My Five Word TL:DR Review : This book is a conundrum

This book is so difficult to write a review for.  On the one hand this is a really impressive debut with fantastic writing that I practically raced through, it has a fascinating story of otherworlds reached via magic keys that is captivating and then there’s a secret starlit city and a family curse.  Seriously, this book could be written just for me.  And yet. I did have a few issues.  Let’s not jump the gun.

In a nutshell, this is a story of the Everly family – cursed for years for reasons that are unknown, one member from each generation will be taken from the family.  A sacrifice – although, again, the nature of this is also cast in shadow.  Now, as the story begins we meet Violet and her brothers Ambrose and Gabriel. Violet has led a very sheltered life, her mother disappeared many years ago, her brother Ambrose is her main pillar, staying at the slowly crumbling family home to look after her whilst Gabriel seems to whisk in and out on fleeting visits, the nature of what he’s up to being incredibly vague.  Basically, Violet’s brothers have endeavoured to keep her existence a secret but apparently the truth will out and the very person they were hiding her from comes for a not so friendly visit. From this point onwards Violet’s life becomes something of a ticking bomb and in the absence of answers she eventually takes matters into her own hands in her own search for a cure to the curse.

My feelings for this book.

The writing is beautiful.  I loved reading this and will definitely be picking up more by this author. Her descriptions are quite magical and reminiscent of adventures through wardrobes and rabbit holes.  Really my cup of tea.

The idea of multiple worlds, accessed by magical keys, each one unique. A city of stars, set on a remote mountain topped by a tower with scholars bustling back and forth in search of answers.  What’s not to love.

And, we have two characters, you could call them star crossed, and a slow burning romance.

There are so many wonderful things about this book – but, at the same time, and this is why I mentioned this being a conundrum, I have slightly mixed feelings.

I had issues with the pacing.  Strangely enough I enjoyed the first half of the story much more than the second half – and this is unusual because the second half has plenty going on – in fact maybe too much going on and a kind of frantic feeling ending.  One part of me says, well, Violet was definitely on a timeline here so you would expect the tension to increase, however, she was flitting about all over, from place to place (or party to party) but it all felt a little bit pointless, like she wasn’t achieving anything, or she was always arriving just five minutes too late.  I simply didn’t understand what she was actually doing or how she came up with whatever trail she was following.  Similarly to what I mentioned about Gabriel above.  He’s constantly rushing about, disappearing into secret worlds, reappearing bloody and dishevelled – again, what is he actually doing.  I don’t know.

On top of this I’m not totally sure I bought into the relationship with Violet and Aleksander.  Other than that Violet has led such a sheltered life so the attention she received from Aleks perhaps overwhelmed her – I mean, I understand his motives, but I won’t mention them here.

The settings are primarily contemporary, with brief visits to other worlds and also the starlit city.

The other main character is Penelope, she’s the baddie of the piece.  What I would mention is I didn’t really understand why she skipped a generation, Violet’s mother was the sacrifice – she’s gone missing, so wouldn’t one of the two brothers now be chosen rather than Violet – who is the next generation.  Why did she give the family a stay of execution, why the extra ten years – why not just take what she believes she’s entitled to now.  It felt a bit like the baddie in a Bond movie, taking the time to tell 007 exactly how he plans world domination whilst at the same time giving him time to escape.  She had no reason to negotiate and given how she behaved for the rest of the story I think she would have just taken what she believed was her right.  But, then it would have been a much shorter book!

So, in a nutshell, I really enjoyed this book on so many levels.  I know it probably seems that I have a few criticisms but this was still very easy to read and entertaining.  I thoroughly enjoyed the writing and it’s certainly an impressive debut.  On the other hand, it without doubt has some plot holes, it feels like certain issues are whitewashed over so you just need to go with the flow and not question things too much.  For me, I do like answers so there is just a nagging feeling with this that something isn’t quite right. I feel like I’ve missed something – which is of course entirely possible.

I certainly wouldn’t discourage anyone from reading this – like I said, it’s a conundrum, I might have a feeling of not  really being able to fully explain things but at the same time I liked it – what more can I say.

I received a copy through Netgalley, courtesy of the publisher, for which my thanks.  The above is my own opinion.

My rating 3.5 of 5 stars