Reviews - The Eights | The StoryGraph

400 reviews for:

The Eights

Joanna Miller

3.92 AVERAGE

ehartsbooks's review against another edition

4.25

emotional hopeful informative inspiring sad medium-paced

bethlehemiteamy's review against another edition

4.75

informative inspiring mysterious medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Yes

electronicalice's review against another edition

4.0

dark informative inspiring lighthearted reflective relaxing sad fast-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: No

books76's review against another edition

4.25

emotional hopeful informative inspiring reflective 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

kayla_heff's review against another edition

3.5

informative inspiring slow-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

misha_ali's review against another edition

3.5

emotional informative inspiring medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: No

This was an interesting one because for the first half, I could swear nothing really happened. The four main characters are similar enough that I genuinely had to think about which one was being talked about at any given time, but essentially: Dora is the attractive one, Marianne is the super quiet one, Otto is the loud socialite, and Beatrice is the fourth one. We skip a lot between the past and the present day, which gets disorienting given that it's hard to keep the four separated. As I said before, not much happens in terms of plot, and the characterisation is already fairly thin, so it was hard for me to get invested.

The second half, however, does improve things. We have some actual subplots, historical events, and some twists being revealed, which leads us to better understand the characters and separate them from each other (although I was still getting tripped up with secondary characters such as the suitors Henry and Frank and who was interested in which of the women).

Overall, a bit of a snooze to start but picks up in the latter half so worthwhile if historical fiction about this time in Oxford interests you.