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jraia 's review for:
The Book of M
by Peng Shepherd
dark
emotional
mysterious
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
This book started out interesting with a really cool premise, but it just took an absolute nosedive. The majority of this book is painfully slow to the point of being boring, and honestly a solid 40% of this book could be cut. The author tries to do too much with too many characters and everything just drags.
While the “magic” in the book is interesting, it is used so chaotically without any rhyme or reason. The author hand waves away a lot of problems with “and they used magic to fix it”.
The most interesting thing to happen in this book happens right at the very end (the reveal that Max’s memories are now in Ursula ), and very little is done with this. I wish the entire middle of this slog had been cut so that we got to this sooner, and more of this type of thing was explored. That would’ve been a far more interesting book.
I think the writing style of Max’s chapters should have been significantly different, given that they were supposed to be Max speaking into a tape recorder “to Ory”. People do not speak to each other in the lovely prose of books, they don’t use so much detail when describing an event the other person was present for, and they don’t relay conversations as dialogue. I think this issue is exacerbated by the audiobook, as the narrator for Max’s chapters does a bit too much. It made me cringe imagining someone speaking into a tape recorder and doing full voice acting for all their friend’s dialogue.
I also couldn’t help but feel like this book just wanted to be The Stand. Plague type situation, minimal survivors, wide cast of characters, everyone being slowly drawn to the same place, supernatural elements. Maybe a reach, but doesn’t seem like a big reach to me.
While the “magic” in the book is interesting, it is used so chaotically without any rhyme or reason. The author hand waves away a lot of problems with “and they used magic to fix it”.
The most interesting thing to happen in this book happens right at the very end (
I think the writing style of Max’s chapters should have been significantly different, given that they were supposed to be Max speaking into a tape recorder “to Ory”. People do not speak to each other in the lovely prose of books, they don’t use so much detail when describing an event the other person was present for, and they don’t relay conversations as dialogue. I think this issue is exacerbated by the audiobook, as the narrator for Max’s chapters does a bit too much. It made me cringe imagining someone speaking into a tape recorder and doing full voice acting for all their friend’s dialogue.
I also couldn’t help but feel like this book just wanted to be The Stand. Plague type situation, minimal survivors, wide cast of characters, everyone being slowly drawn to the same place, supernatural elements. Maybe a reach, but doesn’t seem like a big reach to me.