It took us a while to pick a book for our planned read along. We just couldn’t find a book that appealed to both of us. After what seemed like an eternity, we stumbled upon this one. Everything about this book practically screamed out that it would be an enjoyable read, yet the end result was a completely different story. As usual though, my impatience and curiosity got the better of me and what should have been our first read along, turned out to be a solo read. Needless to say, Puffs wasn’t too impressed with this. It is yet to be revealed whether or not we will embark on a future read along together. The ball currently resides in Puffs’ court for that one. But anyways back to the book itself…
The overall foundation and concept of the story was amazing. Having four different Londons that all operated in varying realities only to be similar in name was brilliant. The way that magic had been portrayed was well thought out and very different to how I normally envisage it in books. In short, the overarching concept of the story was simply brilliant and could not be faulted. However, despite the base ideas being on a high level, the delivery of those was on a somewhat simpler level entirely.
Allow me to explain. As the story developed and the plot started to thicken, it felt that there was something substantial missing from the whole book. Let’s start with the characters. There was a superficial quality about both Kell and Lila, which made it incredibly tough to connect with either of them. Although Kell had been portrayed to be skilled, clever and layered. However, this never really properly came through in the pages, given the mystery of his past being unexplored. There was no character development, which was surprising given that Kell was one of the main protagonists. Kell definitely had a likable quality about him but unfortunately the most interesting thing noteworthy was perhaps his coat (as sad as that is to say).
There is no denying that I was pleasantly surprised to find that Lila was a strong female lead who had her own skill set, ambitions and was not constantly on relying upon Kell as a male rescuer. Yet, something about her pure rudeness and reckless decisions was annoying. There were moments that had me rolling my eyes excessively. I wanted to like Lila but something was stopping me. As it was with Kell, there was no sense of a deeper character development to help us readers to understand the minds of the protagonists. In the end, I can’t say that cared about either of them enough, nor manage to connect with them on a deeper level.
“I’m not going to die,” she said. “Not till I’ve seen it.”
“Seen what?”
Her smile widened. “Everything.”
The way the twins were depicted was in a way just ridiculous. There was something exaggerated about both of them that made them seem a little over the top, almost like a spoof of a villain. It was hard to take them seriously and needless to say, I failed spectacularly in doing so. The motive for their devious plan was not properly explored and as a result, did not make sense.
The use and aspect of magic could have also been further explored and made more explicit. It was unclear whether anyone can wield magic and if everyone has some essence of magical potential that needs to be practiced and harnessed. But I’m guessing that this is potentially explored in later books and for now with the groundwork having being laid.
The plot started off well and had that sense of intrigue and mystery as Kell made his way through the three Londons, highlighting the limited similarities and vast differences between each one. And then the disappointment kicked in hard and fast. I can’t say I liked the idea of the stone, which was the centre point of the plot. The ending was somewhat anti climatic and felt rushed altogether. There was no intensity.
In a nutshell, this was a disappointing read, made more so disappointing because the premise had been promising but the execution was lacking especially from a character perspective. Feeling detached from the characters was probably where the book let me down the most. Sadly, the story didn’t intrigue me enough to continue with the trilogy.
Ciao ciao,
Saz
P.S. The witch hated riding her broomstick on a cold night. She just went out for a short spell 🙂
Bookish ruminations 