A review by noirverse
This Dark Endeavor by Kenneth Oppel

3.0

I wavered between three and four stars for this story, but landed on three as I thought the middle parts dragged it down considerably. The opening was strong, and I loved the complicated relationship Victor had with his brother and Elizabeth, but a few things held it back from being a great story instead of a good one. The quest to find the ingredients for the elixir of life was a little too paint-by-numbers for me and lacked the punch that it needed. Henry in particular was underdeveloped as a side character, and I had the sense that the book could've cut him out entirely without changing anything major. That being said, I enjoyed how conflicted Victor was as a character and how he struggled with metaphorically being in his brother's shadow. The build up to the ending was great, and as a retelling it felt appropriately dark. I will be checking out the sequel to this book.