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amocat560
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Comments by amocat560
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3.75 heading towards 4

That might change. I’m still thinking on it. At times I really loved the book. At others, I got a bit restless. I’m generally not a huge fan of the letter-as-a-wrap-up and I didn’t love it here either. This really did put you into the whole place and time of the novel. While I wasn’t yet born during the story’s setting, it was brought alive to me in the pages of this book.

4 days • 2 Likes
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I generally liked it but there were moments that had annoyed enough to question the whole book. Moments that should not have happened with supposedly brilliant characters; moments that made me sigh and go “here we go again”; moments that were just a little past suspension of disbelief. These moments brought the book down from great to just good.

2 months • 1 Like
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Wasn’t one of the better Agatha Christie books I’ve read, not that I’ve read a lot of them. I finished it a month or so ago and forgot to list it. I can’t really remember much of what I thought of it.

3 months • 1 Like
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3.5

This was a very readable book. The beginning was a bit slow but once it got to telling the kids’ stories, it picked up. I’m not a huge fan of the gore but the story was fascinating. At times book was still very hard to put down. At others, I wanted it to “hurry up and get there”. The entire time I was reading it, I was thinking it would make for a good limited tv series. Not sure it that’s a good or a bad thing.

2.5

It’s taken me some time to put into words my thoughts on this book. In the beginning, I was quite enjoying it, for the most part. The premise was neat, the setting was someplace I’ve actually been and the story was different. Some of the characters were sort of questionable and at times, the story seemed to slow to a crawl but I acknowledge that my attention span has been exceptionally poor for some time now so I try to give more benefit of the doubt on pacing. Still, while I wasn’t loving it, I was truly enjoying it. It was fun. I was imagining things I might do if I had such a book. Then, about two thirds of the way through, came the chapter which addressed the origins of the book. That’s where it all fell apart for me.

I didn’t care for the chapter- it was jarring, (and not in a good way) both stylistically and narratively. I didn’t care for the origin explanation-

Come on. Cassie wrote the books? Why? She wasn’t enough of a main character, you had to have her literally write and spew all of these books into the world? All throughout history? Because her friend died? Nothing about this makes any sense.

The chapter annoyed me enough that I seriously considered shelving the book. I didn’t and the end was serviceable, I suppose, but the enjoyment was gone; the magic and the whimsy were explained away. The story didn’t *need* to say where the books came from. The explanation certainly didn’t need to go where it did. After that, things just seemed more contrived, like the story was forced into coming full circle rather than organically arriving there.

3.5

The story was good. Sometimes it was very good. Other times it was a bit drawn out. There were a few implausibilities but I could go along with them. One thing I’m not generally fond of, though, is when books have duelling timelines. I’m not saying it’s always a mistake, or it can never work. It’s just not usually something I care for. You get invested in what’s happening only to be unceremoniously dumped into the future. You get going there then sent back to the past.

3 months • 1 Like
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2.5

This one got worse as it went on. It makes sense now, finding out that it started out as a Reddit short story. If I’d read it there, it would have been a decent story. Paying for it, expecting a legitimate book, it was disappointing. Kind of like going to the movies expecting Superman but getting Superman 3.

It was okay. But the more I think about it, the worse I seem to think of it.

First off, I went into it expecting an Agatha Christie-like mystery. It was not. It wasn’t even much of a mystery for much of it. Soap opera, sure. Mystery, not so much. We don’t even get to know who the victim is until the final quarter of the book. And there were moments that just don’t make sense. Editorial errors. Like when a character leans down to look a blindfolded character in the eye. And when the wind and the storm suddenly die, (“the storm had blown itself out”) only for characters to not be able to hear each other over the wind again.

It was fun enough, I suppose. But most of the characters are absolutely unlikable and with all of the points of view and back-tracking, it takes so long to get the the actual situation at hand that by the time things finally reveal themselves, I didn’t find I cared all that much.

Ehh. It wasn’t as good as I expected. It was okay. The reveal was kind of disappointing and rendered some earlier behaviour a little… implausible. Actually, quite a bit of this was. (Yes, I know.) But even a fantastic story has to play within its boundaries and this one just didn’t.

I’m sure I’ve read this in the past and I’m sure I liked it then but I had a hard time getting through it this time. It took me a lot longer than I care to admit to finish it. It just wasn’t holding my interest. In fairness, I have had a hard time staying interested in a lot of things of late so I’m not sure this is a fair assessment.

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