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A review by catisbookish
Shadow of Night by Deborah Harkness
Did not finish book.
1.0
Discovery of Witches put me under a spell that made it un-putdownable for me, despite it being below-average writing and having a non-existent plot. Shadow of Night has put me into a reading slump. It has none of the same charm the first book had, and NOTHING happens at all. That's why it's going to be a DNF for me.
The moment I started reading this book, it became very evident to me that all this served to be was a filler book. It is excruciatingly clear that there was a page count too, because some sentences dragged on forever without any real purpose. For example:
"The closer we got to the apothecary's place of business, the colder the air felt." Pg. 300
Don't know why, but this sentence really annoyed me, because even a semi-decent editor would have made changes to that. Saying instead, "As we approached the Apothecary, the air grew colder.", would have been much more effective. The sentence is less clunky, and gives you a sense of really being there yourself. It's as if the author had no idea how to create an interesting plot that could last 700 pages so instead, she just chucked in as many words as possible.
There was also way too much telling and not showing. Which is a giant pet peeve of mine. Harkness needs a brush-up in the basics of writing a good novel. Here are some examples:
"I wondered what more our journey would reveal about this complex man I had married." Pg. 122
"There was something I needed to understand about these criss-crossing lines..." Pg. 262
Quotes like these pop up everywhere in the novel, telling you EXACTLY what you should be thinking or feeling in the moment, which brings you out of the action and makes you cringe. She also had a habit of re-capping details of the first book like we were coming back for season 2 of her show. It was very awkwardly written, and again, I imagine this was for word-count purposes. Seriously, you need to have a little more faith in your reader's ability to remember *very prominent* details from the first book.
Finally, here's a line that made me puke in my mouth a little:
"With my spine bowed, he was poised at the entrance to my womb. And in that brief, forever moment, father, mother, and child were as close as any three creatures could be." Pg. 265
Ew, am I right? Anyway, I ultimately put this book down because, for one, it was destroying my will to read. Secondly, I knew that nothing of substance would happen anyway. It's not worth my time. I hope if Deborah Harkness plans on publishing any more books, that she gets a better editor. She really does have very good ideas for a plot, but unfortunately due to her lack of skill, her plot falls flat. Her ideas remain ideas, instead of flourishing into a story.
And with that said, remember: finding a witch to help you is really hard when you keep scaring them away or killing them.
The moment I started reading this book, it became very evident to me that all this served to be was a filler book. It is excruciatingly clear that there was a page count too, because some sentences dragged on forever without any real purpose. For example:
"The closer we got to the apothecary's place of business, the colder the air felt." Pg. 300
Don't know why, but this sentence really annoyed me, because even a semi-decent editor would have made changes to that. Saying instead, "As we approached the Apothecary, the air grew colder.", would have been much more effective. The sentence is less clunky, and gives you a sense of really being there yourself. It's as if the author had no idea how to create an interesting plot that could last 700 pages so instead, she just chucked in as many words as possible.
There was also way too much telling and not showing. Which is a giant pet peeve of mine. Harkness needs a brush-up in the basics of writing a good novel. Here are some examples:
"I wondered what more our journey would reveal about this complex man I had married." Pg. 122
"There was something I needed to understand about these criss-crossing lines..." Pg. 262
Quotes like these pop up everywhere in the novel, telling you EXACTLY what you should be thinking or feeling in the moment, which brings you out of the action and makes you cringe. She also had a habit of re-capping details of the first book like we were coming back for season 2 of her show. It was very awkwardly written, and again, I imagine this was for word-count purposes. Seriously, you need to have a little more faith in your reader's ability to remember *very prominent* details from the first book.
Finally, here's a line that made me puke in my mouth a little:
"With my spine bowed, he was poised at the entrance to my womb. And in that brief, forever moment, father, mother, and child were as close as any three creatures could be." Pg. 265
Ew, am I right? Anyway, I ultimately put this book down because, for one, it was destroying my will to read. Secondly, I knew that nothing of substance would happen anyway. It's not worth my time. I hope if Deborah Harkness plans on publishing any more books, that she gets a better editor. She really does have very good ideas for a plot, but unfortunately due to her lack of skill, her plot falls flat. Her ideas remain ideas, instead of flourishing into a story.
And with that said, remember: finding a witch to help you is really hard when you keep scaring them away or killing them.