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A review by helensbookshelf
The Buried Life by Carrie Patel
3.0
Did the editor fall asleep and miss the first part of this book? The writing has a lot of errors and things that don't make sense. The action isn't always coherent and descriptions often felt awkward. Conversations aren't logical in that it's like the characters aren't replying to each other but to something that's going on in their heads we haven't seen.
Then suddenly, about 120 pages in, it gets so much better it's like a different book. There's still the odd thing that doesn't quite fit and makes me feel like I'm having a brain stutter but I can actually read normally instead of having to spend 2 minutes a page flicking backwards and forwards.
I was really enjoying it but then the plot switches gears at the end and turns around on itself. I'm not sure how I felt about the way it ended. There are a lot of what feels like plot holes - how did the councillor know to direct Liesl towards the Sato murders? And what use is a spy when everyone and their Mum knows that he's a spy?
There's a lot of good ideas in here and I liked the plot and the characters. I always enjoy a good murder investigation but there were too many coincidences in it for it to feel truly convincing.
Liesl would probably have been my favourite character if we'd just had a bit more info about her. I liked that she was closed off and I can identify with that myself but I just needed a bit more about her to fully connect with her. She came across as robotic and I couldn't pick up on the reasons for her actions, especially at the end.
Most disappointing for me was that the blurb suggested that this would be a dark steampunk style story but that doesn't come across at all. I struggled to picture the underground world and I just didn't feel the atmosphere. I found that I had to imagine a typical Victorian city that's not underground to be able to follow the story and carry on reading. The steampunk elements were non-existent but they did make a rather lovely cover!
The author definitely has a lot of imagination and I can see that there is potential. The writing improved massively throughout the book and I'm interested enough that I want to see where the story goes next. But it needs more atmosphere. If more time was spent on worldbuilding and creating an atmosphere that lived up to the blurb then I could have forgiven the story being a bit up and down.
Then suddenly, about 120 pages in, it gets so much better it's like a different book. There's still the odd thing that doesn't quite fit and makes me feel like I'm having a brain stutter but I can actually read normally instead of having to spend 2 minutes a page flicking backwards and forwards.
I was really enjoying it but then the plot switches gears at the end and turns around on itself. I'm not sure how I felt about the way it ended. There are a lot of what feels like plot holes - how did the councillor know to direct Liesl towards the Sato murders? And what use is a spy when everyone and their Mum knows that he's a spy?
There's a lot of good ideas in here and I liked the plot and the characters. I always enjoy a good murder investigation but there were too many coincidences in it for it to feel truly convincing.
Liesl would probably have been my favourite character if we'd just had a bit more info about her. I liked that she was closed off and I can identify with that myself but I just needed a bit more about her to fully connect with her. She came across as robotic and I couldn't pick up on the reasons for her actions, especially at the end.
Most disappointing for me was that the blurb suggested that this would be a dark steampunk style story but that doesn't come across at all. I struggled to picture the underground world and I just didn't feel the atmosphere. I found that I had to imagine a typical Victorian city that's not underground to be able to follow the story and carry on reading. The steampunk elements were non-existent but they did make a rather lovely cover!
The author definitely has a lot of imagination and I can see that there is potential. The writing improved massively throughout the book and I'm interested enough that I want to see where the story goes next. But it needs more atmosphere. If more time was spent on worldbuilding and creating an atmosphere that lived up to the blurb then I could have forgiven the story being a bit up and down.