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A review by tbeaumont223
The Book of Life by Deborah Harkness
2.0
It took me a while to write a review on this book because I just wasn't feeling it.
I LOVED the first two books in Harkness' series. I read them both twice, something I rarely do and loved them just as much the second time around. I couldn't wait for The Book of Life to come out. And then it did and from the first page I was disappointed.
At the end of Shadow of Night, we were left wondering where Emily was. Harkness wastes no time in TBOL to let us know what happens. While I was expecting a bit more suspense in the discovery of her whereabouts, it was nice to not have to wonder. However, the dialogue around her death was not believable. I felt no sorrow at her absence because the sorrow coming off the pages was so forced.
This is not the only area I felt the dialogue was forced and lacking feeling. There was hardly a conversation in the book that had me suspending disbelief and falling into the story. Page by page, I was only ever reading a book, not living a story.
It wasn't just the dialogue I found hard to believe. In TBOL, many humans found out about the existence of creatures yet none seemed to have a hard time accepting it. No one questioned it. No one freaked out. While it was nice to not have half the book focused on convincing them creatures were real, I expected some kind of reaction.
The transitions were also an issue for me. The book felt like a check list of events we had to get through in order to get to the main point of the book: who and what Diana and her babies were and what they were capable of. Everything leading up to that was just filler to make the book long enough. As such, it wasn't natural or smooth.
There was also no character development. If anything, characters stagnated and regressed. New characters didn't contribute to the story in any way and old characters lacked any connection I felt in the first two books.
All in all, I finished the book out of stubbornness rather than for any interest in the story. I wanted to at least finish the trilogy I loved so much in the first two books. At the conclusion of the book, I was just glad it was over.
I LOVED the first two books in Harkness' series. I read them both twice, something I rarely do and loved them just as much the second time around. I couldn't wait for The Book of Life to come out. And then it did and from the first page I was disappointed.
At the end of Shadow of Night, we were left wondering where Emily was. Harkness wastes no time in TBOL to let us know what happens. While I was expecting a bit more suspense in the discovery of her whereabouts, it was nice to not have to wonder. However, the dialogue around her death was not believable. I felt no sorrow at her absence because the sorrow coming off the pages was so forced.
This is not the only area I felt the dialogue was forced and lacking feeling. There was hardly a conversation in the book that had me suspending disbelief and falling into the story. Page by page, I was only ever reading a book, not living a story.
It wasn't just the dialogue I found hard to believe. In TBOL, many humans found out about the existence of creatures yet none seemed to have a hard time accepting it. No one questioned it. No one freaked out. While it was nice to not have half the book focused on convincing them creatures were real, I expected some kind of reaction.
The transitions were also an issue for me. The book felt like a check list of events we had to get through in order to get to the main point of the book: who and what Diana and her babies were and what they were capable of. Everything leading up to that was just filler to make the book long enough. As such, it wasn't natural or smooth.
There was also no character development. If anything, characters stagnated and regressed. New characters didn't contribute to the story in any way and old characters lacked any connection I felt in the first two books.
All in all, I finished the book out of stubbornness rather than for any interest in the story. I wanted to at least finish the trilogy I loved so much in the first two books. At the conclusion of the book, I was just glad it was over.