Scan barcode
A review by _mor06_
Lights All Night Long by Lydia Fitzpatrick
3.0
In general the book is endearing and well written. However, after reading the synopsis, this book was incredibly different than what I expected. You follow the story of two young Russian brothers, Ilya and Vladimir, one of whom has a solid future ahead of him, and the other who falls into a darker path of life. Ilya gets the chance to become an American exchange student to a family in a small town in Louisiana. However, he arrives with his shoulders weighed down with grief, and a mystery he’s determined to solve.
Although I got the bits and pieces of the fluffy book I expected, the whole plot line was generally too long. I enjoyed the back and forth between the past and present, it helped create a suspense that kept you hooked. But I found the book about 150 pages too long, so much of the story seemed unnecessary filler that included small important details, but not major enough to warrant their own chapters. Furthermore, the true mystery isn’t solved until 20 pages left in the book, and the result seems rushed and anticlimactic to the suspense that the novel built up for the solution. I found it very hard to like let alone drum up sympathy for Vladimir; he was apathetic so much of the time and as much as I understood his desperation and frustration, I simply could not like him or get invested in his character like I did with Ilya. It’s a well written book with well thought out characters, but it wasn’t my cup of tea. Too long and dragged on a bit too much for my liking!
Although I got the bits and pieces of the fluffy book I expected, the whole plot line was generally too long. I enjoyed the back and forth between the past and present, it helped create a suspense that kept you hooked. But I found the book about 150 pages too long, so much of the story seemed unnecessary filler that included small important details, but not major enough to warrant their own chapters. Furthermore, the true mystery isn’t solved until 20 pages left in the book, and the result seems rushed and anticlimactic to the suspense that the novel built up for the solution. I found it very hard to like let alone drum up sympathy for Vladimir; he was apathetic so much of the time and as much as I understood his desperation and frustration, I simply could not like him or get invested in his character like I did with Ilya. It’s a well written book with well thought out characters, but it wasn’t my cup of tea. Too long and dragged on a bit too much for my liking!