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A review by lesley
The Dickens Mirror by Ilsa J. Bick
1.0
I hate to do this because I've liked every other Ilsa Bick book I've read but I just plain didn't like this book. It's convoluted in the worst of ways and from the first moment doesn't expand on it's book vs reality theme. Thus the 600 pages of this book was filled with tons of repetition (every character coming to the realization of their real/unrealness over and over and over). It was just too much of not much at all. Such as:
Young Emma at 12 years old reveals much of the conclusions reached like Meredith (Black Widow) finding them through dreams, coming up with complication scientific explanations that even older Emma shouldn't have been able to spontaneously arrive at without reason.
Doyle after only meeting London Tony once thinks of him as "my Tony" when he sees the other Tony? Too convenient.
Chapters through the POV of Elizabeth that are actually mostly Emma and is she talking to London Rima or 'shadow stuck in her head' Rima? It becomes clear but only by having to remove yourself from the story and contemplate it.
Why was the dead Emma body so important? And really 4 Emmas all at once? Dead Emma, empty Meme, 12 year old young Emma and 'shadow in Elizabeth's head' Emma... what was the point?
The action seemed silly (Elizabeth and mind Emma having a girl fight in Elizabeth's subconscious?) and the gratuitous violence (which I don't mind gore at all) seemed to be disjointed like Bick thought after 3 chapters of internal philosophical monologue (if you can call having a conversation with a bunch of shadow kids in your head internal monologue) and before 3 chapters more of that she should throw in some Zombie gut explosions... but for what?
I wasn't mesmerized by the concept nor could I submerge myself enough into the story or the characters (the only character that even had a personality was Doyle and not a deep one at that) but what I thought about constantly through out the book was that I was impressed that Bick could keep it all going in her own head. I certainly stopped caring to do so.
I'm looking forward to more books from her though and I wouldn't deter her fans from reading this to see what they think for themselves.
Young Emma at 12 years old reveals much of the conclusions reached like Meredith (Black Widow) finding them through dreams, coming up with complication scientific explanations that even older Emma shouldn't have been able to spontaneously arrive at without reason.
Doyle after only meeting London Tony once thinks of him as "my Tony" when he sees the other Tony? Too convenient.
Chapters through the POV of Elizabeth that are actually mostly Emma and is she talking to London Rima or 'shadow stuck in her head' Rima? It becomes clear but only by having to remove yourself from the story and contemplate it.
Why was the dead Emma body so important? And really 4 Emmas all at once? Dead Emma, empty Meme, 12 year old young Emma and 'shadow in Elizabeth's head' Emma... what was the point?
The action seemed silly (Elizabeth and mind Emma having a girl fight in Elizabeth's subconscious?) and the gratuitous violence (which I don't mind gore at all) seemed to be disjointed like Bick thought after 3 chapters of internal philosophical monologue (if you can call having a conversation with a bunch of shadow kids in your head internal monologue) and before 3 chapters more of that she should throw in some Zombie gut explosions... but for what?
I wasn't mesmerized by the concept nor could I submerge myself enough into the story or the characters (the only character that even had a personality was Doyle and not a deep one at that) but what I thought about constantly through out the book was that I was impressed that Bick could keep it all going in her own head. I certainly stopped caring to do so.
I'm looking forward to more books from her though and I wouldn't deter her fans from reading this to see what they think for themselves.