A review by organchordsandlightning
The Poe Shadow by Matthew Pearl
3.0
I really, really wished I like this book more. I read his book about Dante and loved it a lot, and I also love Poe. I thought this book would be a great fit.
And I don't like using the term 'but it's boring' to describe a book because it's so hard to tell what's boring or not for some people. But ... this book is kind of boring. Ostensibly, it's to solve the case once and for all of Poe's final days. But it's just so long. There's a lot of scenes that give red herrings or no information at all about the case. The protagonist is bland at best and selfish at worst. And, ultimately, the book has very little to do with Poe's works and much more to do with Poe the man.
And I don't like using the term 'but it's boring' to describe a book because it's so hard to tell what's boring or not for some people. But ... this book is kind of boring. Ostensibly, it's to solve the case once and for all of Poe's final days. But it's just so long. There's a lot of scenes that give red herrings or no information at all about the case. The protagonist is bland at best and selfish at worst. And, ultimately, the book has very little to do with Poe's works and much more to do with Poe the man.