Mata Hari by Michelle Moran

It is very rare that I abandon a book when I am so far into the story. Usually, if it didn’t grasp my attention, I’ll put a book aside within 50 pages. It might be harsh, but there are so many books to read out there that I don’t want to waste my time with books that aren’t for me. In the case of Mata Hari, I made it to 60% but couldn’t take it anymore and took the decision to give up.

I remember researching Mata Hari years ago, out of interest, but not finding an awful lot online. So when I realised Michelle Moran had published a novel about her, I was excited. I have read Rebel Queen by Moran, which is about Queen Lakshmi in 19th century India, and which I rated 4 stars. With that in mind, I had good expectations for Mata Hari. Oh, boy…

We are told that the novel is set in Paris in 1917 and that Mata Hari tells the story of her life to a reporter. At the point in the book where I stopped, 60% in, it was 1914 and Mata Hari had spent the whole book telling us about her life from 1904 onwards in the first person present, with flashbacks to her life before 1904. So I was quite disappointed. The story itself is mostly descriptions of what she does and her early shows, with not much world building. Actually, I was surprised at how short the book is – 288 pages for my edition. Historical fiction novels are usually longer, on average about 350 pages. I think in this case, the book needed to be fleshed out. There are very few descriptions that make 1900s-1910s Paris, Madrid or Berlin come to life. All we get is some name drops, like we’re told at some point that Mata Hari wears a Paul Poiret dress, for example.

The main character, Mata Hari, is annoying. The way the story is written is bland and I felt nothing for her, I didn’t root for her and didn’t care what happened to her. Which is why I stopped reading. I was bored out of my mind and didn’t care a iota for Mata Hari.

While Michelle Moran’s writing was great in Rebel Queen, I was sorely disappointed here. I don’t know if it is because there was very little time to write (Rebel Queen was published in 2015 and Mata Hari in 2016) or it was just a one-off from Moran. But in any case, I would avoid this book. If you are interested in Mata Hari, look elsewhere, like I will do myself.

The cheesy cover doesn’t do anything for me either, but that isn’t Moran’s fault!

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