rebekahh 's review for:

The Tenth Muse by Catherine Chung
3.0

i'm not really sure what happened here. the tenth muse has all the pieces of a novel that i should love: a protagonist with a passion for science & math; fun references & analogies to the natural sciences & mathematical concepts; a backdrop of academia; interesting reflections on topics like identity, success, and equality; and a plot full of twists & turns.

but something fell flat, and i can't quite put my finger on what it is.
- i wonder if this book would have been better if it were longer. 280 pages was too short to make the story fully immersive, and i think it ended up feeling shallow because of that.
- maybe i didn't love the narration style?
- i definitely liked the first third of the book more, and then the part in the middle when
katherine's father tells her about her real mother
felt abrupt and, just.... uncomfortable. i think that's where my declining enjoyment started.

anyway, it was a pretty decent read, but certainly nothing special like i'd hoped.