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A review by terriaminute
A Ferry of Bones & Gold by Hailey Turner
mysterious
medium-paced
2.0
Two stars, because I finished it, and I enjoyed it, but wow does it have issues. Every person who did an edit pass on this manuscript failed spectacularly. Every single one. The quotes & notes are all edit & writer fails, and that's way less than half of what I noticed. And then there's the info-dumping.
I was warned that it's info-dumpy, but good gravy, whole paragraphs just shoved in repeatedly in the first few chapters is... A lot. Here's the thing; this book was published seven years after her debut, with a lot of work in between. By this point she should've learned how to drop in info less blatantly, and didn't. I don't know, maybe it was a mad scramble to make a deadline. Whatever, this is me judging a product, and it deficient.
But. I finished it.
Here's the reason: Somehow, despite the issues above, I enjoyed the characters and the plot. This is doubly remarkable because I usually dislike fantasy with gods running around, but the worldbuilding hangs together well. The pace is a bit uneven here and there, but the climax was satisfying. If you're one of those readers who can ignore edit fails, you may enjoy this. I enjoyed it in these aspects. I wish I could've enjoyed it more.
I was warned that it's info-dumpy, but good gravy, whole paragraphs just shoved in repeatedly in the first few chapters is... A lot. Here's the thing; this book was published seven years after her debut, with a lot of work in between. By this point she should've learned how to drop in info less blatantly, and didn't. I don't know, maybe it was a mad scramble to make a deadline. Whatever, this is me judging a product, and it deficient.
But. I finished it.
Here's the reason: Somehow, despite the issues above, I enjoyed the characters and the plot. This is doubly remarkable because I usually dislike fantasy with gods running around, but the worldbuilding hangs together well. The pace is a bit uneven here and there, but the climax was satisfying. If you're one of those readers who can ignore edit fails, you may enjoy this. I enjoyed it in these aspects. I wish I could've enjoyed it more.