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A review by emboivinguay
The Book of Love by Kelly Link
Did not finish book. Stopped at 40%.
Thank you in advance for the publishers, Random House Publishing, and NetGalley for sending me and advanced digital copy of the novel in exchange for my honest opinions.
This book was one of my most anticipated release of the year. I heard a ton about Kelly Link as an author, the premise sounded out of this world and it was one of my favorite genre, which is YA fantasy. Unfortunately, I ended up being extremely disappointed by this one. As a reader, I like slow-burn novels that really take us from the get go by the hand and immerse us, the readers, into the world of the story with time and care. So when I saw that the book was over 500 pages, it did not frighten me. But I do have to say that after reading 40% of the book, I still felt like nothing had happened. Maybe the marketing branded too much on the synopsis and I expected the story to pick up where it wasn't supposed to be because an idea had been suggested to me. But even if that is the case, I still believe the book was way too slow to be enjoyable. I can do slow-burn if I am given a bit of information. With The Book of Love, I felt like the first half was just about setting the ground, which is almost inappropriate. We are told from the start that this will be a competition between the teenagers. If you tell me this piece of information, don't way 300 pages to actually start the action....
I won't really go into other details because I do feel like my take is biased on my opinion of the length and pacing of the story. I couldn't like the characters and the writing style, but I know people usually love this about Link's other works, so it is probably due to my initial frustration that I couldn't see through and enjoy the rest. I believe there is an audience for this novel somewhere. it simply was not me.
This book was one of my most anticipated release of the year. I heard a ton about Kelly Link as an author, the premise sounded out of this world and it was one of my favorite genre, which is YA fantasy. Unfortunately, I ended up being extremely disappointed by this one. As a reader, I like slow-burn novels that really take us from the get go by the hand and immerse us, the readers, into the world of the story with time and care. So when I saw that the book was over 500 pages, it did not frighten me. But I do have to say that after reading 40% of the book, I still felt like nothing had happened. Maybe the marketing branded too much on the synopsis and I expected the story to pick up where it wasn't supposed to be because an idea had been suggested to me. But even if that is the case, I still believe the book was way too slow to be enjoyable. I can do slow-burn if I am given a bit of information. With The Book of Love, I felt like the first half was just about setting the ground, which is almost inappropriate. We are told from the start that this will be a competition between the teenagers. If you tell me this piece of information, don't way 300 pages to actually start the action....
I won't really go into other details because I do feel like my take is biased on my opinion of the length and pacing of the story. I couldn't like the characters and the writing style, but I know people usually love this about Link's other works, so it is probably due to my initial frustration that I couldn't see through and enjoy the rest. I believe there is an audience for this novel somewhere. it simply was not me.