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4.12 AVERAGE
4.12 AVERAGE
This is a book with a mystery at it's very core.
Our protagonist, Joe, doesn't even know who he is, so how can we? It's a shame that, despite some attempts to cast doubt on the situation, that the answer becomes blindingly obvious fairly quickly into the book, and we spend most of our time waiting for Joe to catch up.
The first quarter or so of The Kingdoms is beautiful: mysterious and atmospheric and unsettling, as amnesiac Joe settles into what he is told is his life, but which he remembers nothing of. The scenes in the lighthouse are marvellous, and I would have loved to have seen more of the locals.
Pulley is wonderful at atmospheres and building tension, but now having read three of her books I'm unconvinced about her touch with characters. The Kingdoms is part mystery, part exploration of the butterfly effect, and part naval adventure story. This is something that, on paper, is entirely up my street, but something about the characters just fell flat for me. Joe is faint, confused, which makes sense given his situation, but the attempts to make our other MC a complex, interesting, conflicted character came off, to me, as making him seem merely inconsistent. There is a great love story at the heart of this book, but it didn't grab me by the shoulders and graft itself into my soul, the way I feel it should have done.
I did enjoy The Kingdoms: I loved the time travel aspects and the adventure side of things, but I'm afraid the characters just fell a bit flat for me, and the mystery was too obvious too early for it to keep me guessing.
Our protagonist, Joe, doesn't even know who he is, so how can we? It's a shame that, despite some attempts to cast doubt on the situation, that the answer becomes blindingly obvious fairly quickly into the book, and we spend most of our time waiting for Joe to catch up.
The first quarter or so of The Kingdoms is beautiful: mysterious and atmospheric and unsettling, as amnesiac Joe settles into what he is told is his life, but which he remembers nothing of. The scenes in the lighthouse are marvellous, and I would have loved to have seen more of the locals.
Pulley is wonderful at atmospheres and building tension, but now having read three of her books I'm unconvinced about her touch with characters. The Kingdoms is part mystery, part exploration of the butterfly effect, and part naval adventure story. This is something that, on paper, is entirely up my street, but something about the characters just fell flat for me. Joe is faint, confused, which makes sense given his situation, but the attempts to make our other MC a complex, interesting, conflicted character came off, to me, as making him seem merely inconsistent. There is a great love story at the heart of this book, but it didn't grab me by the shoulders and graft itself into my soul, the way I feel it should have done.
I did enjoy The Kingdoms: I loved the time travel aspects and the adventure side of things, but I'm afraid the characters just fell a bit flat for me, and the mystery was too obvious too early for it to keep me guessing.
Sadly, it just didn't grab me, and I like Watchmaker a lot. It's beautifully written in terms of individual sentence, but the characterization, setting, plot, etc., left me cold. I stopped reading at the 140 page mark, as there are hundreds of other books on my shelf, and the likelihood is greater than 80% that I'll prefer any randomly plucked one to this.
I was also disappointed because I'd been misled by the cover art ... I gathered this was about time travel, but interpreted the spiralling stairs as time travel within time travel, something quite twisty, when really they're just the steps of a lighthouse, and the time travel aspect is very narrowly proscribed.
(I was also hoping for fun! and instead got slow and depressed!)
So it was not the book I wanted it to be, but I have not given up on the author, just this instance of her work.
P.S. Really liked The 7 Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle and can see very little resemblance between that fast-paced thrill ride of a book (if that book was Star Tours, this is King Arthur's Carousel.)
5 stars = amazing, wonderful, 4 = very good book, 3 = decent read, 2 = disappointing, 1 = awful, just awful.
I was also disappointed because I'd been misled by the cover art ... I gathered this was about time travel, but interpreted the spiralling stairs as time travel within time travel, something quite twisty, when really they're just the steps of a lighthouse, and the time travel aspect is very narrowly proscribed.
(I was also hoping for fun! and instead got slow and depressed!)
So it was not the book I wanted it to be, but I have not given up on the author, just this instance of her work.
P.S. Really liked The 7 Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle and can see very little resemblance between that fast-paced thrill ride of a book (if that book was Star Tours, this is King Arthur's Carousel.)
5 stars = amazing, wonderful, 4 = very good book, 3 = decent read, 2 = disappointing, 1 = awful, just awful.
4.5, half a point off for making me consider putting it down in the middle but oh my GOD I’m so glad I finished this book even if it was gory ahskjdakksjdlsjfkf
Joe Tournier has no memory of how he got to London, though he's assured he is the slave of a kindly Frenchman and is simply suffering from a strange form of epilepsy leading to memory loss. This doesn't stop him occasionally remembering a man waiting for him at a beach, or wondering about the postcard featuring a lighthouse, asking him to come back if he remembers. He doesn't remember, but he wants to, and so he follows the postcard and the man all the way to the Napoleonic wars.
This book was an adventure in the truest sense. Up until the very end, I had no idea how the threads could possibly come together. Despite figuring several things out early-ish on, the end was a surprise. Full notes under spoiler tag.
***Spoilers***
What I loved:
Kite. Kite was a great, complex, interesting character and I felt at the end as if there was still so much more of him to know. Also, I will forever be a sucker for the character who believes himself to be hopelessly pining forever after someone unattainable and is therefor colder and crueler to them. Natasha Pulley has an excellent knack for being unflinching with her characters and having them be genuinely deeply morally grey in unpleasant ways.
Another great tendency of Pulley's in my opinion is well-thought-out magical realism. The time travel portal is a one way trip for Jem, because when he goes back, the future has changed - and it happens again! And it keeps happening! The implications are frankly staggering and horrific, and Pulley does not pull punches with them. I also like how at the end, once Joe knows, he can't unknow and witnesses the changes as they happen, and also that his previous epileptic deja vu moments were probably moments when the past was changing.
What I have mixed feelings about:
Jem having three(!) dead wives. That's the big one. This already happened in Pepperharrow, that the interesting and complex female lead genuinely believes one of the male leads is insane and has to be killed, and then she dies a tragic death, leaving room for the two male leads to get together. I know it's not entirely period appropriate, but I wish there were less women dying in this book.
An add-on to that is that I knew pretty early on that Joe was Jem, and that Madeline was his wife. it just seemed pretty logical to me. This also meant that a lot of the book while Joe was waiting to figure it out was deeply frustrating to me. The latter is NOT a criticism - I really liked that, it put me SO MUCH in Joe's headspace because I was right there with him, begging him to just remember already. In terms of the romance though, I kind of wish we got more time with a Joe who knows he was Jem, or in Jem's POV in the past, because it left some of his decision-making about Agatha and Kite kind of opaque. And also, he and Kite suffered so much, I kinda wanted them to get more time to enjoy their happy ending. But that's a me issue.
This book was an adventure in the truest sense. Up until the very end, I had no idea how the threads could possibly come together. Despite figuring several things out early-ish on, the end was a surprise. Full notes under spoiler tag.
***Spoilers***
What I loved:
Kite. Kite was a great, complex, interesting character and I felt at the end as if there was still so much more of him to know. Also, I will forever be a sucker for the character who believes himself to be hopelessly pining forever after someone unattainable and is therefor colder and crueler to them. Natasha Pulley has an excellent knack for being unflinching with her characters and having them be genuinely deeply morally grey in unpleasant ways.
Another great tendency of Pulley's in my opinion is well-thought-out magical realism. The time travel portal is a one way trip for Jem, because when he goes back, the future has changed - and it happens again! And it keeps happening! The implications are frankly staggering and horrific, and Pulley does not pull punches with them. I also like how at the end, once Joe knows, he can't unknow and witnesses the changes as they happen, and also that his previous epileptic deja vu moments were probably moments when the past was changing.
What I have mixed feelings about:
Jem having three(!) dead wives. That's the big one. This already happened in Pepperharrow, that the interesting and complex female lead genuinely believes one of the male leads is insane and has to be killed, and then she dies a tragic death, leaving room for the two male leads to get together. I know it's not entirely period appropriate, but I wish there were less women dying in this book.
An add-on to that is that I knew pretty early on that Joe was Jem, and that Madeline was his wife. it just seemed pretty logical to me. This also meant that a lot of the book while Joe was waiting to figure it out was deeply frustrating to me. The latter is NOT a criticism - I really liked that, it put me SO MUCH in Joe's headspace because I was right there with him, begging him to just remember already. In terms of the romance though, I kind of wish we got more time with a Joe who knows he was Jem, or in Jem's POV in the past, because it left some of his decision-making about Agatha and Kite kind of opaque. And also, he and Kite suffered so much, I kinda wanted them to get more time to enjoy their happy ending. But that's a me issue.
adventurous
challenging
mysterious
fast-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
adventurous
dark
emotional
mysterious
reflective
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
mysterious
sad
tense
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:
Complicated
adventurous
challenging
emotional
mysterious
slow-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:
Complicated
adventurous
emotional
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
adventurous
emotional
mysterious
tense
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