grace_mae 's review for:

The Latinist by Mark Prins

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 Thank god for libraries. This aims to be Tartt's Secret History, but sits closer to AS Byatt's Possession without any of the qualities that made Possession charming, engaging or impressive. The biggest problem to me is the writing - lots of unedited exposition, and its tangents, be they into the subject of classics or the character's families, are simply not that interesting. Everything feels both pedantic and superficial. I skim read the last half of it. Also, incredibly distracting to hear the name "Chritopher Eccels" in the audiobook and have to ignore the similarity to British actor Christopher Eccelston. 
All that said, I would probably try another book by this author in future if I can get it from the library. I do feel like most of the issues are just debut novel stuff.