Link to synopsis: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/25573977-the-readers-of-broken-wheel-recommend
Hello there,
After almost a year of not really reading anything, I finally found the time to complete a novel. I really enjoyed this book which sits squarely in the genre of “a book about books”. So far, I’ve had mixed luck in this genre, but with this book, things are looking up. I enjoyed The Collected Works of AJ Fikry but not Mr Penumbra’s 24 hour Bookstore.
While this book has lengthy discussions about the power of books, there are plenty of human interactions as well. This is partly due to the large number of characters, which then made it difficult sometimes to remember who was who. I did not personally encounter this problem, but some others on Goodreads did seem to take an issue with this. I was personally intrigued by the human relationships portrayed in the story. Another plus was that I really enjoyed the scenes set in and around the bookshop.
Even though it was an enjoyable read for me, there are points which may be a turn off for some. A possible deal breaker was the fact that the story weaved in spoilers for real-life classics. The spoilers were not central to the story which made some readers even more frustrated. I found this to be a good thing though, as those token mentions did not hinder my enjoyment of the book. While I retained none of that “spoilery” information, there were some readers online who wished they had been given a warning as they had not yet read those classics. If you are one of them, I would recommend not picking up this book. (Spoilers to at least the following books: Bridget Jones’s Diaries, Jane Eyre and The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo)
One negative point that I have is that the ending was super weird and abrupt. I don’t think I’ve read an ending quite like that before. It reminded me somewhat of the ending in Alienated by Melissa landers. However in this case, TROBWR is forgiven as the story was more about the journey anyway.
That’s all I have to say about this book. While looking around for other people’s reviews of this book, I came across a negative review which had an update where she changes her mind somewhat after her interview with the author. Feel free to pop over for a look if you’re interested.
