Review by starlitpage - Gather the Fortunes

starlitpage 's review for:

Gather the Fortunes by Bryan Camp

3.5

dark hopeful mysterious slow-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Plot

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: No

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Complicated

To start, this is the best representation of New Orleans I've ever read in a book. The author got his MFA from UNO and he knows the city. This New Orleanian gives her seal of approval, even if she hasn't lived there in years.

I did have a hard time getting into this book. Some of it may be the accidental jump to a sequel (though with the protagonist's missing memories, I felt that added something too), but the start of the book felt meandering and without character agency, and I didn't like the characters much either.

The end of the first part (of the book's four) is where it really picked up. The mystery became engaging and--even without reading the first book--I was looking for clues and parallels and explanations. Endings are important to me, and this one delivered. The themes, in the literary sense, are powerful and lean in to the good and bad of New Orleans and the modern world.

Content Warnings