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A review by kingabrit
The Strange Case of the Alchemist's Daughter by Theodora Goss
3.0
It started out 4 stars for me. The reason it dropped has nothing to do with the book - it is all me. I am definitely not the right audience as I am not very much fond of the fantasy-horror-sci fi genres, although I read quite a few of these (as nowadays everything belongs to these more or less so they are hard to avoid even in lit fiction). Nevertheless I enjoyed reading it, it kept me interested, although it got a bit cumbersome in the end (hence the star drop).
I could not thread together the two "mysteries" (the murders in Whitechapel and the Society); in spite of the fact I was constantly told there was a definite connection, and the novel was written as if there were indeed, somehow these two parts never clicked together in my mind, and I sensed them as two ill-fitted halves being squeezed together by force. Hard to describe what I mean, but maybe it makes sense for anyone who reads the novel. In the end I could not help thinking the Society part was included just to be able to write a sequel, and that was its main purpose showing up in the book.
A lot of readers complain about the "interruptions". I personally like these sorts of things as they make a novel much more interesting generally, and if the story is well written (and in this case, Goss writes very well), this kind of writing techniques never bothers me. However, I was listening to the audiobook version, and the narrator did an awful job with these commenting parts. She never left a short pause between the regular flow of the story and the comments of the characters. So it took me a (short) while to get used to the structure (i.e. the jumps back and front), which would have been easier I guess if I had read the physical text itself.
Speaking of the narration, it was pretty bad. Not 'bad-bad', but certainly not too enjoyable at all. Other than that comment fiasco I have mentioned, the narrator seemed to have hard time to invent convincing voices, mainly for the male characters. I don't mind if narrators don't come up with different voices for all the characters, but it is very annoying when you can tell their struggle and sweat to do so.
Being Hungarian, I was especially tickled by the frequent mentioning of Budapest (although not in a good context), and pleased to find out that Goss is Hungarian-American.
All and all, I don't mind reading this, and honestly, I am curious how the story goes on, however, I am not sure I will pull out the second part soon.
I could not thread together the two "mysteries" (the murders in Whitechapel and the Society); in spite of the fact I was constantly told there was a definite connection, and the novel was written as if there were indeed, somehow these two parts never clicked together in my mind, and I sensed them as two ill-fitted halves being squeezed together by force. Hard to describe what I mean, but maybe it makes sense for anyone who reads the novel. In the end I could not help thinking the Society part was included just to be able to write a sequel, and that was its main purpose showing up in the book.
A lot of readers complain about the "interruptions". I personally like these sorts of things as they make a novel much more interesting generally, and if the story is well written (and in this case, Goss writes very well), this kind of writing techniques never bothers me. However, I was listening to the audiobook version, and the narrator did an awful job with these commenting parts. She never left a short pause between the regular flow of the story and the comments of the characters. So it took me a (short) while to get used to the structure (i.e. the jumps back and front), which would have been easier I guess if I had read the physical text itself.
Speaking of the narration, it was pretty bad. Not 'bad-bad', but certainly not too enjoyable at all. Other than that comment fiasco I have mentioned, the narrator seemed to have hard time to invent convincing voices, mainly for the male characters. I don't mind if narrators don't come up with different voices for all the characters, but it is very annoying when you can tell their struggle and sweat to do so.
Being Hungarian, I was especially tickled by the frequent mentioning of Budapest (although not in a good context), and pleased to find out that Goss is Hungarian-American.
All and all, I don't mind reading this, and honestly, I am curious how the story goes on, however, I am not sure I will pull out the second part soon.