Scan barcode
A review by borrowers_bookshelf
The Light That Gets Lost by Natasha Carthew
3.0
3.5 stars
It took me a little while to get into this book, mostly due to the writing style. I struggled a bit with the accent of the dialogue and all the run-on sentences. I understand that both of these were deliberate, but they did make it a bit harder to read.
It was around the 30% mark that I started getting interested in the story and the characters. I particularly liked the character of Lamby, as he had a certain childish innocence and playfulness about him, even though he'd been through a lot. The main character, Trey, was a little harder to like. His obsession with revenge and all his talk about this inner demon got rather tedious after awhile. After that settled down, I really enjoyed the ending, where he came to realise the futility of holding on to the awful things in his past, and instead focused on the future; I think there is a great lesson in that.
It was hard for me to decide on a rating for this book. I enjoyed how the story developed in the second half, and if it was just up to that, I would have rated it 4 stars. However, I can't ignore the fact that the writing style was a little challenging to read through. It took me quite a while to get used to it, so I didn't really enjoy the beginning; it nearly made me not want to continue reading. Thankfully, I did push on.
If I were to read this book again, I would no doubt enjoy it more, as I would already be accustomed to Carthew's particular style of storytelling.
Overall, I think this is quite a good novel and has a nice non-traditional coming-of-age feel about it.
*I received a copy of this book from the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review*
It took me a little while to get into this book, mostly due to the writing style. I struggled a bit with the accent of the dialogue and all the run-on sentences. I understand that both of these were deliberate, but they did make it a bit harder to read.
It was around the 30% mark that I started getting interested in the story and the characters. I particularly liked the character of Lamby, as he had a certain childish innocence and playfulness about him, even though he'd been through a lot. The main character, Trey, was a little harder to like. His obsession with revenge and all his talk about this inner demon got rather tedious after awhile. After that settled down, I really enjoyed the ending, where he came to realise the futility of holding on to the awful things in his past, and instead focused on the future; I think there is a great lesson in that.
It was hard for me to decide on a rating for this book. I enjoyed how the story developed in the second half, and if it was just up to that, I would have rated it 4 stars. However, I can't ignore the fact that the writing style was a little challenging to read through. It took me quite a while to get used to it, so I didn't really enjoy the beginning; it nearly made me not want to continue reading. Thankfully, I did push on.
If I were to read this book again, I would no doubt enjoy it more, as I would already be accustomed to Carthew's particular style of storytelling.
Overall, I think this is quite a good novel and has a nice non-traditional coming-of-age feel about it.
*I received a copy of this book from the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review*