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A review by pep_puterova
The Library at Mount Char by Scott Hawkins
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
0.25
I don't know where to start...
Everyone seems to love this book and everyone says how weird this book is. I was very excited to read it. I love weird, unhinged fantasy.
As soon as I started reading it, it was painfully obvious the book was written by a man. So now I'm cursed with the knowledge the author is a leg man.
Moreover, the book is extremely, painfully American, both in terms of tone and how it treats the outside world. Plus it is somewhat republican-coded. I would like to ascertain the whereabouts of the author on January 6th.
For a book that has SO MUCH going on, it manages to be really boring for a big part of it. There's definitely bad pacing issues, and what could have been a very interesting plot suffers.
Not a single character is even remotely likeable. Except the lions, of course, but they always feature in the most boring parts of the book.
The whole book features too much gratuitious violence, and violence towards women, and then it's excused as 'oh she needed to become who she's meant to be' and extreme violence is good, actually.
All I can say is that I like the idea of this book, but this book is one of the worst things I've ever read. I almost DNF-ed it multiple times, but the only thing that kept me going was trying to understand why does this book have such positive reviews. I genuinely don't understand the praise it receives. It's not like with other books where I could just admit okay it's not for me, but whatever, could be someone else's thing. The praise for this book concers me.
Everyone seems to love this book and everyone says how weird this book is. I was very excited to read it. I love weird, unhinged fantasy.
As soon as I started reading it, it was painfully obvious the book was written by a man. So now I'm cursed with the knowledge the author is a leg man.
Moreover, the book is extremely, painfully American, both in terms of tone and how it treats the outside world. Plus it is somewhat republican-coded. I would like to ascertain the whereabouts of the author on January 6th.
For a book that has SO MUCH going on, it manages to be really boring for a big part of it. There's definitely bad pacing issues, and what could have been a very interesting plot suffers.
Not a single character is even remotely likeable. Except the lions, of course, but they always feature in the most boring parts of the book.
The whole book features too much gratuitious violence, and violence towards women, and then it's excused as 'oh she needed to become who she's meant to be' and extreme violence is good, actually.
All I can say is that I like the idea of this book, but this book is one of the worst things I've ever read. I almost DNF-ed it multiple times, but the only thing that kept me going was trying to understand why does this book have such positive reviews. I genuinely don't understand the praise it receives. It's not like with other books where I could just admit okay it's not for me, but whatever, could be someone else's thing. The praise for this book concers me.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Animal death, Torture, Animal cruelty, Violence, Injury/Injury detail, Blood, Murder, Self harm, Child abuse, and Sexual violence
Moderate: War, Fire/Fire injury, and Gun violence