I wanted to love this so bad.

I don't think i hate it. But also, I think the plot lost me in all of the descriptions and short stories. The thing is, I see the hype, I appreciate, I get why people love it… but it didn’t hit me. Especially the ending. And as someone who believes that endings make or break a story, endings are important to me.

What I liked: the beginning, the quote-worthy lines, and Zachary. I did really enjoy the short stories individually (albeit sometimes more than the actual plot). I had a lot of people telling me the ending was worth it but I am so sorry but the ending was a real let down for me.

I was really led to believe that this was going to pull together to create one giant headspace of whimsical world where dreams and stories existed. But so many of what happened… just felt like it had no point. I thought this was going to say more. I started this and finished it in the span of a year and remembered the plot because honestly— half of this book are short stories. I appreciate how it connects in the end but it really was not worth it because I couldn’t get into it enough. Erin Morgenstern’s story formats are probably just really not for me.

However, my main problem was how the “magic” was used in this book. I’m fine if magical realism books don’t fully explain their origins/system, but it needs to feel intentional in the story and not used as an escape for every problem that comes up. Most of the magic that was used was just to get them out of problematic situations without establishing what the rules even were. It just so happened that there was always some magical-out to everything and those don’t work for me.

“Fate still owes me a dance.”

Just like how Fate owes me some of the time I spent reading this book for the past year.

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