meg_leigh 's review for:

The Dante Club by Matthew Pearl

2.0

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I went back and forth between two and three stars for this one. The story itself is pretty promising--gruesome murders with Dante-esque elements, as historic literary characters hunt down the cause. But the writing is so...tiring. I've always felt calling writing "self-indulgent" was a bit pretentious, but I can't find another descriptor. Everyone is "crying out," everything is dramatic and overwrought. If the writer had just calmed down a bit (or his editor had slashed a bit more eagerly), this could have been a lot less annoying.

Also, the ending motivations for the killer are somewhat of a letdown. Without giving too much away, there's a build up and then things just get anti-climatic. I really wanted to like this, but, mostly, I just felt frustrated.