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lexiscee 's review for:

The Weight of Ink by Rachel Kadish
4.0

3.5 rounded up to 4

This was a beautiful and well-written story. It was extremely detailed, and I liked the alternating timelines. Though a fictional story, I learned a lot about Jewish history through Ester: a Jewish woman in 17th century Europe, and the main focus of the book. I also enjoyed learning about Helen and her past. You can tell that Kadish wrote this story with tons of research and tons of care.

That being said, there were a lot of different POVs, and the sheer amount of detail, and letters, bogged down the pace for me. It definitely could've been 100-200 pages shorter. Aaron's character was also nearly insufferable in the first half; however, all of the characters ended up having great character arcs.

Overall, I really enjoyed this story, and I recommend it if you like historical fiction. But the sheer amount of detail, and the jumps in POV, made me struggle to finish the story.