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A review by gothamvorona
The Book of Living Secrets by Madeleine Roux
3.0
2.5*
Ok, so I was actually pretty disappointed with this book. While some things are due to the Author, I think the major problems I have with this are because of Marketing issues.
When I first heard of this book, I loved the premise. The premise I don't think matches what the actual book is about. Main issue is this is like a Lovecraftian Gothic Historical Fantasy book not a Dark Gothic Fantasy/Horror book which is what the synopsis gave to the reader. I don't think it can be accurately reviewed because while Lovecraftian is a subgenre of Horror it really is like its own little thing ya know. Lovecraftian is also very conflicting with people either loving it or hating it. Personally, I love it but I know many people who steer clear of it. Going into this book, I wasn't pleased with not knowing it was Lovecraftian inspired. It fell kind of flat after that revelation.
The characters themselves, I only really liked one. The others were pretty boring in my opinion but that doesn't mean they weren't well written. I will say they were because they still made me feel something even if it was negative. The ending though, sadly (and I do want to apologize for this cause I don't wanna be mean) sucked quite a bit. It was confusing, I didn't really understand it nor did I care for it. If there is supposed to be a second book, the ending didn't make me feel like picking it up. Like whatsoever.
I try not to be too harsh with my reviews and I don't mean to be with this one but I think the author could really improve these areas in their upcoming books. They had such a unique concept and I think they could have done an amazing job with it if they had flushed it out more.
Overall, I think you should still pick it up because you may like it but know that the synopsis doesn't do the book justice.
Ok, so I was actually pretty disappointed with this book. While some things are due to the Author, I think the major problems I have with this are because of Marketing issues.
When I first heard of this book, I loved the premise. The premise I don't think matches what the actual book is about. Main issue is this is like a Lovecraftian Gothic Historical Fantasy book not a Dark Gothic Fantasy/Horror book which is what the synopsis gave to the reader. I don't think it can be accurately reviewed because while Lovecraftian is a subgenre of Horror it really is like its own little thing ya know. Lovecraftian is also very conflicting with people either loving it or hating it. Personally, I love it but I know many people who steer clear of it. Going into this book, I wasn't pleased with not knowing it was Lovecraftian inspired. It fell kind of flat after that revelation.
The characters themselves, I only really liked one. The others were pretty boring in my opinion but that doesn't mean they weren't well written. I will say they were because they still made me feel something even if it was negative. The ending though, sadly (and I do want to apologize for this cause I don't wanna be mean) sucked quite a bit. It was confusing, I didn't really understand it nor did I care for it. If there is supposed to be a second book, the ending didn't make me feel like picking it up. Like whatsoever.
I try not to be too harsh with my reviews and I don't mean to be with this one but I think the author could really improve these areas in their upcoming books. They had such a unique concept and I think they could have done an amazing job with it if they had flushed it out more.
Overall, I think you should still pick it up because you may like it but know that the synopsis doesn't do the book justice.