The Book That Wouldn't Burn

Hoo, boy! The Book That Wouldn't Burn by Mark Lawrence is a chunky audiobook listen - 22 hours and change (do I admit that I started listening to it at 1.25 speed about halfway through?) about a city with a vast library that we discover has a chamber at its centre that connects to other versions of the library in other versions of the city.

We follow Livira, a young girl from 'the dust', who ends up apprenticed at the library, against the wishes of the elite. We also follow Evar, a young man who lives in one chamber of his version of the library with three other young people who were trapped in 'the mechanism' at different times and then all got spat out at once, only to discover they're the only people left and they can't get out.

There is a *lot* more to this book that I'm not going to go into here. Suffice it to say, there are layers upon layers, with quite a few really good concepts I hadn't come across before and quite a few I had, but that were pretty well done.

I liked both protagonists and was invested in both storylines, which is always a bonus with split viewpoint books. However, the brevity of the first couple of times Evar and Livira actually connect was really frustrating, as I kept thinking we were getting to the meat of the book and then it would go back to them being separate again. They both spend a lot of time alone (Evar more so, but it's a problem with both narratives), which made the pacing very slow in places. Overall, I would say the book could have been a third shorter and much more effective for it.

There was also a problem with character names (which, admittedly, was more of a problem because I was listening to the book, but still) - Mayland and Melan(sp?) were so similar that I kept expecting there to be a plot twist where they somehow ended up being the same person (but no), and then Malar being the mix didn't help either...

In terms of plot twists, there was one I totally saw coming and one I really didn't - and the second made an excellent point about demonising difference the trusting similarity (which is a major theme). But it also made everything so very much more complicated that I was reeling by the end (which really ramped up in terms of action after a very slow buildup).

I also didn't buy the romance at all. I saw it coming but I couldn't get on board with it, considering how old the two characters were when they met (20 and 11) and how time passed differently for each of them, which made them getting together a bit squicky in some ways...

That said, I was engaged, I was invested, I was intrigued - so it was a good book, though not compelling enough for me to want to read the next one.

The House of Fortune

I've read all of Jessie Burton's adult books and was very excited when I discovered The House of Fortune was coming out - though I don't actually know why. Looking back over my reviews, I've enjoyed all her books, but not to the point of raving about them - so I'm not sure why I keep getting so excited about her releasing another one.

Still, after putting it off for quite a while, I finally allowed myself to buy some new books and The House of Fortune was top of the list of ones I wanted.

I started reading it straight away and discovered it's actually a sequel to The Miniaturist, which I hadn't previously known. So, we rejoin Nella, Otto and Cornelia in the big house in Amsterdam, coming back into the story on Thea's eighteenth birthday. The story then follows Thea's explorations of love and Nella's machinations for her marriage.

It's a good book. It drew me in and kept me reading - though it did feel in places like rather a retread of The Miniaturist. It also seemed as if there was no tension surrounding the secrets being kept from Thea about her origins, as any reader of The Miniaturist would already know all the details of that...

In the midsection, it all started to feel a bit dreary and the mid-point plot twist was wildly predictable. Then there were heavy similarities to Marianne's arc from Sense and Sensibility in Thea's story, though it did diverge quite dramatically again before the end.

That all sounds quite negative - but it was the continuation of Nella's story that really kept me engaged, and its conclusion (intertwining very satisfactorily with Thea's) left me pensive and contemplative - in a very good way.

Burton's writing is always excellent, her characters are layered and the world she presents is vivid and immersive. Her stories aren't exactly jolly, but they have interesting things to say and I'm always glad to have experienced them overall. This one is about acknowledging that everything that has come before is the only route for you to have reached the present moment, then accepting things as they are and moving forwards with purpose. And that's a lesson all of us can use to our advantage.