Dark and Deepest Red by Anna-Marie McLemore- ARC Review*
Why hello there, curious soul.
In March I read Anna-Marie McLemore's latest release. It was my first book by this author and... well, I was a bit disappointed.
Flowery writing as promised? Check.
Deadly Red Shoes? Intriguing.
And that's about everything that kept me reading until Chapter 28.
Well, listening to the audiobook, that is.
To be fair, I did not know much about the story.
I was not aware this was a retelling of Hans Christian Andersen's fairy tale The Red Shoes (which I may actually look up now, because it sounds fascinating);
I had pretty much heard of the author and wanted to give them a chance based on their latest release- my going-into-books-blind technique is not working out for me lately, but then again I don't believe I could have predicted I wouldn't connect to this story either way.
Because in the end, that's what it was.
Neither the plot nor the characters held any intrigue for me.
There were multiple perspectives, time jumps (from present day to the 1500s and back), the lot.
And still, I kept checking out of the story all the time.
Blogger Victoria from Victorious Pages warned me that this would happen in her detailed review, which I would highly recommend whether you've read the book or you are considering picking it up. Not enough time to spend and connect with any of the characters. To briefly quote her:
"[...] the story itself, it just lacked the spark I hoped it would have."
Why didn't you listen, then? you may wonder.
Because I was enamoured by the cover, eager for the luscious writing style I was promised and very interested in supporting an own-voices author in the LGBTQ+ spectrum, as there is a trans boy character featured in this novel, which is why I wanted I picked this up in the first place.
I chose to listen to the audiobook, which was a good production with multiple narrators; however, perhaps the writing style that I was not accustomed to plus the constant time lapses affected my focus and interest.
I am keenly listening to a couple of other audiobooks at the minute, though, so I don't think this audio was my issue here.
I do not mean to put anyone off McLemore's books since I myself will be reading more from them in the future. Nevertheless, our first meetup was not a match made in heaven.
And that's it from me, love! Till next time! 💋
Come chat with me in the comments:
- Have you read any books by Anna-Marie McLemore?
-Listen to the Dark and Deepest Red audiobook with a 2-month FREE trial on Scribd*
2 comments
Better luck with the next book ❤️
ReplyDeleteThankfully April is looking like a better reading month in general.
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