A review by the_mad_bird_diaries
Remnants of Atonement by G.P. McKenna

Did not finish book. Stopped at 51%.

I will not rate this book, but still will be glad to share some of my thoughts about it. 

 

This story follows Kilco, the daughter of a renowned doctor who works in her mother's infirmary. She is young and edgy but wants to do good. With her mother she moves to work in a war camp and soon finds herself entangled in different dark mysteries and complicated relationships with various extraordinary people. 

 

It sounds interesting and promising, also this book sets an absurd and a little bit harsh mood, which I usually like. But it sadly didn't work for me this time. 

 

Let's start with the things I enjoyed and that were engaging and intriguing. 

 

Every chapter starts with the name of some phobia - and then in some way, it plays out inside the chapter's events. A nice detail. 

The main character and her mother are doctors and a lot of events happen inside the infirmary. I think it's an interesting point of view for the book and it can show a lot of details about the war, people's behavior, and strengths/weaknesses. 

The setting itself seems rather fresh and fascinating with a lot of things to explore 

The main character is an unreliable narrator, so you need to pay attention - many things can be not what it seems 

After it, we can follow to things that didn't work for me 

Book's structure. The plot starts only at 50% point and it's really hard to stay focused and interested in events by this point. 

Before it, the book mostly follows different turns in our main character's relationships and sometimes it feels repetitive and excessive. 

And after the 50% mark, I felt like all the plot I wanted in the first half of the book was delivered to me in one concentrated wave. I felt confused, for me it was really hard to understand all the tricky details at one moment. 

Humor didn't work for me. It's a subjective thing, so this is on me. 

All in all, I honestly would recommend another revision to this book. It just needs a more solid plot as a carcass for the story from the beginning. I'm sure all the best things about it would shine much brighter if it had a leading force. 

 

I'm grateful to Netgalley and the publisher Andraharts Publications for providing me with this free advanced reading copy in exchange for my honest review.