booknerd1977 's review for:

The House of Sorrowing Stars by Beth Cartwright

3.0

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This one is a bit hard to rate for me. While I liked the writing style, it was over all disappointing. There was a lot left unanswered: how do people come back once they use their key? How do they get people to write their stories down, if Rosa’s book wasn’t read multiple times, why did it crumble? Why did Libby have some of the “touch” gift that Vivienne had? Why is the house “broken” like described in book synopsis? These and so many other questions were not answered. I just felt it was a bit of a cop-out to not address some of the major fantastical aspects of the book. Although the writing flowed well, the story really didn’t go much of anywhere. It also felt very disjointed like multiple different books mashed together. The best part of the book was the library and the books written by other people. I likes the concept of someone’s story being read multiple times relieving that person of their sorrow. I didn’t dislike this book but I didn’t love it either.