The Book of Love

This was so painful.

My spouse recommended it to me because of how much I loved “The Magicians.” There are comparisons, sure: problematic characters, modern day magic, sex... but man, The Book Of Love is easily the worst book I've read in years. 

I've heard of unreliable narrators before. I'd describe this book as an “unreliable author:” it is filled with characters who lie to one another about how magic works, or what magic requires of them, so we get dozens or hundreds of pages of red herrings that have nothing to do with the overall story.

This could be acceptable if we had more than a few characters who weren't so despicable that I wanted to simply skip the chapter when their name came up. I've enjoyed books with despicable characters before, but the thing that made these characters unbearable is high school drama. (If I have to hear about who got kissed during the kissing song one more time, I swear...)

I was told that the ending would be worth it. It's not. Not at all. The author simply makes up stakes in the last hundred pages that were never alluded to or foreshadowed, and then resolves them in a few pages.

This book is like a pretentious art school dropout who's high trying to describe a dream they had a few nights ago.

Ugh. What an irksome, aggravating, wonderful and beautiful book. I can’t say it was always a joy to read, but it always gave me joy to keep reading, and I know that makes no sense but in many ways neither does the book so nyah.

A lot of my hot buttons in this one: handwavey, superpowerful, how-convenient magic, with completely unexplained rules and equally unexplained inconsistencies. Soul-hurting lookism, where everyone is just so damn attractive. Appalling cruelty. Multiple forms of the amnesia gimmick (the Project Hail Mary and Seven Moons of Maali Almeida type, where protagonists start out not remembering the vitally important and you-might-think-memorable events that led to their predicaments; and also the You Will Forget This Ever Happened mesmerism stuff, both equally cheesy). And, sigh, the one character I related to—the one with the strong moral code and sense of responsibility, who is skeptical and wary of the magical elements, who simply tries to be invisible and do some good—is derided almost nonstop, called boring and more, not just by other character in dialog but even in the author’s own narrative voice.

But.

But, dammit, the author herself is in on it. The characters themselves get irritated at the magic. They vent frustration over the cruelty, and draw frustrated but reasonable parallels to the random cruelties of natural forces. They invent workarounds for their amnesia. Every time you think Link is being sloppy or lazy, she gently winks and lets you in on the joke. But it’s not a farce; not even close. It’s exquisitely smart. Much more importantly, Link understands kindness. She really, really understands it. And cruelty, and love. And she doesn’t overdo any of them nor does she get preachy. Partway through I realized that, magical gimmicks aside, this is purely a book about choices and seeing and caring. It really is a book about loving. And I could go on for hours more, but just go read it.

Thanks to Libro.fm and the publisher for the alc!

This is such an intriguing, twisted, magical, snarky, romantic, wtf moment novel and I am here for it. It's made all the more fill in the blank by January LaVoy's brilliant narration. It is long as hell but I was happy to be along for the ride.

I wasn't sure whether Kelly Link's magic would work in long (or ultra) long form, but I found this wildly successful while being true to the genre that is unique to Link. Rather than read a Link book linearly or narratively, you have to pay attention to the puzzle of how you feel when characters talk about coins or doors or rabbits or wolves or structural racism and follow that feeling to figure out what's actually happening.

Perhaps as a necessary concession (although a move I found kind of disappointing), Link places three info-dump chapters roughly evenly throughout the book to literally catchup anyone for whom creepy vibes are insufficient explanation. Each of these follow an exposition that takes the narrative in an expansive dimension, opening up the story from the part that proceeded it. I found the first two thirds of the book wildly successful proceeding in this way, and the back third a little too conventional, while still quite good.

Overall, the book reminded me a lot of the best of Dianna Wynne Jones, where you start to believe that anyone could secretly be anyone else, while also being Loki and while you're unlikely to guess right, you're rewarded for being skeptical about fixed identity.

I also found the book thematically successful as well as tonally so. The major themes of the book: the structures that we take for granted even when they don't work for us, and the magically mundanity of love of all forms were deeply seeded throughout the book without being overpowering. A lot of the negative reviews weren't prepared for the balance between epic plot and quiet meditations on the power of relationships and identity and change, but that's what made the book so worth it for me.

Full RTC (maybe) as soon as I can organize my thoughts about this unique 700 page fantasy novel. For now I want to celebrate the fact that, within those multitudinous pages, author Kelly Link, a freakin' MACARTHUR GENIUS GRANT winner, doesn't condescend, mock, or otherwise cast aspersions on romance novels. In fact, a main character's grandmother is a bestselling romance novel author, and Link occasionally ties romance novels into the plot in an intelligent, thoughtful way.

Kelly Link is my new hero, and those snooty literary types who look down their noses at my favorite genre can fuck all the way off.

One night three friends, Laura, Daniel and Mo, suddenly wake up in the music room of their high school with their teacher, Mr. Anabin. They soon discover that they've been missing for almost a year, dead, and have been temporarily returned to life. In order to stay alive, they agree to several magical tasks. While they attempt these tasks they can take their lives back up, and no one will remember that they have been missing. But only two will win this contest and stay alive.

But life has moved on for the people that were left behind, and the three friends struggle to settle back in amidst some pretty big changes, all the while trying to complete their tasks and solve the mystery of their deaths. They aren't the only ones interested in the outcome though - there's something, and someone, far more powerful that is watching and waiting. And the outcome will affect not just these teenagers and their families, but their entire community.

I'm giving this book 3 stars, which for me equates to “I liked it, it was fine.” I think if it hadn't been a staggering 640 pages, I might have rated it higher. At times I felt like the story was dragging, and yet, I'm not entirely sure what could have been cut. I don't usually like magical realism because it starts to feel too nebulous and, at times, pretentious, but that isn't an issue here. The writing is frankly beautiful, and it is very atmospheric. The characters are well written, complex, and highly believable. The main characters are teenagers dealing with some unbelievable events, angsty, messy, sometimes unlikeable, but you find yourself rooting for them because really, who can blame them? At times I felt like this book was too slow, but at the same time, we get to know the characters so well because of how much time we spend with them. They are exceptionally unique and memorable. And this book is truly about the characters and their relationships. (And I just have to say that my favorite character is a tie between Mo's grandmother and Daniel's sister Carousel. I love Carousel. If I ask you what is the first thing you would do if you got magic, and you don't say ‘turn myself into a glittery flying unicorn' then why are you lying?)

I'm not entirely in love with the title. Although love is certainly a theme here, and the driving force behind many of the events, it doesn't really seem to capture what this book is.

In the end, this is an atmospheric, beautifully written, slow burn of a book. A group of teenagers struggling to figure out who they really are, which is a story we can all relate to. It is whimsical, fantastical, and vivid, and I think the only thing that really put me off was the slow pacing in combination with the sheer length. If that's something you look for, then I believe you will love this book.

Thank you to NetGalley and Random House Publishing for the advance copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.

I had to force myself to finish this book - all 640 pages. The writing was beautiful, but there was absolutely no story until the last 1/3 of the book. I almost bailed on this book several times, but I kept thinking that it must be building towards something. Right??

I think that this might have worked as a short story or novella.


Thank you NetGalley and Random House Publishing Group for the advance copy in exchange for an honest review. All thoughts expressed are my own.