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mh_books's Reviews (1.12k)
Intriguing title, brilliant premise and lousy execution.
Like most people I have seen the book several times in bookshops and well yes, it is fascinating to look at. Such weird and wacky antique pictures! However, it is still commanding rather a large price even in paperback so I acquired this through audible, where I have an annual subscription. That was a big mistake but more of that below.
Before I commenced reading, I understood the book has had some rotten reviews from friends on Groodreads and I was prepared to be accepting of plot holes. I started “reading” while traveling home from Berlin. It was not bad, actually I quite enjoyed the story, it was quaint and wacky kinda like Harry Potter on acid. However, when we move location to Wales ARRGH. The narrator seems to think that the Welsh accents sound like some weird Cockney Accent (that’s a London accent for those not in the know) and then he tried a Scottish accent even though the character was Irish. Thinking about it I realised that the dialogue he was reading was some kind of weird amalgam of American and what Americans often believe to be “British” slang. Whatever happened to writing what you know ? if you are unware of the local dialogues of a region in the world please do not set your story there and make your major characters from these regions.
The plot holes where starting to jar and overall it was so badly written so I gave up about 90% through the book and moved to Sue Monk Kidd’s The Secret Life of Bees instead. The rest is History.
The two stars are for the story concept as it is brilliant and I suspect the Movie is going to show off how great the Novel(s) could have been.
Like most people I have seen the book several times in bookshops and well yes, it is fascinating to look at. Such weird and wacky antique pictures! However, it is still commanding rather a large price even in paperback so I acquired this through audible, where I have an annual subscription. That was a big mistake but more of that below.
Before I commenced reading, I understood the book has had some rotten reviews from friends on Groodreads and I was prepared to be accepting of plot holes. I started “reading” while traveling home from Berlin. It was not bad, actually I quite enjoyed the story, it was quaint and wacky kinda like Harry Potter on acid. However, when we move location to Wales ARRGH. The narrator seems to think that the Welsh accents sound like some weird Cockney Accent (that’s a London accent for those not in the know) and then he tried a Scottish accent even though the character was Irish. Thinking about it I realised that the dialogue he was reading was some kind of weird amalgam of American and what Americans often believe to be “British” slang. Whatever happened to writing what you know ? if you are unware of the local dialogues of a region in the world please do not set your story there and make your major characters from these regions.
The plot holes where starting to jar and overall it was so badly written so I gave up about 90% through the book and moved to Sue Monk Kidd’s The Secret Life of Bees instead. The rest is History.
The two stars are for the story concept as it is brilliant and I suspect the Movie is going to show off how great the Novel(s) could have been.
