A romantic, historical retelling of classic Gothic horror featuring Edgar Allan Poe and his character Annabel Lee, from a New York Times best-selling author.
Summoned to her father's home in 1820's Philadelphia, a girl finds herself in the midst of a rash of gruesome murders in which he might be implicated. She is torn romantically between her father's assistants-one kind and proper, one mysterious and brooding-who share a dark secret and may have more to do with the violent events than they're letting on.
I received
an ecopy of this book via Edelweiss in exchange for an honest review.
I loved Jessica's Hollow series, so I'm very sad that I didn't enjoy this one. This is not a bad book, by any means, I just felt very indifferent to the story in general.
This book has a very interesting idea. It's hard for me to elaborate without spoilers, but I loved the twist, even if I saw it coming, and I thought that it was a very interesting way to retell, in a way. I was a bit uncomfortable with Poe being a character, as I always when a real person is a character, especially as a love interest, but, sure, it works for the story. My main issue with the book is that it didn't feel like it was well-developed. A majority of the characters just felt flat to me and the story is very draggy. When the story does get interesting, everything exciting happens in only a few pages. The romance also felt flat to me, mainly because the love interest was flat and the romance was an insta-love.
As far as Annabel goes, I was not the biggest fan of her. I was annoyed at her at times. She was constantly trying to get her father to accept her, who was a complete jerkhead, and would consider it failure when he was a jerk to her. She was also told repeatedly not to wander at night or see Edgar, but what does she do? Exactly that.
Now, the ending. The ending felt abrupt, like a cliffhanger, so I'm very confused by this, because this book is currently listed as a standalone. I'm not very happy with the ending if this is indeed a standalone.
IN CONCLUSION
Like I said, the very idea behind this book was very interesting. I liked the mysterious aspect and how things tied together, but the story and the characters fell flat. Annabel annoyed me and I was not a fan of the ending.
I won't let this deter me from the author's other books, I know that she's a great writer, so if she writes something else I'll still check it out.
As far as recommendations go? I don't really recommend it. It's not a bad book, but if you want a good, creepy historical retelling, check out The Madman's Daughter.
I hereby give this book
2 Wheels
Meaning: It was okay.
I do have a copy of The Madman's Daughter. I think I'd read that instead of this one. Too bad that this didn't live up to your expectations. Maybe the next book you choose will wow you :)
ReplyDelete~ Dre @ Sporadic Reads