rating: 2 of 5 stars
Hmm. This book was a challenge. I *did* enjoy it to some extent. I know this sounds stupid but the format (hardback) made it very inaccessible to me. I read at night in bed and this book was heavy! It made it feel a bit of a chore. Having said that, I did this think the overall story was exciting – just far too long. Kate Mosse’s prose is not what you might call succinct or economic. Where you could describe it in 5, she uses 20, to the point where I felt a little insulted as a reader (I must have thought ‘alright, I get it’ several times). I know it doesn’t help that I am on a creative writing course at the moment so I am sensitive to flaws (my writing has plenty of them!). For all the verbosity, I felt the characters lacked emotional truth which ulitmately meant I didn’t really care about them. I just wanted to get to the end to see what happened. What I did like about the book was all the culturally rich description of the French setting – it was a very vivid picture she painted – just a shame that I didn’t have an emotional connection to it too.
all five horizons
I know what you mean – really heavy hardbacks just aren’t user friendly.
I loved Labrynth (sp?) by her (though once again, not concise!), but must admit I have struggled to get into this one!
Hmm I would be reticent to pick up another book by her (especially while I have so much else to read!) but perhaps if I see the paperback, I might pick it up!