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faerietrails 's review for:
The Book of Love
by Kelly Link
At the best of times, Link's prose is thoughtful and poignant, painting complex characters into an uncanny, ancient struggle between life and death. In one chapter, she gives us the best portrayal of someone's life and death I have ever read, leaving me crying over a character who we knew very little about beforehand.
And with love in my heart for this weird contemporary fantasy- I'm glad I'm done reading this. Another review referred to The Book of Love's length as self-indulgent and I agree. Link has a lot to say, and wants to show every second of every character's experience through the week or so this book covers. Combined with the train-of-thought, meandering narration, it becomes a bit of a slog. A lot of the emotional investment I had dwindled with my patience and characters rehashing feelings, exposition, etc. The story could be told with similar artfulness with 100-200 fewer pages.
And with love in my heart for this weird contemporary fantasy- I'm glad I'm done reading this. Another review referred to The Book of Love's length as self-indulgent and I agree. Link has a lot to say, and wants to show every second of every character's experience through the week or so this book covers. Combined with the train-of-thought, meandering narration, it becomes a bit of a slog. A lot of the emotional investment I had dwindled with my patience and characters rehashing feelings, exposition, etc. The story could be told with similar artfulness with 100-200 fewer pages.