with them like I should and that probably has more to do with the writing style. I don't think there was very much emotions from the characters as there could have been. We needed more moments where we slowed down with them and actually got their feelings about the events that were happening. There were so many moments where something big would happen to Livira -
like when she was promoted to librarian and then people were trying to kill her
- and then it would just jump to a few years down the road and we didn't get any sense of her reactions and emotions at that moment. Those would have been perfect times to give us something about her and help us connect to her, but we didn't get that which left me feeling very distant from them. I know the timeline needed to jump around a little bit to give us a sense of that happening in their lives and to keep the plot moving forward, but helping the reader feel connected to the characters is just as important in my opinion and I think it should have been focused on a little bit more here.
I do want to read the next one to see what happens and I hope that helps me not feel as distant from the characters, but we'll see. 
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dhh08's review

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adventurous dark sad tense slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.0

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kayceeisbookish's review

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adventurous emotional informative inspiring mysterious tense slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

A powerful story on the effects of knowledge on society. Told in duel POV and across expanses of time, this novel definitely had me deeply rethinking about how I look at books and reading as a way to transcribe, hold, and pass on knowledge through time. This is a book that is thought-provoking and sticks with you a long time after you finish reading.
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