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etienne02 's review for:
There are a lot of things to say about this book and honestly I’m not so sure where to start. First of all this book was proposed to me as a Mystery/Crime genre which is isn’t in any possible way. There is a crime, two actually, at the beginning and then… we just don’t hear from it anymore until the last third of the book, and it isn’t that important in the story. So a crime yes, a mystery no and nothing in term of police work or investigation.
When you put the bad genres behind you, the book have some qualities. It’s written well enough, with good fluidity and super easy to read. There is some French expression in there, which was alright for me because my first language is French, but for English reader it could have been a good idea to had some bottom pages notes to help them understand, but I really like those French expression, I find they had a little something. There is also a intrusion in the theatre world, a world we don’t see that often in literature and even if I don’t know how good it was put in place, since it’s a world I don’t know much about, this add, again, a little plus value to the story. There were some cultural references to theatre, but also to music and poetry, I love when an author does put references in his works to make the reader discover others works or art from his reading. The main character is also very interesting. We follow her from her early age and as far as advanced adulthood (don’t want to be too specific for not spoiled anything…). This character is very well developed, deep though by moment, some less glorious, but it’s a character that I will certainly remember for some time and that is an achievement in itself by any author to make those fictional characters real enough that you get emotional close to them and remember them after closing the book. That character development may be the strongest point of it all! There is also a lot of subject cover through the story, art, love, homosexuality, suicide, drugs use, anxiety (a bit), and more.
I told you that the genre was not was I expected, it’s in fact a LGTQIA romance novel (mostly, and some more literature part with the development of Mary has a person), with some emphasis on lesbian sexes scenes which by the way (not that I know a lot about) seem really unrealistic in the way they started (God those women get into it fast!!), and unfortunately those scenes didn’t bring anything good or relevant to the story. There were also a lot of importance add to clothing, apartment, money… those thing we often find in romance. That definitely wasn’t the best part of it.
It’s hard for me to rate/review this book. If I had know it was a romance and not a mystery/crime, I would never I’ve read it, I don’t read romance, If you ask me to rate this book has a mystery I would give it 1/5 start because it isn’t one. But if you ask me to review it has a book, forget about the genre and everything, I think it deserve a fair 3/5. The writing, the settings, the characters (not that original and unique, but very well put in place and developed) are really well done. The basis was there, just exchange those romance parts and switch them with mysteries/crime elements and it could have reach 4 out of 5.
It may have try to cover too much ground, too much genre, and it also may have used a bit more editing to be a really good book. But depending on your interest and favorite genre, this could, or not, be worth looking at!
When you put the bad genres behind you, the book have some qualities. It’s written well enough, with good fluidity and super easy to read. There is some French expression in there, which was alright for me because my first language is French, but for English reader it could have been a good idea to had some bottom pages notes to help them understand, but I really like those French expression, I find they had a little something. There is also a intrusion in the theatre world, a world we don’t see that often in literature and even if I don’t know how good it was put in place, since it’s a world I don’t know much about, this add, again, a little plus value to the story. There were some cultural references to theatre, but also to music and poetry, I love when an author does put references in his works to make the reader discover others works or art from his reading. The main character is also very interesting. We follow her from her early age and as far as advanced adulthood (don’t want to be too specific for not spoiled anything…). This character is very well developed, deep though by moment, some less glorious, but it’s a character that I will certainly remember for some time and that is an achievement in itself by any author to make those fictional characters real enough that you get emotional close to them and remember them after closing the book. That character development may be the strongest point of it all! There is also a lot of subject cover through the story, art, love, homosexuality, suicide, drugs use, anxiety (a bit), and more.
I told you that the genre was not was I expected, it’s in fact a LGTQIA romance novel (mostly, and some more literature part with the development of Mary has a person), with some emphasis on lesbian sexes scenes which by the way (not that I know a lot about) seem really unrealistic in the way they started (God those women get into it fast!!), and unfortunately those scenes didn’t bring anything good or relevant to the story. There were also a lot of importance add to clothing, apartment, money… those thing we often find in romance. That definitely wasn’t the best part of it.
It’s hard for me to rate/review this book. If I had know it was a romance and not a mystery/crime, I would never I’ve read it, I don’t read romance, If you ask me to rate this book has a mystery I would give it 1/5 start because it isn’t one. But if you ask me to review it has a book, forget about the genre and everything, I think it deserve a fair 3/5. The writing, the settings, the characters (not that original and unique, but very well put in place and developed) are really well done. The basis was there, just exchange those romance parts and switch them with mysteries/crime elements and it could have reach 4 out of 5.
It may have try to cover too much ground, too much genre, and it also may have used a bit more editing to be a really good book. But depending on your interest and favorite genre, this could, or not, be worth looking at!