Reviews

I love this book! I devoured it in 2 days. I usually read genres like crime and thriller but for some reason this book fell into my hands in the bookshop. It's a mysterious book with many sub plots that somewhat come together in the end. At the beginning I was a bit confused as to what is happening when, what is in the past and what in the present, but you get the hang of it quite fast. I read it in German and it was wonderfully translated. Although it has elements of a thriller, it is a novel and it is not about finding out who did what. There are a lot of things left open but somehow it suits the book.

For me it was something different and it was really great.

Content Warnings

canadianbookworm's review

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hopeful mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.75

https://cdnbookworm.blogspot.com/2023/03/the-readers-room.html

spikers's review

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mysterious medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.0

seaswift14's review against another edition

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mysterious medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.5

ashleylm's review against another edition

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2.0

I don’t know how much can be blamed on translation (perhaps in the original the actual language is transcendent) but this was just okay for me. Any one of the plot threads would be fine on its own, but taken together there was just too much of a muchness. It’s not clear if I just read a mystery, a fantasy, or not anything in particular, and what I did read for a large part doesn’t make sense or is stretched beyond credibility, e.g. a plane accident so that the protagonist can conveniently lose quite a bit of memory.

Characters come and go, major ones, viewpoint characters even--they'll appear for a chapter or two, and then are forgotten with no consequence. (It works for Douglas Adams, it doesn't work here). The author gives you innumerable pointless and unnecessary details about characters. Hey, Antoine: not everyone needs a back story!

Upon reflection, really, this ends up being only 2 stars for me. It's a disappointment. I enjoyed reading it more than most 2 star books because I was hopeful that something would happen to tie the disparate elements together, but no, that wasn't the case. (Obviously, a certain amount is revealed at the climax, but not enough to explain all my concerns or all his red herrings).

May 2022 update: less than two years later, I didn't recall this book at all, and was wondering why I hadn't marked it as "did not finish." So I read my review, and a summary, and it came back to me. So you can add "unmemorable" to my list of complaints regarding it.

That said, I have written a novel (not yet published), so now I will suffer pangs of guilt every time I offer less than five stars. In my subjective opinion, the stars suggest:

(Note: 5 stars = amazing, wonderful, 4 = very good book, 3 = decent read, 2 = disappointing, 1 = awful, just awful. I'm fairly good at picking for myself so end up with a lot of 4s). I feel a lot of readers automatically render any book they enjoy 5, but I grade on a curve!

robertasguedes's review

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3.0

não foi ruim, muito pelo contrário, mas queria um final diferente

servasan's review against another edition

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1.0

For a while I was thinking this book still deserved 3 stars, that ended in one of the last pages. I honestly really dislike this book and I'm sad about it. I wanted to like it

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