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A review by bookitalum
Tell Me an Ending by Jo Harkin
3.0
August Book club read. 3.5 ⭐️ Overall, the concept was great. The execution was good. I really enjoyed the thought provoking exploration of memory and it’s implications, as well as the acknowledgment of its fallibility. (Also, super exciting to see a shout out to flash bulb memory research, which some of my colleagues worked on!)
In terms of writing/style/etc. This had so many story lines that it was hard to get invested in any one of them. By the time we circled back around I had forgotten where we left off with the character(s). It really took something away from the narrative. There were also a lot of time shifts within story lines, which was disorienting, distracting, and unnecessary. At times, during these remembered conversations, there were no freaking quotation marks around conversations, which was infuriating. It seemed completely inconsistent which conversations did and did not have them and ultimately became so frustrating that I switched to audiobook. Some of the characters were endearing, but others were very one dimensional and I just could not get invested in them or their story line. The pacing was uneven; it moved so slowly in the beginning and was very rushed at the end. While things tied together beautifully, it felt so hurried that I didn’t feel like I had enough time to absorb it all, and days later I still feel that sense of whiplash.
In terms of writing/style/etc. This had so many story lines that it was hard to get invested in any one of them. By the time we circled back around I had forgotten where we left off with the character(s). It really took something away from the narrative. There were also a lot of time shifts within story lines, which was disorienting, distracting, and unnecessary. At times, during these remembered conversations, there were no freaking quotation marks around conversations, which was infuriating. It seemed completely inconsistent which conversations did and did not have them and ultimately became so frustrating that I switched to audiobook. Some of the characters were endearing, but others were very one dimensional and I just could not get invested in them or their story line. The pacing was uneven; it moved so slowly in the beginning and was very rushed at the end. While things tied together beautifully, it felt so hurried that I didn’t feel like I had enough time to absorb it all, and days later I still feel that sense of whiplash.