A review by ashleysbookthoughts
Notes from the Burning Age by Claire North

Did not finish book. Stopped at 14%.

I was genuinely excited to read this book, as the plot sounds like my favorite type of book. It’s set hundreds of years in the future after humans have destroyed the earth and survivors have rebuilt society, but don’t want the secrets of the past to get out lest we repeat our mistakes. Enter conflict and subterfuge. Sounds like a winner. 

But oh, Claire North, you are not the writer for me. 

I had to DNF after 65 pages because the book was so overwritten that I could not sustain my attention long enough to figure out what the hell was going on. I literally fell asleep twice in the first 9 pages. And I was reading during the day. 

When it takes five paragraphs to describe waiting outside a door, you’ve lost me. I don’t remember where we are or why we’re there at this point. And what good are flowery descriptions if they don’t actually describe? Like wtf are “eyes the color of autumn”? 

Here’s another one that made my husband legitimately angry when I read it aloud: “The sky blistered purple and yellow, ocean grey and midnight blue, as though the heavens had held their breath and could gasp no more.” What does that mean?!?!?