Reviews tagging 'Animal death'

The Storyteller by Antonia Michaelis

1 review

bookshelfsos's review

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

3.5

I really liked the plot and characters of The Storyteller, but the dreamy writing style felt like it held me back from connecting emotionally sometimes. The interludes of the fairy tale took up too much of the book, especially at the beginning. Once the fairy tale segments started to dry up and we started to spend time in the real world, the pace of the book picked up a lot for me. 

I thought Anna was a pretty boring narrator. Her "good girl" persona was just maybe too relatable to me? I think a lot of women can probably relate to having a crush on a mysterious "bad boy", so I suppose it was pretty realistic. Maybe it just struck too close to home. However, I do wish Abel had been given his own POV sections or something. The mysteries around his character was pretty much the only thing getting me through the story, but
Spoilerthe revelation that he was a hustler
felt like it could have had more emotional impact if we'd been able to get his perspective - feel the dread and shame that he must have been feeling.
SpoilerSame goes for subsequent revelations: they didn't exactly fall flat, but the impact was a little blunted by learning about them through Anna's dreamy, rose-colored glasses.
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