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A review by chelseatm
The Chaperone by Laura Moriarty
2.0
When I read the description for this book, I was intrigued. It sounded like it'd be so interesting with its mix of fiction and fact. You think I would have learned my lesson with Sutton but I had high hopes and willingness to forgive historical fiction.
But I was wrong. I'm mad at myself for falling into the trap again. This book was...bland.
It was a dull rendition of a boring life. It seems like author, Laura Moriarty, beefed up the dull moments and downplayed the potentially exciting moments.
Where there could have been suspense, wonderment, or held breaths were fastforward moments erasing all salacious deliciousness. Instead, it was dry.
It sometimes seemed, as it often does with a mix of fiction and fact, that Moriarty was just as desperate to tell the story as she was to demonstrate how much she was researched about the era and to jam in all the important events of that time.
As well, for a book about Louise Brooks, it has so little to do with Brooks. It was like false advertising. But more than that, she worked on this Brooks character who was so hard and set in the beginning and gave her no chance at redemption or continuation. She stayed that same fifteen-year old that we saw through the eyes of the protagonist. I may be alone in thinking that was incredibly unfair of Moriarty. I'm sure other readers like me were as invested in Brooks as they were in Cora and then left hanging when we had no allusion of how she ended up personally - we were left with a biographical catalogue.
Overall, it's an easy read but that doesn't make it a need-to-read. I suggest put down this book and find something more interesting.
But I was wrong. I'm mad at myself for falling into the trap again. This book was...bland.
It was a dull rendition of a boring life. It seems like author, Laura Moriarty, beefed up the dull moments and downplayed the potentially exciting moments.
Where there could have been suspense, wonderment, or held breaths were fastforward moments erasing all salacious deliciousness. Instead, it was dry.
It sometimes seemed, as it often does with a mix of fiction and fact, that Moriarty was just as desperate to tell the story as she was to demonstrate how much she was researched about the era and to jam in all the important events of that time.
As well, for a book about Louise Brooks, it has so little to do with Brooks. It was like false advertising. But more than that, she worked on this Brooks character who was so hard and set in the beginning and gave her no chance at redemption or continuation. She stayed that same fifteen-year old that we saw through the eyes of the protagonist. I may be alone in thinking that was incredibly unfair of Moriarty. I'm sure other readers like me were as invested in Brooks as they were in Cora and then left hanging when we had no allusion of how she ended up personally - we were left with a biographical catalogue.
Overall, it's an easy read but that doesn't make it a need-to-read. I suggest put down this book and find something more interesting.