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A review by nickmasters
The Book of Mirrors by E.O. Chirovici
4.0
I thoroughly enjoyed the plot and the underlying premise of a lost manuscript and the unravelling of an unexplained mystery. The first part was well written and you get drawn straight into the mystery from the start as the story builds up to what you feel will be the disclosure of what actually happened 25 years ago.
The 2nd and 3rd parts of the book build on the mystery as more characters are introduced and the complexity of relationships, motives, and events are analysed. I do however need to criticise the writing in these two thirds of the book. I often felt like details and events were being relayed in list format and I felt the flow was often lost. I also found myself trying to remember which character was actually portraying certain parts, which speaks to a lack of identity for certain characters. Additionally the review copy was sans formatting which hindered the flow drastically, and in particular conversations were exceptionally difficult to follow. I don’t feel though that the book should be unfairly criticized on this latter part, although it did make the experience less enjoyable.
Again the underlying premise is great, and the inclusion of theories around memory discernment and manipulation was brilliant. I am sure I am not alone when I admit to believing I had a childhood memory that was later confirmed to be a generated memory based on other people’s recollections. And if that is possible (which I don’t think anyone can dispute) then why can’t we purposefully implant memories or remove memories under the right conditions. These theories were actually dived into a bit deeper in AJ Waines’ ‘Inside the Whispers’.
Additionally I enjoyed the way you are left at the end of the book, still wondering who left out or manipulated key information from their relayed perspective, as there are definitely questions left unanswered.
Not sure how I feel about this book. Great promise from the onset, great plot and premise, just one or two too many flaws for my liking. It is however E.O. Chirovici first foray into English literature, and after churning out a pretty decent read, you have to believe there are great things on the horizon!
Thank you NetGalley and Random House for the ARC!
The 2nd and 3rd parts of the book build on the mystery as more characters are introduced and the complexity of relationships, motives, and events are analysed. I do however need to criticise the writing in these two thirds of the book. I often felt like details and events were being relayed in list format and I felt the flow was often lost. I also found myself trying to remember which character was actually portraying certain parts, which speaks to a lack of identity for certain characters. Additionally the review copy was sans formatting which hindered the flow drastically, and in particular conversations were exceptionally difficult to follow. I don’t feel though that the book should be unfairly criticized on this latter part, although it did make the experience less enjoyable.
Again the underlying premise is great, and the inclusion of theories around memory discernment and manipulation was brilliant. I am sure I am not alone when I admit to believing I had a childhood memory that was later confirmed to be a generated memory based on other people’s recollections. And if that is possible (which I don’t think anyone can dispute) then why can’t we purposefully implant memories or remove memories under the right conditions. These theories were actually dived into a bit deeper in AJ Waines’ ‘Inside the Whispers’.
Additionally I enjoyed the way you are left at the end of the book, still wondering who left out or manipulated key information from their relayed perspective, as there are definitely questions left unanswered.
Not sure how I feel about this book. Great promise from the onset, great plot and premise, just one or two too many flaws for my liking. It is however E.O. Chirovici first foray into English literature, and after churning out a pretty decent read, you have to believe there are great things on the horizon!
Thank you NetGalley and Random House for the ARC!