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melodyh 's review for:

The Witch of Portobello by Paulo Coelho
3.0

While I enjoyed this book in the sense that it wasn't boring at all, it kept me reading to see what would happen, the whole time I felt distant from the story and the characters. I've rarely cared so little about characters; they felt flat and uninteresting; I didn't get pulled into the book; I didn't walk amongst them. They could all die for all I care.

The writing, that is, the words themselves, flow beautifully, and Coelho's magic translates into the words. But the characters are not magic. It might be the style of the book - Coelho presents the story through the eyes of a handful of characters, and each one's voice was the same in my mind. Is this a translation issue? I don't know. I look forward to reading more of his books to compare.