A review by talonvictoria
Birds of Paradise by Anne Malcom
2.0
"Life was my penance, my sentence. The price I was paying. And I deserved to live through every second of misery. I needed more of it to pay for my sins."
Okay, so- this book was not terrible. It truly wasn't. I actually read it all in one day. The cover is stunningly beautiful and I highlighted so many powerful lines all through out the book. Like- a lot a lot. So, what gives?
THE PLOT. That's what gives. Meaning, where was the plot? And if you can locate the plot, can you please tell me what it is? I cannot for the life of me figure it out and that is a huge pet peeve of mine. Will the real plot please stand up?
In all seriousness and lack of plot aside, the read was good. Elizabeth is a dark character but I feel like we never really got to explore that darkness any further because all we get is a couple of flashbacks here and there. I think within the entire book there was three or four flashbacks. That just wasn't enough in my honest opinion. I feel like with this type of story, the readers should have been able to see the past and her life with Christopher a little more than we actually did. Once we got those flashbacks, I feel like we could really determine what the author meant for this plot to be and the kind of woman the author wanted Elizabeth to wind up being.
"You chose life for me. And that's about as permanent as death right now, and for the foreseeable future."
I wish I could say that I saw Elizabeth's growth as a character but she was very two dimensional to me. As time goes by we see her still stuck in the same place, only now we know she is sparring and apparently shooting guns in her free time but yet, we never see that part. It's just like all of the sudden she's a trained assassin. She's also in love? Before we even know anything about this guy? Does she know something we as readers don't know? Very unbelievable to me, unfortunately.
This was my first book by this author so I didn't really have anything to compare it to. The writing was dark and eerie and the imagery and setting of the story was vibrant and very visual thanks to said writing. The ease of the writing also helped create such a dynamic world but unfortunately I kept wanting more. I wanted more for the characters and I wanted for the story line. A book with fantastic writing and no plot or story line is just...meh.
Okay, so- this book was not terrible. It truly wasn't. I actually read it all in one day. The cover is stunningly beautiful and I highlighted so many powerful lines all through out the book. Like- a lot a lot. So, what gives?
THE PLOT. That's what gives. Meaning, where was the plot? And if you can locate the plot, can you please tell me what it is? I cannot for the life of me figure it out and that is a huge pet peeve of mine. Will the real plot please stand up?
In all seriousness and lack of plot aside, the read was good. Elizabeth is a dark character but I feel like we never really got to explore that darkness any further because all we get is a couple of flashbacks here and there. I think within the entire book there was three or four flashbacks. That just wasn't enough in my honest opinion. I feel like with this type of story, the readers should have been able to see the past and her life with Christopher a little more than we actually did. Once we got those flashbacks, I feel like we could really determine what the author meant for this plot to be and the kind of woman the author wanted Elizabeth to wind up being.
"You chose life for me. And that's about as permanent as death right now, and for the foreseeable future."
I wish I could say that I saw Elizabeth's growth as a character but she was very two dimensional to me. As time goes by we see her still stuck in the same place, only now we know she is sparring and apparently shooting guns in her free time but yet, we never see that part. It's just like all of the sudden she's a trained assassin. She's also in love? Before we even know anything about this guy? Does she know something we as readers don't know? Very unbelievable to me, unfortunately.
This was my first book by this author so I didn't really have anything to compare it to. The writing was dark and eerie and the imagery and setting of the story was vibrant and very visual thanks to said writing. The ease of the writing also helped create such a dynamic world but unfortunately I kept wanting more. I wanted more for the characters and I wanted for the story line. A book with fantastic writing and no plot or story line is just...meh.