A review by kkholiday
The Shadow Land by Elizabeth Kostova

3.0

Kostova is a wonderful writer. I loved The Historian and loved the prose and the gravity of her writing in The Shadow Land, as well. However, the pace just plodded along for me. I found myself checking for how many pages I had left multiple times. It could have been 100 pages shorter and still workable. One of the threads that I think could have either been lengthened or cut was about Alexandra's brother, Jack, We got an extended flashback to her life with him and then it just ends. Her parents fall out of the picture and then it's just Alexandra alone in Bulgaria on the adventure of a lifetime. The attention paid to that part of her life felt uneven given the attention it didn't receive. I don't know. I am torn on this book. I want to love it, but I also needed it to move much faster. The writing felt like we were moving toward something bigger, but then we never did.