Mani⭐️ > Recent Status Updates

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Goodness me this is going to hurt !

I love this book dearly and I know now for certain it is going to break my heart

In just a few pages this book has cemented itself as a favourite. Maggie O'Farrel is a master of language and imagery; I haven't read anything so eloquent and visceral in some time. My heart genuinely lifts as I read, I can't believe some of the sentences she's crafted. I admire her writing so so much.

I get it now ☹️

What the HELL have I just read and where can I read more 😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭

love the noble (mouse) Reepicheep and dear Eustace Clarence Scrubb (the pacifist Republican✨)

I've just remembered Ariadne's story. This entire time I've been reading I was so thankful my mind had completely blanked out her fate beyond what happened in the Labyrinth, but I've just realised who she is!! Which other famous story of hers I know! I can't believe I forgot, and I'm now so excited to see how Jennifer Saint writes it! This book is GORGEOUS. I can't put it down. It's an absolute triumph.

OMFGGGGGGJDAAAAAHAHDKSJHDGSFAGAHJSGDSALAGAGHHHHHHHGAAA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!?????????????????😭😭😭😭😭‼️‼️‼️‼️

I reeeeeeeally dislike books that describe sex in the most obscene way, seemingly just for shock factor. Animal's People was the same, lurid details that add nothing to the story but make you feel a bit sick afterwards 😭

Aaaaand it got weird. Very weird. Nothing is really progressing and the story isn't really going where I expected; it's quite boring unfortunately.

I don't think I've read a book quite like this. Close, similar, almost the same, certainly, but nothing just like it. I can't imagine it was easy to write, there are so many different perspectives, voices, styles of speech; yet it's done well. I'm enjoying it.

I was right! Absolutely flew through this, loved it so much. History, heartbreak, magic and womanhood. Beautiful 🦊

Absolutely loving this so far, it's so interesting. So much intrigue and mystery, I suspect there'll be some real twists ahead!

I was right! Absolutely flew through this, loved it so much. History, heartbreak, fantasy and womanhood. Beautiful🦊✨

Absolutely loving this so far, it's so interesting. So much intrigue and mystery, I suspect there'll be some real twists ahead!

'If I had been born under a different star, perhaps my fate would have twisted in another direction, but it was not to be.'

Oh no... my heart😭

I find myself falling for this book ever so quickly and I really can't believe it – I had slightly given up on that hope, though I always did hold onto it! I wanted to love it when I bought it, and I think now I might just be there✨

THIS is what I wanted!! Delicious descriptions of Everwood, of the sugar palace, the teeming market with magical wares, talks of a mysterious Grand Confectioner – I mean, the little gingerbread houses! It took very long to get into the meat of the story but I'm now so excited to see where it goes. Entering Everwood itself is what I thought rest of the book would have been like – we spent too long in Nottingham!

I'm struggling quite a bit with the dialogue here. Excessive vocabulary means that the full impact of what is being said is lost. For example, on page 75 – nobody speaks like this outside of fantasy novels! Each character speaks the same way. And as this is set in 1906 Nottingham, it just pulls you out of the text and reminds you it's not two 'people' speaking, but an author constructing a dialogue.

Unfortunately the author really won't use 5 words where 15 will do – it's as if each line has been revised to be said in the most complex way.

Every other line is a metaphor or simile, and while many are beautiful and clever, it more than often bogs down the text and makes it hard to wade through. The narrative is so slow and it feels like nothing's really happened because each line is steeped with description!

That's me done, I can't waste anymore time on this 😭

45 pages in and, despite having been mentioned numerous times, we are no closer to knowing what the significance of the 'dreams' is - or even clarification on them being in the bone marrow.

From reading other reviews it seems this doesn't ever actually get resolved; the plot continues to meander and not in any interesting direction, so a DNF it is :(

Page 43 - Girl gets caught outside their camp, MC says "Please don't let her be my cousin" so they can, you know, 'date'

Page 44 - THREE WEEKS later: "She made me feel like I needed to be a better person just through her existing"

Literally with the TURN OF A PAGE – has Dimaline never heard of 'show, don't tell'? It's lazy, honestly, I'm not feeling it and nor am I interested ..!

Incredibly slow, confusing and very very boring. I'm giving it another chapter or so and then, if it doesn't pick up, putting it down! I can't remember the last book I 'DNF'd' but this might be the one to break that record ://