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andremthefoozle 's review for:
Florenzer
by Phil Melanson
challenging
emotional
reflective
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
So very readable. Every time I picked this book up, I fell into it and felt time slip away as I moved through the chapters.
As a piece of historical fiction, I appreciated how I was was never expected to have deep prior knowledge and any information needed was usually supplied and in a way that made it feel a natural part of the reading and not a dry textbook.
A piece that follows multiple characters, readers will likely find themselves interested in some more than others. For me, this made the Salviati chapters something to get through more than something I enjoyed. I enjoyed the cycling of the three perspectives so that I was never too far from a Leonardo or a Lorenzo chapter and it helped give the piece structure.
I understand how history works and Melanson's dedication to a version of accuracy, but for choosing three characters to follow, I was surprised by the end how little they ended up interacting over the narrative as a whole.
Never have I been so happy to have a list of characters at the start of a book that I could flip back to and reference as historical individuals pop up from time to time and names feel very similar. (I appreciate the author even mentioning slightly altering one characters name to make it more unique despite it not being what's most historically accurate.)
This may not be a forever five-star read for me, but I can honestly say, every time I was not reading this book after I started, I was thinking about when I'd be able to pick it up again and keep going. And that's something special that can't be said for everything else I've picked up this or any year.
As a piece of historical fiction, I appreciated how I was was never expected to have deep prior knowledge and any information needed was usually supplied and in a way that made it feel a natural part of the reading and not a dry textbook.
A piece that follows multiple characters, readers will likely find themselves interested in some more than others. For me, this made the Salviati chapters something to get through more than something I enjoyed. I enjoyed the cycling of the three perspectives so that I was never too far from a Leonardo or a Lorenzo chapter and it helped give the piece structure.
I understand how history works and Melanson's dedication to a version of accuracy, but for choosing three characters to follow, I was surprised by the end how little they ended up interacting over the narrative as a whole.
Never have I been so happy to have a list of characters at the start of a book that I could flip back to and reference as historical individuals pop up from time to time and names feel very similar. (I appreciate the author even mentioning slightly altering one characters name to make it more unique despite it not being what's most historically accurate.)
This may not be a forever five-star read for me, but I can honestly say, every time I was not reading this book after I started, I was thinking about when I'd be able to pick it up again and keep going. And that's something special that can't be said for everything else I've picked up this or any year.