Abby's review
Last Rituals: An Icelandic Novel of Secret Symbols, Medieval Witchcraft, and Modern Murder
by Yrsa Sigurdardottir
Abby's review
Last Rituals: An Icelandic Novel of Secret Symbols, Medieval Witchcraft, and Modern Murder by Yrsa Sigurdardottir
Abby's review
rating:
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dnf
I was really keen on this book when I started it, but as the narrative progressed, I got more and more disenchanted. By the time I was about 150 pages in, I just didn't care anymore. I think the biggest obstacle was the language. It read like a case study of what happens when a great novel gets a poor translation. The dialog was very straightforward, without idiom, or anything else to liven it up and make it seem like real people were speaking. Instead the characters came off as prudish and wooden. I hope if this author gets published again in the US, they find her a better translator. The charm of Iceland is all there, it's just not reflected in the dialog.
