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A review by chluless
The Light that Gets Lost by Natasha Carthew
3.0
First of all I want to thank Goodreads first reads and the publisher Bloomsbury for sending me this book in exchange for an honest review.
This book is very difficult for me to review, I usually fly through books of any length in a matter of hours to a day or two. However it took around a month for me to finish The Light That Gets Lost.
Let me explain why, the first half of the book was slow, hard to get lost in and truthfully I felt bored and disconnected from the story. I simply did not care about the characters. Frankly the writing itself was a little confusing at times. Yes, it was a little lyrical but at other times it was just lost to me.
For example:
"Mum was flat out on the floor. She'd spilt something and was caught in a half-thought going under the bed ... the sticky was growing and it branched out like creeping fingers under the rug and the boy shouted for her but it was too late, the bed had her."
Sorry, what?
Trey, the main character was so focused on revenge and the demon inside metaphor that he was just tedious to read about after a while. I understand it is a massive component of the plot but it was so intense and repetitive that it was just annoying.
And the backstory, nada, it was completely non-existent. The camp felt dystopian but there was no context. Only facts thrown into the storyline that made little sense, all of the relevant information was rushed and crammed into a sentence or two. No explanations. I feel like this would make a lot more sense if paired with a sequel.
But the second half felt like I was reading a completely different novel. The plot picked up gradually in this half and the last couple of chapters were great. Action-packed , suspenseful and interesting.
WHY WAS THE REST OF THE BOOK NOT LIKE THIS?
It seemed that the novel had no rising action, no build up. It was just a rambling description with the odd good page until the final few chapters where the climax came out of nowhere.
Without the second half my rating would have been a solid 1 star, no hesitations. However because I pushed on and found the second half was to good to ignore. Yet the first half was to bad to ignore.
2.5 stars from me.
This book is very difficult for me to review, I usually fly through books of any length in a matter of hours to a day or two. However it took around a month for me to finish The Light That Gets Lost.
Let me explain why, the first half of the book was slow, hard to get lost in and truthfully I felt bored and disconnected from the story. I simply did not care about the characters. Frankly the writing itself was a little confusing at times. Yes, it was a little lyrical but at other times it was just lost to me.
For example:
"Mum was flat out on the floor. She'd spilt something and was caught in a half-thought going under the bed ... the sticky was growing and it branched out like creeping fingers under the rug and the boy shouted for her but it was too late, the bed had her."
Sorry, what?
Trey, the main character was so focused on revenge and the demon inside metaphor that he was just tedious to read about after a while. I understand it is a massive component of the plot but it was so intense and repetitive that it was just annoying.
And the backstory, nada, it was completely non-existent. The camp felt dystopian but there was no context. Only facts thrown into the storyline that made little sense, all of the relevant information was rushed and crammed into a sentence or two. No explanations. I feel like this would make a lot more sense if paired with a sequel.
But the second half felt like I was reading a completely different novel. The plot picked up gradually in this half and the last couple of chapters were great. Action-packed , suspenseful and interesting.
WHY WAS THE REST OF THE BOOK NOT LIKE THIS?
It seemed that the novel had no rising action, no build up. It was just a rambling description with the odd good page until the final few chapters where the climax came out of nowhere.
Without the second half my rating would have been a solid 1 star, no hesitations. However because I pushed on and found the second half was to good to ignore. Yet the first half was to bad to ignore.
2.5 stars from me.