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A review by lucybbookstuff
Broken Country by Clare Leslie Hall
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
First thing's first, I read this in a day, and that was not hard to do at all. Some audio, some physical. The audiobook was pretty good and the physical book was a fast page-turner. It is worth mentioning that I was deliriously tired while reading the last 70 or so pages. 😅 But I was locked in and wanted to get it done. It may have made me kind of a maniac lol, but I don't think it changed how I would have felt about the book anyway.
So that said, I can definitely hand it to this book that it's a fast-paced and easy read. It makes a great palate cleanser. And for me, it had high entertainment value. But I didn't find much other value in it.
This book was a straight-up soap opera. 😂 It was all drama and no sense. I guessed practically everything long before it was revealed. The foreshadowing was about as subtle as a brick to the face. So every time a ~big reveal~ arrived, I just laughed or deadpanned. I'm pretty sure it was all meant to be very dramatic and emotional, but to me, it was mostly anticlimactic.
The strongest feelings I had about this book were abject hatred forboth Gabriel and Beth. Those two idiots deserve each other. Their young love (lust) was stupid and destined to fail, and so was their later affair. Frank deserved better, but also kinda chose to be a doormat. The happy ending (+ unintelligible poem 💀) was entirely undeserved and nonsensical to me.
At the end of the day, this just felt like another new release that was written for the sole purpose of being adapted for tv. I couldn't stop thinking throughout the book what a fun miniseries it would make, and that I'd find it much more interesting in that format.
It wasn't bad. There is absolutely a place for "book club" fiction like this (I read it for my book club lol). I just expect more from these books that get rave reviews and are haled as the next great lit fic. Just call it what it is: popcorn. There's nothing wrong with that.
So that said, I can definitely hand it to this book that it's a fast-paced and easy read. It makes a great palate cleanser. And for me, it had high entertainment value. But I didn't find much other value in it.
This book was a straight-up soap opera. 😂 It was all drama and no sense. I guessed practically everything long before it was revealed. The foreshadowing was about as subtle as a brick to the face. So every time a ~big reveal~ arrived, I just laughed or deadpanned. I'm pretty sure it was all meant to be very dramatic and emotional, but to me, it was mostly anticlimactic.
The strongest feelings I had about this book were abject hatred for
At the end of the day, this just felt like another new release that was written for the sole purpose of being adapted for tv. I couldn't stop thinking throughout the book what a fun miniseries it would make, and that I'd find it much more interesting in that format.
It wasn't bad. There is absolutely a place for "book club" fiction like this (I read it for my book club lol). I just expect more from these books that get rave reviews and are haled as the next great lit fic. Just call it what it is: popcorn. There's nothing wrong with that.