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tzwolfer 's review for:
The Kingdoms
by Natasha Pulley
adventurous
mysterious
Dearest Joe,
Come home, if you remember.
-M
My heart aches from this book. It is staggering and delicate and brutal, tender and clever and aching. I didn't want to put it down the entire time I was reading it, and I felt deeply immersed in the story with every page I turned.
It's a difficult story to describe due to the heavy role that time-travel (and its effect on the future) and memory have on the plot, so instead I will list a few things (in no particular order) that I enjoyed about the story:
• Natasha Pulley's writing. Lush, descriptive, and all-around beautiful.
• The craft and shape of the time-travel amnesia-riddled plot. Though it easily could have been confusing, it isn't, and I loved exploring the different times and uncovering the consequences that changes in the past wrought on the present
• Vivid setting descriptions! I also loved the unique places the story took place in, particularly the stretches in the lighthouse and on ships. Pulley's careful research certainly shined through with these!
• The action scenes—the brutality of war is visceral in this story, and necessarily so. It doesn't pull its punches, and thus there are real consequences and real losses that are aching to read. These scenes were also paced beautifully, and kept me on the edge of my seat.
• The love story at the heart of the narrative. Oh my goodness, this is how you write a love story. It is so aching, so tender, so gentle, so desperate. It is easy to tell where it is going about 1/3 of the way into the story, but this felt purposeful to me—allowing readers to watch in all unfold, to feel the struggles of the characters, their thready hope, their anger, their hesitance, their love. It was everything I wanted and more
• Tigers and tortoises!
• There's a twin named Beatrix, and as a twin named Beatrix, I think that's pretty neat :)
Though the book was almost 5 stars for me, there were a few things that brought it up short:
• The female characters. The ones who exist are interesting and well-crafted characters, but they are not as prominent as the male characters. I would have liked to see a little more of them, and am also a bit disappointed about howAgatha's story ended, dying to further the story of the two male characters.
• The fallout ofKite killing Fred. Though he rationalizes it in his own mind, I feel like the story lacked repercussions from other characters beyond the initial shock of the event. I wish it was something that Joe wrestled with more, as he was initially mortified by it, only for it to drop away in the final acts of the book. It seems like a scene rich with complexity and nuance, and I would have liked to see it explored a bit more by the characters as a result.
Overall, a stunning read, perfect for fans of books like The 7½ Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle, The Devil and the Dark Water, The First Fifteen Lives of Harry August, and The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue. This was also a compelling introduction to Natasha Pulley's writing for me, and I look forward to picking up more of her books in the future!
Come home, if you remember.
-M
My heart aches from this book. It is staggering and delicate and brutal, tender and clever and aching. I didn't want to put it down the entire time I was reading it, and I felt deeply immersed in the story with every page I turned.
It's a difficult story to describe due to the heavy role that time-travel (and its effect on the future) and memory have on the plot, so instead I will list a few things (in no particular order) that I enjoyed about the story:
• Natasha Pulley's writing. Lush, descriptive, and all-around beautiful.
• The craft and shape of the time-travel amnesia-riddled plot. Though it easily could have been confusing, it isn't, and I loved exploring the different times and uncovering the consequences that changes in the past wrought on the present
• Vivid setting descriptions! I also loved the unique places the story took place in, particularly the stretches in the lighthouse and on ships. Pulley's careful research certainly shined through with these!
• The action scenes—the brutality of war is visceral in this story, and necessarily so. It doesn't pull its punches, and thus there are real consequences and real losses that are aching to read. These scenes were also paced beautifully, and kept me on the edge of my seat.
• The love story at the heart of the narrative. Oh my goodness, this is how you write a love story. It is so aching, so tender, so gentle, so desperate. It is easy to tell where it is going about 1/3 of the way into the story, but this felt purposeful to me—allowing readers to watch in all unfold, to feel the struggles of the characters, their thready hope, their anger, their hesitance, their love. It was everything I wanted and more
• Tigers and tortoises!
• There's a twin named Beatrix, and as a twin named Beatrix, I think that's pretty neat :)
Though the book was almost 5 stars for me, there were a few things that brought it up short:
• The female characters. The ones who exist are interesting and well-crafted characters, but they are not as prominent as the male characters. I would have liked to see a little more of them, and am also a bit disappointed about how
• The fallout of
Overall, a stunning read, perfect for fans of books like The 7½ Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle, The Devil and the Dark Water, The First Fifteen Lives of Harry August, and The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue. This was also a compelling introduction to Natasha Pulley's writing for me, and I look forward to picking up more of her books in the future!