A review by shelvesofstarlight
The Absolute Book by Elizabeth Knox
4.0
I enjoyed this book but was confused by quite a lot of went on that wasn't directly involved with the plot. This is only because it wasn't really explained throughout the book and we just sort of had to learn about it and guess as it went along.
The characters were very interesting and I liked watching how they all interacted and changed over the course of the book. Taryn as a protagonist was intricate and initially I didn't really like her but she grew on me as we watched her suffer with her past and come to terms with her future and interact with Shift, Jacob and the Muleskinner (who was very creepy and evil and I kind of liked how he just turned up out of the blue at certain points). Of course, to the human characters of the book we must add the more supernatural/mythological characters of the story who, like I said initially had me confused but I think that by the end of the book I pretty much had a grasp on hoe they all worked lol. But, I did really enjoy the main group that developed and I even really liked Taryn at the end!
The plot, as I said did have me slightly confused but I really enjoyed how it concentrated on books and libraries because I am a massive nerd and love books (of course). It was very cool how it switched between the real world and the fictional world that could be reached through magical gates around the globe. The ending did feel a tad rushed given the length of the book and the epilogue seemed necessary but also unnecessary all at the same time lol. However, I did like that everything was resolved by the end of the book and you could see how that happened in the epilogue, plus it seems that the characters found a solution for global warming and other environmental problems at the same time which was nice.
The writing was great, it was really interesting to read and made sure that I was engaged through all 600+ pages of this book which is no mean feat especially because for quite a lot of it I was considerably confused by what was going on. If Elizabeth Knox has written or write any shorter books I will definitely be checking them out!
I was kindly provided with a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.
The characters were very interesting and I liked watching how they all interacted and changed over the course of the book. Taryn as a protagonist was intricate and initially I didn't really like her but she grew on me as we watched her suffer with her past and come to terms with her future and interact with Shift, Jacob and the Muleskinner (who was very creepy and evil and I kind of liked how he just turned up out of the blue at certain points). Of course, to the human characters of the book we must add the more supernatural/mythological characters of the story who, like I said initially had me confused but I think that by the end of the book I pretty much had a grasp on hoe they all worked lol. But, I did really enjoy the main group that developed and I even really liked Taryn at the end!
The plot, as I said did have me slightly confused but I really enjoyed how it concentrated on books and libraries because I am a massive nerd and love books (of course). It was very cool how it switched between the real world and the fictional world that could be reached through magical gates around the globe. The ending did feel a tad rushed given the length of the book and the epilogue seemed necessary but also unnecessary all at the same time lol. However, I did like that everything was resolved by the end of the book and you could see how that happened in the epilogue, plus it seems that the characters found a solution for global warming and other environmental problems at the same time which was nice.
The writing was great, it was really interesting to read and made sure that I was engaged through all 600+ pages of this book which is no mean feat especially because for quite a lot of it I was considerably confused by what was going on. If Elizabeth Knox has written or write any shorter books I will definitely be checking them out!
I was kindly provided with a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.