A review by sofipitch
Possession by A.S. Byatt

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

2.5

I wanted to like this one much more than I did but it was such a slog. The book forces it's reader to be the historians themselves, which might be fun if not for the fact that it is about entirely made up characters. You'll read ten pages on some Victorian arguing in favor of the belief of seances simply because the two main characters were mentioned. Another stand out example is the bathroom of a passing character described for 2-3 pages. You'll read pages and pages of literary analysis once again on authors who do not exist. That was what I kept coming back to over and over, this might have been more interesting had Ash and LaMotte been real. The characters themselves are very boring, both contemporary and historical, LaMotte is the only mildly interesting one and you can tell because more of her poems, life, and literary analysis are featured. 
There is also the inclusion of fake poetry from LaMotte and Ash as well as short stories, almost constantly, maybe 1/4th of the book. As often as we are forced to read analysis on the poems just presented I can't help but wonder if the poems came first and then the book was built around it as a better way to sell them.
Overall much longer than it needed to be for both the story and the message it was trying to tell. 
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