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A review by allieveryday
A Splendid Ruin by Megan Chance
4.0
What a beautiful and hauntingly subtle but impactful book.
Megan Chance did a fantastic job evoking a nostalgia for a city that was (even a city that is, I never cared for San Francisco but she made me miss it), describing the 1906 earthquake and its aftermath, describing destruction I've only imagined and making it palpable. Most of all, she traps you with a feeling of suspense but where is the suspense coming from when she's only talking about mansions, and gilded hallways, and champagne fueled afternoons?! Incredible.
She constructed this book, this plot, this story so masterfully. The deception, the betrayal, the love subplot that didn't feel sickeningly cliché, the ending that is after everything that has happened subtle, almost anticlimactic but the cherry on top.
Sadly I did have to skim through the asylum scenes, so vivid and horrendous, and my immersion and understanding of the book suffered a little for skimming. They were personally too much for me, but that is not to detract others from reading this.
There were many opportunities to be cliché, predictable, boring, but Chance avoided all of them.
Megan Chance did a fantastic job evoking a nostalgia for a city that was (even a city that is, I never cared for San Francisco but she made me miss it), describing the 1906 earthquake and its aftermath, describing destruction I've only imagined and making it palpable. Most of all, she traps you with a feeling of suspense but where is the suspense coming from when she's only talking about mansions, and gilded hallways, and champagne fueled afternoons?! Incredible.
She constructed this book, this plot, this story so masterfully. The deception, the betrayal, the love subplot that didn't feel sickeningly cliché, the ending that is after everything that has happened subtle, almost anticlimactic but the cherry on top.
Sadly I did have to skim through the asylum scenes, so vivid and horrendous, and my immersion and understanding of the book suffered a little for skimming. They were personally too much for me, but that is not to detract others from reading this.
There were many opportunities to be cliché, predictable, boring, but Chance avoided all of them.