READ: Flora Reviews… Hannah Green and her Unfeasibly Mundane Existence by Michael Marshall Smith. PDF, EPUB online free reviews.

Flora Reviews…

Hannah Green and Her Unfeasibly Mundane Existence by Michael Marshall Smith

Read: 20th – 24th July 2017

Format: Kindle

My Goodreads Rating: 3 Stars

So, before we get into what I thought about this book, I want you to know that I was lucky enough to be given a digital version of this book for free from the publisher (Harper Fiction) after making a request via Netgally.com in exchange for an honest review. The publication date was 1st June 2017.

Thanks for the advance copy.

…So what’s this book about?

Hannah Green and Her Unfeasibly Mundane Existence is a standalone novel of approximately 369 pages. I feel that the story is a good paranormal or fantasy tale that would happily sit in the young adult genre due to the lack of 18+ content, it features various demon types alongside our human characters all set in our modern world.

If you’ve read any of my reviews before, you’ll know, I don’t post spoilers of any kind or reveal any plot twists in my book reviews, so here’s what the official blurb has to say about the story:

There are a million stories in the world. Most are perfectly ordinary.

This one… isn’t.

Hannah Green actually thinks her story is more mundane than most. But she’s about to discover that the shadows in her life have been hiding a world where nothing is as it seems: that there’s an ancient and secret machine that converts evil deeds into energy, that some mushrooms can talk — and that her grandfather has been friends with the Devil for over a hundred and fifty years, and now they need her help.

…So, what did I like about it?

Michael Marshall Smith is a new-to-me author and I found some of this story surreal at times, quite lyrical, philosophical and even satirical and I did enjoy it. The story was not what I was expecting; less urban fantasy more paranormal fiction.

There are some beautiful pieces of prose in this book and I found the story gripping; I was intrigued as to where the plot would take us next.

I liked the way the story unfolded; how the plot was revealed and the way we gradually saw how the characters were connected. Our host of characters were given a similar treatment; their personalities and histories were revealed progressively throughout the tale, which meant that your feelings towards them could change depending on the information you learned about them. Is it wrong that my favourite character was the Devil?

…So, ummm, was there anything I disliked about it?

Ok, so there were some aspects of this book that hindered my enjoyment.

The first part of this book felt very slow; I understand that the plot, characters & world needed setting up but I was very close to giving up.

There is quite a bit of nonsense mantra that appears throughout this story e.g. you can’t change your brain but you can change your mind. Pieces of wisdom that at first glance appear enlightened but on closer inspection are utter BS and mean nothing.

Finally, our heroine is an eleven year old girl and I got a bit frustrated with her world view point a couple of times but I understand her innocence and naivety are pivotal to the plot so I soldiered on regardless.

…So, basically what I’m saying is…

This is a good novel; I enjoyed it. I requested this book from NetGalley thinking it was an urban fantasy tale; it is not. I would recommend this book to fans of paranormal mysteries and as our main character is an eleven year old girl, I can confirm that the content (e.g. language, dramatic scenes, etc) would be PG rated due to the lack of graphic blood, sex and swearing although I would suggest that the target audience is older owing to the tension and thriller aspects of the story.

So, has my review of HANNAH GREEN AND HER UNFEASIBLY MUNDANE EXISTENCE encouraged you to find out more? Just click on any of the links below to check out the book yourself, find out more about the author or to see the books I’ve read, take a look at my profile on Goodreads.