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A review by lawbooks600
Back to Blackbrick by Sarah Moore Fitzgerald
emotional
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.0
Representation: N/A
Score: Five points out of ten.
What a disappointment. I wanted to read Back to Blackbrick for a while even though it's around a decade old now (and it shows) but never got around till now. I picked it up from the library and immediately started reading it. However, when I closed the final page, Back to Blackbrick underwhelmed me.
It starts with the first character I see, Cosmo, living with his grandfather, who has memory loss. Grief afflicts Cosmo since his brother died but who knows how much time has passed since then? If Cosmo still grieves over him, it implies that the event happened only recently. Back to Blackbrick takes an intriguing when Cosmo unexpectedly travels backward in time to Blackbrick Abbey, with his grandfather's fate hanging in the air. I spend the middle of the narrative on Cosmo's experience living in Blackbrick Abbey in its glory days, most likely in the 19th or 20th centuries.
I found it challenging to read Back to Blackbrick in more ways than one. The pacing is slow for a story under 250 pages with nothing much happening, and I couldn't connect or relate to Cosmo. He was monotonous at first but soon grew insufferable when he spoke some offensive terms. Cosmo calls a website launched in 2005 'recent.' That would be a stretch now. Also, one can tell Back to Blackbrick is antediluvian when Cosmo recounts tragedies that occurred in the 2000s, like the 2004 tsunami or the 2001 attacks. If the author tried to publish Back to Blackbrick now, the publisher would either reject it or edit it more thoroughly. The conclusion had character development but it wasn't enough to save the entire fictional composition. I'm done with this author.
Score: Five points out of ten.
What a disappointment. I wanted to read Back to Blackbrick for a while even though it's around a decade old now (and it shows) but never got around till now. I picked it up from the library and immediately started reading it. However, when I closed the final page, Back to Blackbrick underwhelmed me.
It starts with the first character I see, Cosmo, living with his grandfather, who has memory loss. Grief afflicts Cosmo since his brother died but who knows how much time has passed since then? If Cosmo still grieves over him, it implies that the event happened only recently. Back to Blackbrick takes an intriguing when Cosmo unexpectedly travels backward in time to Blackbrick Abbey, with his grandfather's fate hanging in the air. I spend the middle of the narrative on Cosmo's experience living in Blackbrick Abbey in its glory days, most likely in the 19th or 20th centuries.
I found it challenging to read Back to Blackbrick in more ways than one. The pacing is slow for a story under 250 pages with nothing much happening, and I couldn't connect or relate to Cosmo. He was monotonous at first but soon grew insufferable when he spoke some offensive terms. Cosmo calls a website launched in 2005 'recent.' That would be a stretch now. Also, one can tell Back to Blackbrick is antediluvian when Cosmo recounts tragedies that occurred in the 2000s, like the 2004 tsunami or the 2001 attacks. If the author tried to publish Back to Blackbrick now, the publisher would either reject it or edit it more thoroughly. The conclusion had character development but it wasn't enough to save the entire fictional composition. I'm done with this author.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Grief
Minor: Child death, Bullying, Injury/Injury detail, Ableism, Slavery, and Pregnancy
Full trigger warnings: Mass death in a terrorist attack, plane crash and building collapse, earthquake, tsunami and cyclone mentioned, slavery, pregnancy, death of a brother and child from a fall and other relatives in the past, grief and loss depiction, physical assault and injury, bullying, ableism, ableist slurs