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A review by asterope
Nettleblack by Nat Reeve
Did not finish book. Stopped at 15%.
Okay I did get through 15% of this before giving up. But it was a real struggle. I found the main character Henry super unlikeable, but not because of who she is, but how she’s written. The whimsical Victorian-style language came off as parody-like. Especially in tense scenes that are supposed to be fast-paced. I was struggling to follow what was happening because of how over-the-top the writing was.
She also has these little quirks that got old very quickly. She swears by exclaiming a fruit every few seconds. “Plums!”, “Lemons!”, “Persimmons!”, etc. And loads of “Quite!” It would have been better with some backstory as to why she’s like that, but everything kicked off too soon. Henry gets swept up in the plot without really doing much herself. I couldn’t buy her as a character. She’s one of those helpless main characters where you wonder why the others took a chance on them. The whole thing felt very silly.
With some harsher editing, this could have been fun. I actually think the story would be better suited as a TV show, where you don’t need to hear Henry’s every rambling thought. But the book as it is was definitely not for me.
She also has these little quirks that got old very quickly. She swears by exclaiming a fruit every few seconds. “Plums!”, “Lemons!”, “Persimmons!”, etc. And loads of “Quite!” It would have been better with some backstory as to why she’s like that, but everything kicked off too soon. Henry gets swept up in the plot without really doing much herself. I couldn’t buy her as a character. She’s one of those helpless main characters where you wonder why the others took a chance on them. The whole thing felt very silly.
With some harsher editing, this could have been fun. I actually think the story would be better suited as a TV show, where you don’t need to hear Henry’s every rambling thought. But the book as it is was definitely not for me.