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A review by castorstarr
A Million Heavens by John Brandon
3.0
3
This book is about loss and life and your reaction to both. Following a recently divorced woman, a tragic teenaged girl, a mayor of a failing town, the father of a possible piano prodigy now in a coma, a wolf losing his place in the world, a dead boy forced to write music, and many more, it sheds light on the arcs of life without seeming to care much if the reader follows.
I liked this book in general. I think the characters were interesting, particularly Arn and Reggie, but it just wasn't compelling. I think part of that was the multitude of characters and the way they were painstakingly forced to connect. It felt too big, in too small a thing. I'm not saying I wanted more story, I just wanted one that was able to breathe.
It felt unsatisfying. A lot of these arcs never finished, and the one (of two) that did truly felt as if it had finished in a way that felt unearned and uninteresting. This, to me, is one of those stories written to say "things are bad sometimes, and we need to be realistic" which, a lot of the time, is boring and needlessly dreary or edgy. It toed the line on that quite a bit, and the ending made me feel as if it lost its way entirely.
Good writing, some interesting thoughts, but I was pretty much ready to be done reading it by the halfway point.
This book is about loss and life and your reaction to both. Following a recently divorced woman, a tragic teenaged girl, a mayor of a failing town, the father of a possible piano prodigy now in a coma, a wolf losing his place in the world, a dead boy forced to write music, and many more, it sheds light on the arcs of life without seeming to care much if the reader follows.
I liked this book in general. I think the characters were interesting, particularly Arn and Reggie, but it just wasn't compelling. I think part of that was the multitude of characters and the way they were painstakingly forced to connect. It felt too big, in too small a thing. I'm not saying I wanted more story, I just wanted one that was able to breathe.
It felt unsatisfying. A lot of these arcs never finished, and the one (of two) that did truly felt as if it had finished in a way that felt unearned and uninteresting. This, to me, is one of those stories written to say "things are bad sometimes, and we need to be realistic" which, a lot of the time, is boring and needlessly dreary or edgy. It toed the line on that quite a bit, and the ending made me feel as if it lost its way entirely.
Good writing, some interesting thoughts, but I was pretty much ready to be done reading it by the halfway point.