shutupnread's review
2.0
Link: https://holedupinabook.blogspot.com/2017/07/immaculate-heart-by-camille-deangelis.html
This book started off a little slow and then it became quite fascinating for me. It also reminded me of The Wonder which I had reviewed a long time ago because they both dealt with these weird “supernatural”/”spiritual” situations and the main character basically went to investigate to find the truth. Also, I noticed that in this book, the reporter’s name was never mentioned. At least I don’t recall his name at all and I even checked Goodreads and everyone just refers him to “the American reporter”. So that’s also an interesting side bit.
The first thing that really struck me was the synopsis on the book flap – it talked about how there were three people who saw the Virgin Mary but clearly in the book, it depicted four. So I was definitely a little confused at first so I’m not sure who wrote that book flap synopsis but they should redo it or get fired or something. Anyways, so the book talked about four witnesses to the supposedly Virgin Mary sighting but one of them moved to Australia and therefore wasn’t a real focus in the book. It was the other three that the reporter really got a chance to discuss with.
The book was incredibly confusing. Honestly, it was interesting but confusing. I didn’t really get a lot of what was going on and why certain people acted the way they did. Originally the reporter went there for a family’s funeral but then got sucked into the whole apparition story and decided to investigate. The three who witnessed it and had stayed in the little town all showed a varying degree of readiness to share the story. One of them pretty much forgotten the whole situation and put it behind her; the other ended up becoming a nun; and the last one ended up in a mental instutition. And as the reporter went on with his investigations, it became more and more puzzling as to what really happened that time.
I don’t really want to go too much into detail about the plot because this is really one of those books where clearly the plot out trumps the characters themselves. I mean, the book was certainly engrossing – I found myself wondering about what was going to happen and what had really happened so long ago. However, at the end, I ended up feeling more baffled than before. I’m still not entirely sure how the book concluded because it was a little strange, to put it mildly. Especially with one of the witnesses.
Overall, I thought this book was great in its buildup but the ending was poorly executed. However, if you enjoy open-ended/cliff hangers as endings then I guess you can pick up this book. At the end of the day, I did find the book to be well written and the overall plot engrossing.
This book started off a little slow and then it became quite fascinating for me. It also reminded me of The Wonder which I had reviewed a long time ago because they both dealt with these weird “supernatural”/”spiritual” situations and the main character basically went to investigate to find the truth. Also, I noticed that in this book, the reporter’s name was never mentioned. At least I don’t recall his name at all and I even checked Goodreads and everyone just refers him to “the American reporter”. So that’s also an interesting side bit.
The first thing that really struck me was the synopsis on the book flap – it talked about how there were three people who saw the Virgin Mary but clearly in the book, it depicted four. So I was definitely a little confused at first so I’m not sure who wrote that book flap synopsis but they should redo it or get fired or something. Anyways, so the book talked about four witnesses to the supposedly Virgin Mary sighting but one of them moved to Australia and therefore wasn’t a real focus in the book. It was the other three that the reporter really got a chance to discuss with.
The book was incredibly confusing. Honestly, it was interesting but confusing. I didn’t really get a lot of what was going on and why certain people acted the way they did. Originally the reporter went there for a family’s funeral but then got sucked into the whole apparition story and decided to investigate. The three who witnessed it and had stayed in the little town all showed a varying degree of readiness to share the story. One of them pretty much forgotten the whole situation and put it behind her; the other ended up becoming a nun; and the last one ended up in a mental instutition. And as the reporter went on with his investigations, it became more and more puzzling as to what really happened that time.
I don’t really want to go too much into detail about the plot because this is really one of those books where clearly the plot out trumps the characters themselves. I mean, the book was certainly engrossing – I found myself wondering about what was going to happen and what had really happened so long ago. However, at the end, I ended up feeling more baffled than before. I’m still not entirely sure how the book concluded because it was a little strange, to put it mildly. Especially with one of the witnesses.
Overall, I thought this book was great in its buildup but the ending was poorly executed. However, if you enjoy open-ended/cliff hangers as endings then I guess you can pick up this book. At the end of the day, I did find the book to be well written and the overall plot engrossing.
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