A review by ninakinsmn
The Weight of Ink by Rachel Kadish

3.0

I wanted to like this book more than I did. Some aspects were very appealing to me, e.g., a rebellious young woman struggling to find her voice in a patriarchal society, scholars working to solve an intriguing historical puzzle, mirrored stories told in two different times. That’s all great fun. However, I didn’t particularly like most of the characters (especially Aaron, who is a total weenie), the plot never quite gelled, it took too long to get interesting, and it didn’t go as far as it could have done when it finally did get interesting. I don’t know. I often have issues with contemporary “literary” fiction, as it has such an air of unearned earnestness about it, full of sound and fury, signifying much less than it wants to signify. Genre fiction tends not to take itself as seriously, but I find that a well-written science fiction or fantasy novel can speak to things that are undreamt of in the more “down-to-earth” philosophies expressed in “literary” fiction, as the rules of nature don’t have to apply. That probably is a sign of immaturity on my part.