Wilkerson crafted a stunning debut with rich layers of character development. The narrative alternates between a more contemporary (but still in the past) timeline where two estranged siblings meet for the reading of their mother’s will and unexpectedly learn life-changing truth from a story their mother recorded and left to be played after her death which forms the other timeline. I appreciated the way that
Wilkerson wove the timelines together revealing the secret along with the depth of the characters. This review feels inadequate for the book and my experience with the narrative. I will chalk that up to my inexperience with reviewing literary fiction. This book is excellent.
This book tried to take Grimm fairy tales and make them dark but managed only to muddle it up and make it weird. The characters lacked a lot of depth. The main pairing was not believable at all on the male character’s side. The plot events felt contrived. I’m not sure why I finished – probably because it read quickly – but I did. I will not continue the series and I, obviously, do not recommend it.
Mere days after finishing this book, I struggled to remember anything distinct about this narrative. Unfortunately, every work I have read from Zhao I have enjoyed a little bit less than the one before. I was engaged through the read but disappointingly nothing stuck. I hate “having” to unhaul yet another gorgeous edition.
The Die Hard franchise has never really appealed to me so a book sold as a gender-bent fantastical Die Hard was a hard sell for me. Having never seen any of the movies but knowing the overall idea, I can say that that’s a valid comparison. Like the book I reviewed just prior, I’m not sure why I continued reading because I knew early on that I would not rate this book higher than 3 stars. It read easy enough and is not a bad book. It’s just not the book for me.
Wow.
I did not expect this sci-fantasy book to completely wreck me. When I try to come up with words to review this book, everything falls short. This book – a debut! – uses tropes of science fiction and fantasy to thoroughly explore the deep and complex ways that grief fundamentally alters a person. The narrative brought me to tears several times. After finishing, I had to sit and stare at the wall for
a while to process everything and for a while afterwards, I could not help but say out loud a variety of ways – some incomprehensible – just how good of a book I had just finished. READ THIS BOOK!
After reading the first book, I kept the series on my TBR tentatively. After reading this middle installment, the series remains in a similar status although I likely will pick up the conclusion this year. While Lawrence’s writing does not wow me, he has a strong technique which bodes well for the intricate, highly complicated plot weaving its way through the trilogy. I greatly appreciated the “the story thus far” recap which helped
prepare me to reenter this world. If you enjoyed book one, book two will not disappoint.
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