Take a photo of a barcode or cover
kmscott95 's review for:
An Intrigue of Witches
by Esme Addison
DID NOT FINISH: 16%
Thank you Netgalley for the ARC.
DNF @ 16%
I would say ‘perhaps this books isn’t for me’, but everything about the premise is exactly the novel I was looking for. I love historical fiction, fantasy (particularly witches), mystery, secret societies, escape rooms and treasure hunts. However, this fell completely flat for me. Whilst the writing wasn’t atrocious, it certainly made something that should have been utterly enthralling fall flat on the page.
I felt as though I was told every detail and nothing was left to one’s imagine. Descriptions were factual and I was told how to feel about everything that happened. It was almost as though she was writing a report on a historical discovery. I felt as though the writer was scared to let the reader have to work for anything for fear of being criticised for ambiguity. There were some odd tense switches and the sentences didn’t scan at all well, meaning that forming voices of characters or narrative perspective was incredibly challenging.
Throughout my read I found myself switching into teacher marking mode and was editing individual sentences to ensure they were showing rather than telling me things.
Therefore, I would perhaps summarise that whilst the plot, concepts and the pacing of the novel was nice, it needed a much heavier edit than it was afforded. A real shame as the premise seemed so promising and the story was fun, but the lack of decent editing really held this back.
DNF @ 16%
I would say ‘perhaps this books isn’t for me’, but everything about the premise is exactly the novel I was looking for. I love historical fiction, fantasy (particularly witches), mystery, secret societies, escape rooms and treasure hunts. However, this fell completely flat for me. Whilst the writing wasn’t atrocious, it certainly made something that should have been utterly enthralling fall flat on the page.
I felt as though I was told every detail and nothing was left to one’s imagine. Descriptions were factual and I was told how to feel about everything that happened. It was almost as though she was writing a report on a historical discovery. I felt as though the writer was scared to let the reader have to work for anything for fear of being criticised for ambiguity. There were some odd tense switches and the sentences didn’t scan at all well, meaning that forming voices of characters or narrative perspective was incredibly challenging.
Throughout my read I found myself switching into teacher marking mode and was editing individual sentences to ensure they were showing rather than telling me things.
Therefore, I would perhaps summarise that whilst the plot, concepts and the pacing of the novel was nice, it needed a much heavier edit than it was afforded. A real shame as the premise seemed so promising and the story was fun, but the lack of decent editing really held this back.