Book Review | November 2018

Better late than never, but I did read a couple of books in November and I just hadn’t gotten around to reviewing for you just yet. I completely forgot to take pictures and with the dark days, I can’t really take any pictures later in the day. However, I tried my best and I hope you can still get a good idea of what the covers of these books looked like. Here are the books I read last November.

Book Review November 2018

In November I read 4 books and some of them were quite big too. I had a major slump in October where I didn’t finish any books and the reason for that slump, I finally finished in November. And once I got through that, I was on a roll and I read book after book for a few weeks in a row. The result? I may not hit my goal of reading 50 books this year, but I am still on track for getting to 45 and if I do that, I will be have read more pages compared to last year. Go me!

Sarah Perry – The Essex Serpent

Cora is a well off lady in Victorian London, whose cruel husband dies of illness. Finally removed from the burden of being a wife, she moves to the countryside, excited by the possibilities that her new life might bring her. Together with her son who seems to be autistic and her socialist housekeeper, she moves to Aldwinter in Essex. The town is terrorized by tales of the Essex Serpent and Cora is eager to find the beast to prove that it is a fossil come to life. In her search she meets Will, the parish reverend who believes in no such serpent.

Let’s just address this book for what it is: the reason for my slump. To be honest, this book sucked me in because of the cover and the promise of this search of the mysterious Essex Serpent. Sadly, this book didn’t deliver on the excitement and in fact was more of a slow-burning character study of two lovers of opposite views and their surrounding loved ones and friends. The book was very slow-paced, the character uninspiring and the setting was uninteresting. This book sounded like a good one, but in the end the large cast of characters meant the story never really had a solid focus and the characters themselves that should then drive the story forward, did no such thing. This book was incredibly lackluster.

Oscar de Muriel – Loch of the Dead

Frey and McGray are back! This time they are asked to help protect the heir of a fortune. In order to do so, they need to travel up north, far into the highlands of Scotland where they meet the Koloman family. And while they seem very pleasant, they are also quite mysterious at the same time. When the boy’s protector is brutally murdered and the local constable ends up dead too, they know that something is amiss. It only gets better from there.

I knew that after that disappointing read, I would have to get back into something I would love. The Frey & McGray series by Oscar de Muriel is one of my favorites and this is the fourth book in the series. I have been reading all of these books in the course of the past year and I love the Victorian Scottish setting, the characters and the plot lines. I love how each of these books alludes to supernatural mysteries, but at the same time finds explanations in scientific discoveries of the time period. These books are smart, fun and just a solid read. If you are into detective series set in the Victorian time period, then you will certainly like these.

Leigh Bardugo – Six of Crows

Kaz Brekker is the most notorious burglar of Ketterdam. When he gets a proposition to do the heist of a life time, that will change his life forever, he doesn’t need a second thought and gathers a rag tag band of crooks that will help him to get the prize. For this, they need to venture into foreign territory and kidnap someone from one of the most secure prisons in the world. Sounds like a tough task? It is, but that doesn’t mean that they cannot make it work. As long as they can work together.

Set in the world of the Grisha trilogy by the same author, I had high expectations of this book. And it delivered. One thing I had to get used to? The fact that the setting is a fantasy version of 17th century Amsterdam with canals, lots of Dutch words and character names. That one threw me off for the first 50 pages or so. But once I got used to it, it worked and I loved how the plot was weaved together. The plot twist at the end was a tad predictable, but this book just contains characters you want to love.

Leigh Bardugo – Crooked Kingdom

After the first book, Kaz Brekker and his team find themselves smarted by the elite forces of Ketterdam. Back in town they are now even more notorious as a collective that should not be messed with. But Kaz wouldn’t be Kaz if he wouldn’t try to get his revenge. In an intricate plot he not only goes against the powerful men that rule Ketterdam, but also needs to face the demons of his past.

The second book of this duology was my next read. I was so invested in the first book that I knew I wanted to go straight into this. This book gives you more back story of each of the characters and that makes you root for them even more. This book also introduces some characters to the earlier series and of course there is an exciting plot that makes you want to read and read and read. I read this book in a day, despite it being over 500 pages long. Yes, it was that good. I love these two books more than I loved the original series. I only wish there would be more books in this series.

What have you been reading?