Review of The Golden Manuscripts: A Novel

[Therese Castrogiovanni]

[Following is a volunteer review of "The Golden Manuscripts: A Novel" by Evy Journey.]

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3 out of 5 stars

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The Golden Manuscripts: A Novel has all the makings of a potentially thrilling read: cross- country adventure, stolen art, historical ties, and a will-they-or won't-they romance tease. I think the core idea of this book is great. The story switches between the point of view of an art student who embarks on a quest to uncover the truth about specific artwork stolen during WWII as part of her graduate thesis, and the soldier who stole the artwork at the end of the war. However, the book falls short of achieving the type of exciting readability that popularizes this genre of literature. It feels like the author is unable to find a balance between causal and scholarly syntax, which often results in sentences that are either grammatically clunky or completely incorrect. This was really distracting from the plot itself. Additionally, it felt like some parts of the book were painstakingly spelled out, rather than letting the reader glean information from context clues.

I believe that an excellent writer shows rather than tells the reader what is happening. I think if the author had done more of this, I would have been much more engaged in the book. I would have been interested in more of a twist at the end as well, as the ending felt anticlimactic, almost like it was an afterthought to the main events of the story. It also seemed like the historical aspects of the book never truly connected to the present-day storyline, so I would have appreciated some kind of concrete revelation that tied the two parts of the plot together.

I rated this book a 3 out of 5 for a few reasons. I was interested in the storyline itself and the book was a fairly easy read. However, I was unable to give this book any additional points due to the lackluster execution of the plot and distracting writing style.

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The Golden Manuscripts: A Novel
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[Violet Devreaux]

I absolutely felt the same about the show, not tell rule! That was a major issue with the writing.