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A review by doritobabe
Labyrinth by Kate Mosse
3.0
Let's get down to the dirty business of writing a review for a book that I am completely on the fence about. I have put this off for a few days only to remember yesterday that I have missed writing about this one due to its remaining presence in my mind.
Kate Mosse's Labyrinth was gifted to be shortly after its release in 2005. My brother bought this book for me -- yet he doesn't remember -- and recall feeling incredulous at the type of book he picked out for me. I am a fifteen year old girl, why would I want to read this fist-thick historical novel that I have no idea about? Not to mention, up until I actually picked up the book this year, I my misconceptions towards the subject matter persisted (re: my earlier comment about it being similar to [b:Outlander|10964|Outlander (Outlander #1)|Diana Gabaldon|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1402600310s/10964.jpg|2489796]. THE BOOK IS NO WHERE NEAR THIS... SURPRISE!)
Labyrinth takes place in contemporary (2006ish) France over the course of a weekend (I think???) and in other parts, flashes back to medieval Carcassone over forty plus years. [HOW DOES THIS WORK, DO YOU ASK? Does it confuse the crap out of the reader? (Yes.) Does the author have to remind the reader 2/3s of the way through the book that the contemporary history only takes place over a few days? (Yes.)]
Her protagonist, young, brilliant Alice Tanner is working on an archaeological dig and stumbles upon an old cave filled with ~mystery~. This allows readers to discover that she is distantly connected to Alais and her family -- a guardian of the holy grail. Mosse may have intended this to be a magical tale about the search for the holy grail but in my opinion, this plot becomes overshadowed by the historical religious plot that comes from the literal landscape. Mosse's medieval characters tell the story of the Cathars in the Languedoc province and how the religion was wiped out during the Crusades and creates a link between the Holy Grail and Cathar-ism, Egypt (without fully developing it) and Europe.
The most exciting part of the book was learning about the religious history and events. As I mentioned above, Mosse may have intended for the story of the Holy Grail to be exciting and take precedence, but it does not become fully developed and ends with much unexplained. Additionally, the history of the Cathar war takes place over MANY, MANY years, leaving Mosse to sum up the events through one of her character's narratives rather than detailing/fictionalizing it to the reader.
The research put into the novel seems thorough and Mosse's writing style is above average. I enjoyed how much detail she put into all of the characters in order to build up the mystery. I also liked how she linked characters through time without being TOO obvious (although still obvious enough). However, some of the previous critiques are correct in saying that the research done was choppy, and the language used (French and Occitain) were not used in more sophisticated ways than a phrasebook at hand. Additionally, the was easily predicted, yet not explained to the reader.
I would read more of her books, has I have marked the rest of this "trilogy", but I realize now that they are not really related at all? Since this book was ~700 pages, and if the others are as well, yet nothing carries over, should I read the rest? Did I learn all of that for nothing?
I started watching the mini-series on youtube and actually may think that this is one of those instances where the abbreviated adaptation might be a better watch than spending the hours on the read itself.
Kate Mosse's Labyrinth was gifted to be shortly after its release in 2005. My brother bought this book for me -- yet he doesn't remember -- and recall feeling incredulous at the type of book he picked out for me. I am a fifteen year old girl, why would I want to read this fist-thick historical novel that I have no idea about? Not to mention, up until I actually picked up the book this year, I my misconceptions towards the subject matter persisted (re: my earlier comment about it being similar to [b:Outlander|10964|Outlander (Outlander #1)|Diana Gabaldon|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1402600310s/10964.jpg|2489796]. THE BOOK IS NO WHERE NEAR THIS... SURPRISE!)
Labyrinth takes place in contemporary (2006ish) France over the course of a weekend (I think???) and in other parts, flashes back to medieval Carcassone over forty plus years. [HOW DOES THIS WORK, DO YOU ASK? Does it confuse the crap out of the reader? (Yes.) Does the author have to remind the reader 2/3s of the way through the book that the contemporary history only takes place over a few days? (Yes.)]
Her protagonist, young, brilliant Alice Tanner is working on an archaeological dig and stumbles upon an old cave filled with ~mystery~. This allows readers to discover that she is distantly connected to Alais and her family -- a guardian of the holy grail. Mosse may have intended this to be a magical tale about the search for the holy grail but in my opinion, this plot becomes overshadowed by the historical religious plot that comes from the literal landscape. Mosse's medieval characters tell the story of the Cathars in the Languedoc province and how the religion was wiped out during the Crusades and creates a link between the Holy Grail and Cathar-ism, Egypt (without fully developing it) and Europe.
The most exciting part of the book was learning about the religious history and events. As I mentioned above, Mosse may have intended for the story of the Holy Grail to be exciting and take precedence, but it does not become fully developed and ends with much unexplained. Additionally, the history of the Cathar war takes place over MANY, MANY years, leaving Mosse to sum up the events through one of her character's narratives rather than detailing/fictionalizing it to the reader.
The research put into the novel seems thorough and Mosse's writing style is above average. I enjoyed how much detail she put into all of the characters in order to build up the mystery. I also liked how she linked characters through time without being TOO obvious (although still obvious enough). However, some of the previous critiques are correct in saying that the research done was choppy, and the language used (French and Occitain) were not used in more sophisticated ways than a phrasebook at hand. Additionally, the
Spoiler
immortality of some charactersI would read more of her books, has I have marked the rest of this "trilogy", but I realize now that they are not really related at all? Since this book was ~700 pages, and if the others are as well, yet nothing carries over, should I read the rest? Did I learn all of that for nothing?
I started watching the mini-series on youtube and actually may think that this is one of those instances where the abbreviated adaptation might be a better watch than spending the hours on the read itself.