A review by thompsonjul
All the Wind in the World by Samantha Mabry
2.0
I can't put my finger on why I didn't rate this book higher. I went back and forth for a while, my mental pro and con list growing and growing. I think ultimately for me, this book didn't know what it wanted to be. Did it want to be a romance, a supernatural family drama, a sci-fi cautionary tale? I could never really tell, and it was hard to be as invested as I wanted to be because of this lack of focus.
However, there is a lot to like in this novel. The setting and story is wholly unique and I genuinely did not know where the story was going to go. I could see the world in my head so clearly, and it is well suited for a film adaptation. Mabry uses the Dust Bowl-like setting to great effect and is amazing at using side characters to create a convincing portrait of the world. The characters are all very complex, and just when you think you have them figured out, a new piece of information comes to light that changes it all.
But perhaps that's the weakness as well. For me, character should drive plot, and in this case I think this was reversed. The characters execute heel turns on a dime as needed for the plot, which makes the plot more interesting but sacrifices the connection the reader has with the characters. James' actions towards the end of the novel made no sense based on the person we got to know at the start. I made allowances for the fact that the story is told by an unreliable narrator, but his change from lover to something more sinister came out of nowhere for me. It was hard for me to invest in the romance that from the marketing seemed to be central to the story because of this. I think this is a situation where the marketing of this novel set up incorrect expectations. It's not a romance so much as it is a dystopian drama, and if I had gone into it with that expectation it may have made me feel differently about it. All in all, this is a well written novel that I just couldn't fall in love with no matter how hard I tried.
However, there is a lot to like in this novel. The setting and story is wholly unique and I genuinely did not know where the story was going to go. I could see the world in my head so clearly, and it is well suited for a film adaptation. Mabry uses the Dust Bowl-like setting to great effect and is amazing at using side characters to create a convincing portrait of the world. The characters are all very complex, and just when you think you have them figured out, a new piece of information comes to light that changes it all.
But perhaps that's the weakness as well. For me, character should drive plot, and in this case I think this was reversed. The characters execute heel turns on a dime as needed for the plot, which makes the plot more interesting but sacrifices the connection the reader has with the characters. James' actions towards the end of the novel made no sense based on the person we got to know at the start. I made allowances for the fact that the story is told by an unreliable narrator, but his change from lover to something more sinister came out of nowhere for me. It was hard for me to invest in the romance that from the marketing seemed to be central to the story because of this. I think this is a situation where the marketing of this novel set up incorrect expectations. It's not a romance so much as it is a dystopian drama, and if I had gone into it with that expectation it may have made me feel differently about it. All in all, this is a well written novel that I just couldn't fall in love with no matter how hard I tried.