Scan barcode
A review by diazona
After She Wrote Him by Sulari Gentill
challenging
emotional
mysterious
reflective
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
I'm all too used to reading the promotional blurb for a book and being pretty underwhelmed; within any given genre they all kind of sound the same after a while. After She Wrote Him is different. The teaser paragraph caught my interest, because it starts off with a really cool idea: two authors, Edward and Madeleine, each writing a book about the other one. It's a pretty cool sci-fi premise, maybe with just a touch of horror to boot (plus, we're promised a murder mystery), and I couldn't wait to see what would come of it.
It turns out the book is... not that. Instead of a story about two authors each writing about the other, it's more like a story that tries to keep the reader confused about which of Edward or Madeleine is "really" the author and which is "really" the character in the other's work. And by the end of the book I had a pretty good feeling that there's one who is supposed to be the "real" author. I guess that was the goal, and if so, well done Sulari, mission accomplished, I just feel a bit let down because I was looking forward to something different, where the plot could be built around the ambiguity between the two stories.
Anyway, the blurry line between author and character lets the book do some cool trippy things with the point of view. Like, there are times when I'll read several pages of, say, Edward's story, and suddenly there will be a bit of "narrator commentary" interjected by Madeleine, or vice versa. The narrator-as-character thing works pretty well. There are also parts where it seamlessly switches from Madeleine's point of view to Edward's or vice versa; typically we'll be in the middle of one of their stories, the other one makes an appearance as a (presumably imaginary) character in that story, and then a couple paragraphs later we're following the other one's story. These transitions were well executed, they really sneak up on you, but I found it quite confusing to be jumping back and forth between the two stories never being quite sure which one you're really in. Though again, that may have been the point - the POV transitions become more and more frequent throughout the book, giving the feeling of the two worlds becoming indistinguishable, so props to the author once more.
So, I've been saying is that this is a really interesting concept and it was very skillfully crafted. Why am I rating this book with only three stars, then? Well, despite having such a unique twist, the story neglects some of the basics. Like the plot. There are a bunch of plot threads that never really get resolved, they just trail off or get forgotten. If that's supposed to be part of the book's mystique as well, it goes too far for me. And the plot doesn't seem all that well thought out; events seem to happen arbitrarily with little purpose, which again may be intentionally part of inserting the audience into the role of the author, but the fact is it diminishes my enjoyment of the story. I came out the end of this book feeling enlightened but ultimately unsatisfied.
I'd say this is a great book to read to broaden your perspective of how an author can do some mind-bending things with nested stories and point-of-view characters. Anyone who considers themselves an author would probably find it an interesting case study. But if you want plain old entertainment value, you can do better.
It turns out the book is... not that. Instead of a story about two authors each writing about the other, it's more like a story that tries to keep the reader confused about which of Edward or Madeleine is "really" the author and which is "really" the character in the other's work. And by the end of the book I had a pretty good feeling that there's one who is supposed to be the "real" author. I guess that was the goal, and if so, well done Sulari, mission accomplished, I just feel a bit let down because I was looking forward to something different, where the plot could be built around the ambiguity between the two stories.
Anyway, the blurry line between author and character lets the book do some cool trippy things with the point of view. Like, there are times when I'll read several pages of, say, Edward's story, and suddenly there will be a bit of "narrator commentary" interjected by Madeleine, or vice versa. The narrator-as-character thing works pretty well. There are also parts where it seamlessly switches from Madeleine's point of view to Edward's or vice versa; typically we'll be in the middle of one of their stories, the other one makes an appearance as a (presumably imaginary) character in that story, and then a couple paragraphs later we're following the other one's story. These transitions were well executed, they really sneak up on you, but I found it quite confusing to be jumping back and forth between the two stories never being quite sure which one you're really in. Though again, that may have been the point - the POV transitions become more and more frequent throughout the book, giving the feeling of the two worlds becoming indistinguishable, so props to the author once more.
So, I've been saying is that this is a really interesting concept and it was very skillfully crafted. Why am I rating this book with only three stars, then? Well, despite having such a unique twist, the story neglects some of the basics. Like the plot. There are a bunch of plot threads that never really get resolved, they just trail off or get forgotten. If that's supposed to be part of the book's mystique as well, it goes too far for me. And the plot doesn't seem all that well thought out; events seem to happen arbitrarily with little purpose, which again may be intentionally part of inserting the audience into the role of the author, but the fact is it diminishes my enjoyment of the story. I came out the end of this book feeling enlightened but ultimately unsatisfied.
I'd say this is a great book to read to broaden your perspective of how an author can do some mind-bending things with nested stories and point-of-view characters. Anyone who considers themselves an author would probably find it an interesting case study. But if you want plain old entertainment value, you can do better.