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A review by ronibooks
This Dark Endeavor by Kenneth Oppel
5.0
4.5 STARS
- Plot / Setting
The plot has no big twists and proceeds slowly, since the author focuses a lot on introspection and on the various aspects of what is happening. However the story flows like water and the slowness mentioned above does not feel in a negative way (and I say this as a person who hates slow books).
The setting is not very thorough, perhaps because Oppel starts from the assumption that whoever reads the book has already read Frankenstein. This made my nose turn up a bit, 'cause I'd preferred more information, but I appreciated that he concentrated on the historical aspect, citing the events that were taking place in France at the time.
- Originality
I haven't found any flaws, just some minor inconsistency that most affects the characters. Instead, there are plenty of clichés and although at the beginning they may seem badly inserted the more you go on the more you realize that they are either perfectly calculated or Oppel has made fun of us (aka it's not what we expected). I must say that when I got to about 70% of the book I had not yet understood where it would go, 'cause everything was so unpredictable as to prevent me from making logical conjectures. And a few pages from the end, when I thought I had understood by now, I found myself having to think again. In short, Oppel likes to troll.
- Narration
The narration of events and actions is well done, in fact the reading flows in a fluid and easy to understand way. The descriptions are a little fluctuating, both as regards characters and places, but being us from Victor's point of view this makes perfect sense: Victor is anything but poetic and often gets lost in his reasoning or to observe something in particular (coff coff Elizabeth coff coff) so watching the landscape is the least of his thoughts.
The dialogues are sometimes strange, I can't explain how, it's a personal feeling, but they are completely logical and reflect the era quite well. The storytelling style is first person in the past and I must say that I really liked it, it exudes character and it is as if the real Victor was telling us his story.
- Characterization
I perceived the characters in a very real way. Victor is a complex protagonist, since his morality is a little swinging - plus a wheel of fortune, if you are lucky he treats you shit, if it goes wrong you don't want to know - and he has a bad temper. The reader sees that Victor is no good and that he never does things because of a good Samaritan instinct, and he often does truly questionable actions, but at the same time one cannot help but love him. His humanity exudes so much from the pages that when he is sad we feel sad too, when he is angry we agree with him and when Elizabeth shows that she prefers Konrad we also feel hurt. Few times it has happened to me to feel so close to a character, to feel him so alive, and for this I have to congratulate Oppel, because this is knowing how to write.
The other characters also perceive themselves as very real, especially Elizabeth, Henry and Konrad.
Polidori is another secondary but very important character, whose true role remained obscure to me until the last part of the book.
Even the extras, like Victor's parents and the housekeeper, although less important, have their own personality, which is not easy to achieve given the few direct interventions.
- Style / Conclusions
As for the writing style, I must say that Oppel writes really beautifully. This dark endeavor isn't his first book I read (I have also started Every hidden thing, a retelling of Romeo and Juliet with dinosaur fossils - let's talk about it), and what I already thought here has been confirmed. Oppel's writing is great and he knows how to structure a book, and if EHT turns out to be as good as TDE, well... I would say that he'll become one of my favorite authors.
- Plot / Setting
The plot has no big twists and proceeds slowly, since the author focuses a lot on introspection and on the various aspects of what is happening. However the story flows like water and the slowness mentioned above does not feel in a negative way (and I say this as a person who hates slow books).
The setting is not very thorough, perhaps because Oppel starts from the assumption that whoever reads the book has already read Frankenstein. This made my nose turn up a bit, 'cause I'd preferred more information, but I appreciated that he concentrated on the historical aspect, citing the events that were taking place in France at the time.
- Originality
I haven't found any flaws, just some minor inconsistency that most affects the characters. Instead, there are plenty of clichés and although at the beginning they may seem badly inserted the more you go on the more you realize that they are either perfectly calculated or Oppel has made fun of us (aka it's not what we expected). I must say that when I got to about 70% of the book I had not yet understood where it would go, 'cause everything was so unpredictable as to prevent me from making logical conjectures. And a few pages from the end, when I thought I had understood by now, I found myself having to think again. In short, Oppel likes to troll.
- Narration
The narration of events and actions is well done, in fact the reading flows in a fluid and easy to understand way. The descriptions are a little fluctuating, both as regards characters and places, but being us from Victor's point of view this makes perfect sense: Victor is anything but poetic and often gets lost in his reasoning or to observe something in particular (coff coff Elizabeth coff coff) so watching the landscape is the least of his thoughts.
The dialogues are sometimes strange, I can't explain how, it's a personal feeling, but they are completely logical and reflect the era quite well. The storytelling style is first person in the past and I must say that I really liked it, it exudes character and it is as if the real Victor was telling us his story.
- Characterization
I perceived the characters in a very real way. Victor is a complex protagonist, since his morality is a little swinging - plus a wheel of fortune, if you are lucky he treats you shit, if it goes wrong you don't want to know - and he has a bad temper. The reader sees that Victor is no good and that he never does things because of a good Samaritan instinct, and he often does truly questionable actions, but at the same time one cannot help but love him. His humanity exudes so much from the pages that when he is sad we feel sad too, when he is angry we agree with him and when Elizabeth shows that she prefers Konrad we also feel hurt. Few times it has happened to me to feel so close to a character, to feel him so alive, and for this I have to congratulate Oppel, because this is knowing how to write.
The other characters also perceive themselves as very real, especially Elizabeth, Henry and Konrad.
Polidori is another secondary but very important character, whose true role remained obscure to me until the last part of the book.
Even the extras, like Victor's parents and the housekeeper, although less important, have their own personality, which is not easy to achieve given the few direct interventions.
- Style / Conclusions
As for the writing style, I must say that Oppel writes really beautifully. This dark endeavor isn't his first book I read (I have also started Every hidden thing, a retelling of Romeo and Juliet with dinosaur fossils - let's talk about it), and what I already thought here has been confirmed. Oppel's writing is great and he knows how to structure a book, and if EHT turns out to be as good as TDE, well... I would say that he'll become one of my favorite authors.