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A review by lucybbookstuff
The Unmaking of June Farrow by Adrienne Young
Did not finish book. Stopped at 38%.
Time travel is a tough sell for me. I didn't realize that's what this was about until it started happening. I just get way too confused with overlapping timelines, plus the opportunities for plot holes are way too plentiful. And I could already see so many here that I had a bad feeling would never be resolved.
I think that if I'm gonna read a book with time travel as a main device, it has to be AIRTIGHT and probably on the sci-fi side. Like paying respect to the actual theory of time travel.
I can't handle it as a cute device to tell a silly little magical realism story.
And that said, I often struggle with magical realism, too. I need answers and explanations, I REALLY don't like being expected to just go with the flow, especially when it makes no sense.
Which brings me to probably my biggest complaint and yet another plot device that I truly HATE: keeping the main character in the dark for literally no conceivable reason (other than plot device). And thus keeping ME in the dark. Everyone knows everything EXCEPT June apparently, and there is no good reason not to tell her. It's so stupid.
I may have been more willing to overlook some of this if I'd gotten a better introduction to June as a character. But I wasn't really given any reason to care about her before it launched into the mystery.
I really didn't want to DNF this because I was reading it for my local book club, but I just can't. I'm so bad at DNFing, I think I should honor the feeling when I actually get it. I did read a summary so I can still participate in and understand the discussion. I don't feel I missed out on anything, I feel quite confident that I would have been confused and annoyed the whole time, and I'm honestly breathing a sigh of relief.
I get the appeal, I really do. For magical realism and cozy story lovers, this is probably A+ material. It just happened to pile on several things that rarely work for me and it got to be too much.
I think that if I'm gonna read a book with time travel as a main device, it has to be AIRTIGHT and probably on the sci-fi side. Like paying respect to the actual theory of time travel.
I can't handle it as a cute device to tell a silly little magical realism story.
And that said, I often struggle with magical realism, too. I need answers and explanations, I REALLY don't like being expected to just go with the flow, especially when it makes no sense.
Which brings me to probably my biggest complaint and yet another plot device that I truly HATE: keeping the main character in the dark for literally no conceivable reason (other than plot device). And thus keeping ME in the dark. Everyone knows everything EXCEPT June apparently, and there is no good reason not to tell her. It's so stupid.
I may have been more willing to overlook some of this if I'd gotten a better introduction to June as a character. But I wasn't really given any reason to care about her before it launched into the mystery.
I really didn't want to DNF this because I was reading it for my local book club, but I just can't. I'm so bad at DNFing, I think I should honor the feeling when I actually get it. I did read a summary so I can still participate in and understand the discussion. I don't feel I missed out on anything, I feel quite confident that I would have been confused and annoyed the whole time, and I'm honestly breathing a sigh of relief.
I get the appeal, I really do. For magical realism and cozy story lovers, this is probably A+ material. It just happened to pile on several things that rarely work for me and it got to be too much.