Title: The Book of Blood and Shadow
Author: Robin Wasserman
Release Date: April 2012
Published By: Random House
Pages: 352
Goodreads Rating: 4.30 stars
Review: In one terrible night, Nora's best friend's boyfriend is dead and her own boyfriend has disappeared and is being accused of murder. Desperate to prove his innocence, she and Adriane follow his trail to the ancient streets of Prague, where age-old secrets lurk in a manuscript, the Lumen Dei, that holds the power of infinite knowledge and communication with the Divine. Only Nora has the key to unlock it... if she lives long enough.
One of the most notable aspects of THE BOOK OF BLOOD AND SHADOW is the incredibly original plot, which you can see just from reading the synopsis. I don't usually request books from NetGalley that I haven't heard of before, but the summary just pulled me in, and the novel lives up to its intriguing premise. A book like this is very rare in YA lit, and I thoroughly enjoyed the concept.
Of course, it wasn't just the concept that was good. The whole book was made up of twists and turns, some of which had me honestly surprised at the big reveal. Naturally, I won't reveal what they are to avoid spoilers, but the character and plot revelations came especially heavily towards to the end, which I felt worked pretty well.
Unfortunately, though, I didn't enjoy this book as much as I wanted. I can't pinpoint a single reason why, but it just didn't hold my attention very well. I found myself drifting a lot while reading this, and had trouble focusing myself to the end. After about halfway through, I ended up counting pages, only stopping when certain intriguing twists occurred.
All in all, THE BOOK OF BLOOD AND SHADOW is a fantastic novel that just wasn't really for me. However, I'm sure that it'll be perfect for many other readers (and I don't say this lightly - it really just didn't work for me specifically). The premise is fascinating and the story is packed with suspense, as well as some major twists and turns. I'd recommend this to anyone who likes creepy or mysterious novels.
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I received a free copy of this book for review. This in no way affected my review.
1 comments:
Hm, it's too bad you couldn't figure out what about it didn't work for you. But sometimes it's about timing more than anything. We've read books (or watched movies) that we hated at the time, then went back and tried again later and loved. So who knows. {shrug}
Thanks for sharing your thoughts! We love the title, cover and concept of this book, so we're definitely keeping an eye on it.
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