Reviews with content warning for Racism - The Book That Wouldn't Burn

Reviews tagging 'Racism'

The Book That Wouldn't Burn by Mark Lawrence

17 reviews

clovetra's review against another edition

adventurous challenging mysterious medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.0

this book was a TRIP. at some points it was enjoyable, but a lot more often than not with this book it made almost zero sense.

this book’s worldbuilding and characters really sucked me in to begin with. the world of crath, alongside livira as an incredibly likeable protagonist really worked. evar’s world also sucked me in, but i will say compared to livira, he was quite boring as a character. he lacked deep characterisation, and alongside someone as spunky as livira his chapters fell flat.

i think this book’s biggest downfall is although its almost 600 pages, it feels like it barely touches on the world of the story, and instead focuses on characters, which is all find and dandy if your worldbuilding is up to par. this book jumped steps 1, 2 &3 and immediately ran to step 4 regarding its world. like even in the first chapter the dust isn’t properly explained, and you kind of just have to piece together what’s going on. like sabbers - are they human? we’re told at some points, yes…. then no…. then like 70% into the book a nonhuman description is given…. but then yes they’re human. it felt like a battle between each concept as it would be explained one way, and then expanded on when the foundation wasn’t properly explored.

also the amount of plot twists…. im a girl who loves plot twists, even if i predict them. what i don’t love is that this book is so complex and fails to fully explain the rules of its world that the plot twists literally don’t make sense, or feel like they’ve just been added for shock value. like once we got to jumping portals within portals and assistants and travelling back and forth…. after a while everything was twisting in on itself too much and seemed to be breaking the laws of this world’s universe i had no idea what was happening. this was probably the most egregious in the last 20% of the book. before that, i could reasonably understand what was going on. but in the last 100 pages or so i think this book really lost the plot… literally.

and the ending too….. i don’t even know what happened. like i do…. but gun to my head i couldn’t *explain* it.

i really had fun reading this in the first half, but after that point i think too much was happening at once, it didn’t let me sit & digest what i was reading before another plot point that wasn’t fully fleshed out was introduced.

this sounds like such a mean review but i actually did enjoy myself reading this! before the halfway mark i was sure this would be a 4-star for me. but idk the way the second half of the book was….. not a fan 🙁

at this point im not even too sure if i’d want to finish this series. in one way im so attached to my girl livira i want to know what happened to her, but honestly i cant say i want to subject myself to another 600 pages of poor worldbuilding.

Content Warnings

bookforthought's review against another edition

Go to review page

challenging mysterious medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

Beautifully written and developed marvellously, this is an original and intriguing book which defies genre labels (primarily mixing sci-fi and fantasy) and challenges beliefs and preconceptions. I was very confused at times, but losing myself in this story was nonetheless a beautiful experience. That ending is brutal though - I’ll need to pick the next book up soon!

Content Warnings

skylarkblue1's review against another edition

Go to review page

slow-paced

2.0

I'll be honest I don't have much to say because I don't really remember much that happened/I honestly don't really think much happened?

This book was so very long, and so very slow and dry. I thought I was enjoying it still though because, well, I kept reading, but after needing to renew it twice at the library and the finale kinda just being.. nothing big I realised that I just don't really care for this aha..

The characters were ok, the world was quite neat as well. The writing though I think just really didn't mesh well with me. I also have no idea what the title is referring to considering what the ending is lol. I think this book really could have been so much shorter and like nothing would have been lost. We don't need super long books, this is a pretty big issue with a lot of the long books I've read, they just seem really padded and not well edited.

Content Warnings

georgiatheperson's review against another edition

Go to review page

adventurous mysterious reflective

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0

Definitely my favourite book now! I loved it, it's a good book that gets you to stop and just think. Exceptionally written as well! Although I'm not the best person to ask about that. haha

Content Warnings

faduma's review against another edition

Go to review page

adventurous challenging mysterious tense slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.0

Content Warnings

idkimoutofideas's review against another edition

Go to review page

slow-paced

Loveable characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

Content Warnings

dkamada's review against another edition

Go to review page

adventurous hopeful mysterious reflective medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

5.0

Time is trippy and so is love

Content Warnings

eviethebookworm's review against another edition

Go to review page

challenging dark emotional informative mysterious tense slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.5

I have so many thoughts that it’s hard to articulate them all.

But first, let’s discuss what the book is actually about.

The Book That Wouldn’t Burn is about a vast and eternal library. The two protagonists begin in opposite situations – Livira begins having never stepped foot inside the library, while Evar begins having never stepped foot outside of it.

Both their stories intertwine with each other through time and worlds. Everything comes back to the library and the knowledge it holds – and whether it can be truly harnessed before fire ignites.

Livira and Evar are juxtaposed in a way that conveys the extreme nature of the library that is the anchor point for the narrative. Livira is endlessly curious and adaptive. Evar is penned in by his circumstances. They really are like two ends of a spectrum in that one is forced to explore and the other is confined.

Lawrence incorporates several contemporary literary references that tie our own world in the fantastical one he has created. Nods to Alice in Wonderland and Wizard of Oz reinforce the theme of entering a world beyond your own. Although giving The Raven the true name of [spoiler*] is just ridiculous. I immediately fell out of the book.

I did struggle with the pacing a fair bit. The beginning had a good flow but it waned as the pages went by, and it didn’t pick up again until almost three quarters of the way through. This came down to information and detail being repeated unnecessarily. Something mentioned in Chapter 20 doesn’t need to be retold in Chapter 24. It makes for a dense read, which left me wondering if I got my hopes up too soon in the start.

Having said all that, the big reveal was both infuriating and riveting. All the foreshadowing clicked into place! But a lot of the foreshadowing was smothered by the aforementioned density of the bulk of the novel. The last 150 or so pages convinced me that it was worth sticking it out. Which was a relief.

If you enjoy a high fantasy novel that hones in on the concept of knowledge, then go for it! Just know you’re signing up for a hefty boi that can feel cyclic. But it all ties into the theme, really. It’s a great think-piece of a tale – something that will have you pondering the nuggets that the author has woven into each chapter.

Review TL;DR:

Rating: 3.5/5 stars

Strongest elements: Multiple POV narrative, prose, literary referencing.

Content warnings: Fire injury, blood, gun violence, racism, classism, slavery, kidnapping, murder, war, injury detail, genocide, death of a parent, death of a child, grief.

Similar titles/authors: The Book of Doors by Gareth Brown, The Library at Mount Char by Scott Hawkins.

Genre: High fantasy

*Edgarallen

Content Warnings

peregrinwho's review against another edition

Go to review page

adventurous emotional funny inspiring mysterious medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0

The first 20% of this book can seem slow, with Evar's chapters in particular being repetitive, but only because they're setting up a world, characters, and several questions. After that point that feeling falls away as answers start to come, and it's really difficult to put down the book so you can chase more of them.

Everything I thought was set up for a specific pay-off later was indeed paid off. It gave me so much joy to see the story unwinding to those points and being able to scream, "yes! I was right!" as characters solved the mysteries. A satisfying story with a fun journey. I laughed, I cried, I sat staring at the wall contemplating some of the author's words like a nexus point as the world turned around me. Can't wait to follow these characters into the next book💜.

Content Warnings

theaceofpages's review

Go to review page

adventurous dark mysterious slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.5

"To discover that you can read in a language you never knew existed is a surprise. To be instructed to stop reading, in person, in that language, on the first page of a book, is perhaps an even greater one."

A library seems like a great place to hunker down with all that's going on in the outside world. Especially one this large and magical.

I mean, it's so large that somewhere is apparently always burning and most aren't even aware!

It was my favourite part of the book and I would absolutely love to be able to explore it and all its secrets. I loved Livira but found myself not quite as interested in Evar (which surprised me because I usually love libraryish characters). The book started off strong but I found myself losing some interest towards the end before things picked up for the ending (well, not really the ending ending since there will be a sequel)

Content Warnings

More...