Reviews

Il libro dei bambini by A.S. Byatt

schleviboy's review against another edition

4.0

Enjoyed her writing, which was well suited to the Arts & Crafts world. The first 1/3 or so was captivating and held great promise, but I didn't think the rest lived up to my hopes. It seemed like it wanted to be a historical epic (like War and Peace or even more like The Winds of War) but I think it would have been better with a more limited scope.

rah's review against another edition

adventurous challenging informative slow-paced

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

2.75

ecdereus's review against another edition

Hoewel dit boek veel uitstekende recensies heeft gekregen, heb ik het na 13% aan de kant gelegd. Het kon mij totaal niet boeien. Jammer...

lakmus's review against another edition

DNF p.77

Pots, pots, no plot, puppets, parties, and way too many people. Pretty language does not save the lack of plot and too many people. Sugary hapless rich people. Based on the distribution of descriptions so far, the author is more interested in pots than the people.

This is annoying, because Possession was better than crack, and the two Byatt books I attempted after that ain't it.

rosiev425's review against another edition

dark emotional informative reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

2.0

moon_flower's review against another edition

challenging informative reflective slow-paced

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

2.75

This is a time period I'm much interested in, as well as things like fairytales,  the arts and crafts and V&A museum, so that were some of the things I liked about this book. However, there were too many characters to keep track of. Everytime I finally got into the story of one character it was suddenly dropped and then never really gotten back to (only vaguely like an update through other characters). Also the info dump of very dry history bits in between was really annoying. It was a slog and could have been a lot shorter.

simplycelestial's review against another edition

emotional informative slow-paced

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

3.5

summerseeds's review against another edition

Nah. Life is too short to read books that don’t interest you. There was nothing wrong with the 5 chapters I managed to make it through. It’s just not my kind of story.

amber_marin17's review against another edition

adventurous emotional hopeful reflective 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

4.5

gabbyhm's review against another edition

emotional informative reflective slow-paced

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

5.0