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A review by lizshayne
The Book of Love by Kelly Link
challenging
dark
reflective
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.5
I liked this book a lot and also I wanted to love it and mostly just...liked it.
What Link does so well in her short stories is make fairy tale logic operate in the real world in a way that keeps the latter under the auspices of the former. What frustrates me about this book is that I'm not sure that fairy tales were meant to be 600+ pages long. Some of that might be that Link exceeded the amount of time I was willing to be confused before the plot kicked in and some of it might just be that she's an exquisite short story writer and a good novelist.
And yet it's weird and so much of it is wonderful and the structure fascinates me and yet I still didn't adore it the way I wanted to.
What Link does so well in her short stories is make fairy tale logic operate in the real world in a way that keeps the latter under the auspices of the former. What frustrates me about this book is that I'm not sure that fairy tales were meant to be 600+ pages long. Some of that might be that Link exceeded the amount of time I was willing to be confused before the plot kicked in and some of it might just be that she's an exquisite short story writer and a good novelist.
And yet it's weird and so much of it is wonderful and the structure fascinates me and yet I still didn't adore it the way I wanted to.