Scan barcode
A review by pewterwolf
Bottled Goods by Sophie van Llewyn
3.0
Review is Taken from The Pewter Wolf. Novellas was given by publisher via NetGalley in exchange for honest review.
I've fallen into a big of a reading slump. So when the co-author of the Witch's Kiss trilogy, Katharine Corr, said I should try reading a novella, this was one of the titles that caught my eye...
Set in communist Romania in the 1970s, Bottled Goods follows Alina who, after her brother-in-law defects to the West, she and her new husband become people of interest to the secret services. As this strain takes root in their marriage, Alina turns to her aunt for support, not her mother...
The story held my attention, even though am going through a reading funk. I really liked the writing styles, which is the main reason why I kept reading (though I do have faults, which I will talk about later). In Bottled Goods, each chapter's writing style is different from the previous - first person, third person, diary entry, list, first person of one chapter, first person of a second chapter, third person. It always had something happening. Each chapter ended with a cliffhanger of sorts so, of course, I had to keep clicking on my kindle to find out what happened next.
But because am in this reading funk, I did have problems. Problems I would normally get over very quickly, but in this mindset, all I could see were these problems. With Bottled Goods, I do think it's the style of writing, how each chapter changed how it was written. I liked this, but it does take a little while for you to get use to. Plus, when there were two chapters told in first person but from two different chapter and you have no indicator of who it is in the chapter title, it's throws you out a little bit.
Plus, it's magical realism. I love a good magical realism. But with Bottled Goods, the magic element comes quite late in the story, and with the story's blurb hinting that it's there from the start, it got annoying waiting for it to come and, when it did, it was a side step. I do wonder on if the magical element was completely removed from Bottled Goods, if the story would have still worked (barring one element, I think it might have).
I did like this, don't get me wrong, I did. But because of my reading frame-of-mind at the moment, am super nit-picky. Maybe if I reread these in the future, these won't bother me so much, but it was nice to read something not over 300 pages long and yet still packed a punch, which this did.
I've fallen into a big of a reading slump. So when the co-author of the Witch's Kiss trilogy, Katharine Corr, said I should try reading a novella, this was one of the titles that caught my eye...
Set in communist Romania in the 1970s, Bottled Goods follows Alina who, after her brother-in-law defects to the West, she and her new husband become people of interest to the secret services. As this strain takes root in their marriage, Alina turns to her aunt for support, not her mother...
The story held my attention, even though am going through a reading funk. I really liked the writing styles, which is the main reason why I kept reading (though I do have faults, which I will talk about later). In Bottled Goods, each chapter's writing style is different from the previous - first person, third person, diary entry, list, first person of one chapter, first person of a second chapter, third person. It always had something happening. Each chapter ended with a cliffhanger of sorts so, of course, I had to keep clicking on my kindle to find out what happened next.
But because am in this reading funk, I did have problems. Problems I would normally get over very quickly, but in this mindset, all I could see were these problems. With Bottled Goods, I do think it's the style of writing, how each chapter changed how it was written. I liked this, but it does take a little while for you to get use to. Plus, when there were two chapters told in first person but from two different chapter and you have no indicator of who it is in the chapter title, it's throws you out a little bit.
Plus, it's magical realism. I love a good magical realism. But with Bottled Goods, the magic element comes quite late in the story, and with the story's blurb hinting that it's there from the start, it got annoying waiting for it to come and, when it did, it was a side step. I do wonder on if the magical element was completely removed from Bottled Goods, if the story would have still worked (barring one element, I think it might have).
I did like this, don't get me wrong, I did. But because of my reading frame-of-mind at the moment, am super nit-picky. Maybe if I reread these in the future, these won't bother me so much, but it was nice to read something not over 300 pages long and yet still packed a punch, which this did.