Scan barcode
A review by kentanapages
The Curator by Owen King
dark
slow-paced
2.5
Thank you Owen King, Scribner, and Netgalley for this free ARC in exchange for an honest review. I normally wouldn't request something just based on the description alone, but a magical Dickensian tale with cats felt like the type of fantasy world I could get lost in for a bit. However, this story was not for me.
Early on I thought the world building was going to be good, and I can see the Dickensian influence in the descriptions of characters and long paragraphs detailing some gritty aspect of the city. After a while this got old, and I almost didn't finish this book a few times; by halfway through I realized that most of these longwinded descriptions didn't move the story forward, or tell us anything about the inner lives of characters. The world building in itself was good, but because it was not balanced at all, it became exhausting.
The way female characters are portrayed in this book is fairly awful and frankly insulting. I kept thinking perhaps that would get better as well; we see the potential for a strong female character who's clearly more clever by far than most of those around her, but her character arc has her continuing to stay with and fall in love with a ridiculous lover, who's bad in bed, a hypocrite to his own revolution, selfish and doltish. Some of the secondary characters seemed to be there for shock appeal as well, and some of the darker and more brutal scenes didn't seem necessary to move the story forward.
I may not be the target audience here. I would not be surprised if this resonates more with male readers, and perhaps horror or thriller readers will connect more with the latter half.
Early on I thought the world building was going to be good, and I can see the Dickensian influence in the descriptions of characters and long paragraphs detailing some gritty aspect of the city. After a while this got old, and I almost didn't finish this book a few times; by halfway through I realized that most of these longwinded descriptions didn't move the story forward, or tell us anything about the inner lives of characters. The world building in itself was good, but because it was not balanced at all, it became exhausting.
The way female characters are portrayed in this book is fairly awful and frankly insulting. I kept thinking perhaps that would get better as well; we see the potential for a strong female character who's clearly more clever by far than most of those around her, but her character arc has her continuing to stay with and fall in love with a ridiculous lover, who's bad in bed, a hypocrite to his own revolution, selfish and doltish. Some of the secondary characters seemed to be there for shock appeal as well, and some of the darker and more brutal scenes didn't seem necessary to move the story forward.
I may not be the target audience here. I would not be surprised if this resonates more with male readers, and perhaps horror or thriller readers will connect more with the latter half.