A review by sarahrara
Love In Five Acts, by Daniela Krien
3.0
As with my previous ARC, [b:Folklorn|54864318|Folklorn|Angela Mi Young Hur|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1608035107l/54864318._SX50_.jpg|85605672], I was instantly drawn to the title, cover and description of this book. But again it didn't quite deliver.
There is beauty in this understated character study of five women, as they go through both the big and small things in life, but ultimately I didn't feel there was a story here. Which doesn't necessarily matter, except in this case there wasn't enough to compensate for the lack of traditional narrative in the way of depth of character or relationships. I didn't feel like I got to know the characters well enough, and the jumping back and forth in time made for a confusing and choppy structure. Admittedly this is exacerbated by the advanced copy that I received as the formatting is messy with line breaks in the middle of every other sentence or so - which I assume is not intentional. So the finished version should be at least a little easier to follow.
Also, I cannot escape the feeling that there is some intended significance to the ending which I just didn't see, as for me it feels kind of like the writer decided to stop at a random point.
The first three stories were the best/most interesting in my opinion, and I definitely enjoyed parts of it, but overall this was just an okay read for me.
There is beauty in this understated character study of five women, as they go through both the big and small things in life, but ultimately I didn't feel there was a story here. Which doesn't necessarily matter, except in this case there wasn't enough to compensate for the lack of traditional narrative in the way of depth of character or relationships. I didn't feel like I got to know the characters well enough, and the jumping back and forth in time made for a confusing and choppy structure. Admittedly this is exacerbated by the advanced copy that I received as the formatting is messy with line breaks in the middle of every other sentence or so - which I assume is not intentional. So the finished version should be at least a little easier to follow.
Also, I cannot escape the feeling that there is some intended significance to the ending which I just didn't see, as for me it feels kind of like the writer decided to stop at a random point.
The first three stories were the best/most interesting in my opinion, and I definitely enjoyed parts of it, but overall this was just an okay read for me.