A review by thepentheimk
Barometer Rising by Hugh MacLennan

1.0

Oh lord, this is awful. A historical romance set around the Halifax explosion sounds like a terrible concept, and the execution is equally bad. The setting feels forced; McLennan is very focused on making it authentic, at the expense of the storyline and general readability. The characters are, on the whole, extremely unlikeable, especially the "hero". And McLenna's prose is unbelievably melodramatic; he adores his adjectives, which is, honestly, an awful way to write. When the description of a tragedy as powerful as the Halifax explosion has me rolling my eyes at how even a tragedy is overwrought, that is an awful sign.