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A review by meekac
The Binding by Bridget Collins
2.0
*Review* I didn't like this one. The premise was so good. Books exist in this world solely to bind people's memories. The rich bind things that are painful to them and the poor often sell their happy memories for currency. So interesting and I will say that the world-building was very good. However, the book was broadly too slow and relied too much on people obviously holding things back from the protagonist to build tension. It also seemed to rely too much on painting how miserable the characters were when, in fact, they would have had moments of great joy.
*Spoilers* The first part was excruciatingly slow and held back too much. It could have relied on the tension/reveal that the protagonist had been bound alone, but reveal more about how and why people bind themselves and the process he would learn as a binder. The second was the most enjoyable and revealed the love story of the protagonist. However, it was full of misery and the main character was holding back from himself that he was in love with another man. I would have loved learning how he struggled with these feelings and their implications in this world. The third section does have the benefit of a happy ending, but didn't do that much to reveal the characters to me. I wanted so badly to better understand how these people existed in this world and what implications binding had on the broader population.
*Spoilers* The first part was excruciatingly slow and held back too much. It could have relied on the tension/reveal that the protagonist had been bound alone, but reveal more about how and why people bind themselves and the process he would learn as a binder. The second was the most enjoyable and revealed the love story of the protagonist. However, it was full of misery and the main character was holding back from himself that he was in love with another man. I would have loved learning how he struggled with these feelings and their implications in this world. The third section does have the benefit of a happy ending, but didn't do that much to reveal the characters to me. I wanted so badly to better understand how these people existed in this world and what implications binding had on the broader population.