A review by radioactve_piano
The Hidden City, by Michelle West
3.0
The story itself was interesting and fun to read. That said, I needed a long time to get into the writing, and even then, I was jarred by the random sentence fragments. West definitely has a voice -- normally I nestle right into an author's voice; not sure why I struggled so hard to do that with this book.
Also, while the story is told from a narrator's point of view, it often focuses on one of the two main characters' perspectives. As the book went on, though, that focus would jump randomly to another character for a few pages. On the one had, I can understand the reason -- as more characters were gathered, this happened more frequently. I was put off by how late in the book it started happening, though. It felt incredibly deliberate and a bit forced -- like the author couldn't really get inside the other characters' heads, but felt like she had to try anyway.
Overall, good story, but the writing wasn't good enough to make me want to continue reading West's work.
Also, while the story is told from a narrator's point of view, it often focuses on one of the two main characters' perspectives. As the book went on, though, that focus would jump randomly to another character for a few pages. On the one had, I can understand the reason -- as more characters were gathered, this happened more frequently. I was put off by how late in the book it started happening, though. It felt incredibly deliberate and a bit forced -- like the author couldn't really get inside the other characters' heads, but felt like she had to try anyway.
Overall, good story, but the writing wasn't good enough to make me want to continue reading West's work.