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3.46 AVERAGE
3.46 AVERAGE
I wanted to like this, I really did and I powered through, but what started as a great premise just...fell through. It's a victim of itself, Caldecott's emphasis on in depth descriptions is exhausting and results in a slow moving plot. The initial intrigue becomes annoying, answers aren't given and when they are they are repeated...just in case you didn't quite get it the first time.
This had the makings for a thoroughly interesting story, and I did read it because it was recommended for fans of Gaiman, but Caldecott fails to successfully weave a story in the same way. It simply feels like a chore.
This had the makings for a thoroughly interesting story, and I did read it because it was recommended for fans of Gaiman, but Caldecott fails to successfully weave a story in the same way. It simply feels like a chore.
adventurous
mysterious
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
Quite a good book. Nothing crazy. If u like a bit of fantasy then it's all right. Very light book.
The set-up should have worked better for me, but the characters and the style I found ultimately very distracting and hard to get into. It does not help that I tried to read this book throughout the month of first the blighted ovum diagnosis and then my miscarriage. After that I ever felt in the mood to pick it up again.
Sometimes I think I spot books that started as authors doodling maps of imaginary cities. From the maps, cultures and histories arrive, and the author has to splice in a plot to make all the parts move. This isn’t always successful, because the imaginary place can end up seeming more real than the characters walking its streets. Happily, this is not the case with Andrew Caldecott’s Rotherweird, the first novel in a trilogy. Rotherweird, England, is an isolated town set aside during the reign of Queen Mary to house children born with frightening abilities. Five hundred years later, this history is lost and the town has a reputation for little more than being unfriendly to visitors. Jonah Oblong, a history teacher, is dropped into the middle of the town at the beginning of the novel when he takes a job where he is prohibited from teaching anything before the year 1800...
Read the rest of my review at A Bookish Type. I received a free copy of this book from the publisher via NetGalley, for review consideration.
Read the rest of my review at A Bookish Type. I received a free copy of this book from the publisher via NetGalley, for review consideration.
dark
funny
hopeful
mysterious
slow-paced
До 300-ой страницы, это было больше не чтение, а попытка «победить» эту книгу (слишком много персонажей, перепрыгивание между эпохами). Местами складывалось впечатление, что читаешь криминальную хронику. Но потом книге всё-таки удалось завлечь.
Возможно буду читать продолжение серии.
Возможно буду читать продолжение серии.
Slow, and I did not like how the women were written/treated.
Fantastic plotting and a story that threads together the past and present beautifully. At times, let down by prose that feels very much like a playwright giving direction. ‘Show don’t tell’ is a piece of writing advice I hate for its ubiquity and for how it’s often misinterpreted but the book could at times have benefitted from it. This said, Caldecott also has a fantastic skill for switching POV mid scene, multiple times and with enormous elegance. It’s wonderful to see it done with such skill.
The story and characters have shades of Gormenghast and while I was initially disappointed that what I took to be the central mysteries of the book were easy to solve early on, there was so much more to it. It has layers like an onion and even in the last pages and presumably the next books there are still mysteries to be solved.
The story and characters have shades of Gormenghast and while I was initially disappointed that what I took to be the central mysteries of the book were easy to solve early on, there was so much more to it. It has layers like an onion and even in the last pages and presumably the next books there are still mysteries to be solved.