PopCo

Two stars purely because this could have been great.

I desperately wanted to love this book. I wanted it to live up to the blurb - to be full of intrigue and code breaking and maybe a quest. I wanted it to take a journey like that in Mr Penumbra's 24-hour Bookstore.

And it started out well - the first few chapters started to lay out the sort of story I hoped for. But after that, the original plotline felt lost, with so many avenues unexplored (what happened to her father? How would the coded messages progress?).

Then it got worse, and morphed into the book that wasn't about a quest or codes but rather thinly-veiled argument for homeopathy and veganism, which didn't really lead to any character development or, well, point.

I think this book could have been something decent, but it feels as if the hippy-dippy tangent was the main point of the book, with the actual plot just a device to carry it and lure people in, particularly as the ending is thoroughly unsatisfying to the point that it feels like an afterthought, an “Oh yes, what was I saying?”

What a let down!

I hate writing reviews like this, but this book was a total snooze fest, I slogged through all 464 pages hoping there was going to be a pay off, and well, it never came. The characters were boring and one dimensional, the storyline was all over the place and preachy (and I usually don't mind a little preach), I will say the cryptanalysis and maths stuff was pretty interesting, but not enough to make up for the rest. All in all this just wasn't my cup of tea.