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gnaylor 's review for:
The Croning
by Laird Barron
Erghh this books is so fucking aggravating.
Despite being clearly a novel it really feels like a short story collection. I mean they do all lead into each other and connect, but every chapter very much so tells its own story within the greater whole. The problem is that some of the chapter really drag. Like almost every other chapter kills the momentum. It got better towards the end, but this book took way longer to read than other books of a similar length because I just kept putting it down. The prose doesn't help at all with this problem because it is so often just very clunky, with sentences that felt unneeded.
The reason this book is so aggravating though is because in between all my problems there are real sparks of greatness. For every boring chapter that barely pushes the plot forward there is a totally enrapturing chapter that held my attention. It just gave me real mental whiplash. The characters are also a point in this books favor. All of the main cast was interesting and the scenes of dialouge were almost always highlights.
Despite being clearly a novel it really feels like a short story collection. I mean they do all lead into each other and connect, but every chapter very much so tells its own story within the greater whole. The problem is that some of the chapter really drag. Like almost every other chapter kills the momentum. It got better towards the end, but this book took way longer to read than other books of a similar length because I just kept putting it down. The prose doesn't help at all with this problem because it is so often just very clunky, with sentences that felt unneeded.
The reason this book is so aggravating though is because in between all my problems there are real sparks of greatness. For every boring chapter that barely pushes the plot forward there is a totally enrapturing chapter that held my attention. It just gave me real mental whiplash. The characters are also a point in this books favor. All of the main cast was interesting and the scenes of dialouge were almost always highlights.