Selia
asked:
This book irritated me from the first page. Did anyone else find that the writing was grating and clunky? It is a book about getting lost in books and finding meaning in them, yet it felt like a first draft of a novel written in junior high. I could not for one minute forget that I was reading a book and bond with the characters. The concept was fabulous; the writing and plot executive were painful.
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Liz
I have to agree with the questioner, the writing wasn’t very good. Ironic as the book is, in part, about some lovely written books!
Judith
No! Nothing about the writing irritated me while reading this book, & I'm a real stickler on style (my #1 reason for DNF!) I even skimmed back over it & still don't see what you found "grating & clunky." As a former English teacher, believe me it doesn't read like anything ever written in Junior High! The book summaries could get tedious, & reaching for connections to the characters a little heavy handed at times, but that's plot not writing style, & certainly not "painful?!"
Maggie Deutsch
I know what you mean about the writing, it was lacking in depth and subtlety - it was just a straightforward recounting of what was supposed to be happening or spoken. It was a feel good tale (despite severe mental health and a suicide!) and was the book equivalent of a Netflix Romcom.
Karen
I felt there was no sense of 'atmosphere' in the novel. For example, the characters go into detail about the 'atmosphere' in the book 'Rebecca' but I didn't has a sense of the setting in this book.
Charlie Fisher
Sadly, the writing did not match the idea, which was intriguing, but didn't work anyway in my opinion (as I explain in my own review). The most believable of the characters were the siblings, but character development was very thin. One minute we have a stroppy teenager hating her summer job in the library, the next we have the same person recommending good books to others. So no, the writing was not good enough to enable me to bond with the characters and really get into it.
Lady Willpower
I liked the writing overall, except when Mukesh visualized the characters in his daily life. That was a little corny and a bit of a stretch. Mukesh's connection to the books was most effective when he saw classic characters in people he knew and loved.
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