When I set out to read a new work of fiction, I often choose
one of two ways:
- Straight up pick the book by its cover & blurb, which usually works out for me. Like the time I saw this edition of The Girl Who Saved The King of Sweden by Jonas Jonasson and decided I needed it. That was a great read!
- Or I read what I “should” – by that I mean that I look to see what the book bloggers are reading and make my decision that way.
In the words of Austin Powers, this book was not my bag, baby. The book’s blurb caught my attention, and with some critical acclaim for this and Mcbride’s debut novel A Girl is a Half-Formed Thing, I was convinced that I was making a good choice!
I was sadly mistaken.
I don’t think I got through more than 30 pages before I put it down because I just could not (and not in the good “OMG I JUST CAN’T” way).
Mcbride’s writing style has been described as a “stream of pre-consciousness”, which had me feeling very confused. It was very difficult to keep up with any of what was going on that I couldn’t even tell you what happened in the opening of this novel. It really felt like I was just reading groupings of a few words just pasted next to each other.
I thought it had to do with the concentration problems I’ve been experiencing through my recover and I had such a hard time figuring out what was even going on. I thought “hm if I continue another page or two maybe it will click… maybe it’s one of those books that’s dry at first but becomes unputdownable”.
……………I couldn’t even get myself to get through the first section of it. Even then, I wasn’t able to get anything from it.
My final verdict: Did not enjoy.
I was lucky enough to receive this book from Blogging for Books in exchange for an honest review.