Review of The Bridge

[Anaise Silvestri]

[Following is a volunteer review of "The Bridge" by Andrew Palmer.]

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4 out of 4 stars

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The Bridge is a historical novel written by Andrew Palmer. It is a story about Ben, a misguided engineering student who is paired with Esther, another engineering student whose assignments he has been plagiarizing. These two begin researching the tragic events behind the Quebec Bridge disaster, and the novel takes an interesting turn when their modern era is interchanged with the Victorian era through a journal belonging to Alec Durand, one of the men who worked on that bridge. Alec’s journal contains details of his life that led to him working on the bridge, and the events that transpired during the Quebec Bridge construction. It is through this assignment that Ben and Esther begin to see the world differently.

There are many things I liked about this book. The description was beautiful. The narration of both timelines flowed. The fact that there were barely any grammatical errors made this novel an amazing read. I couldn’t find anything out of place. I normally don’t enjoy some historical novels, but this was constructed so well that I was glued to the story from start to finish. How the workers interacted on the construction site was precisely done, and it was beautiful how the author detailed the jobs of each construction worker. I learned quite a number of things thanks to this. I am also fascinated by the cover. It is mostly what determines my attraction to a book at first glance. The cover is very simplistic, and that is the charm. The background used is not just pleasing to the eye, but reflects what the story is about. This, besides the font used for the text, makes it beautiful.

I couldn’t find anything to dislike about this novel. It was near perfect and the characters were very interesting to read about. Ben was an original character. I haven’t seen many like him in other novels. But Esther came across as a stereotype. Her character is in a lot of teen fiction novels. Despite that, I still found her realistic because so many people out there are like her. But the major difference between her and the others I’ve come across is that she is given so much depth, and it was refreshing seeing things from her perspective. She wasn’t just a nerd; she had reasons and motivations for the way she behaved and how she saw things… even though some of them were flawed.

Alec was my favourite character out of them all. I particularly enjoyed reading his story the most. He was such a sweet man, and he brought out a lot of emotions in me while I read. He made me angry, sad, disappointed, annoyed, and happy. This just showed how much effort Andrew Palmer put into creating all his characters.

I rate this novel 4 out of 4 stars. It had my full attention, and every piece of the story fell into place. The novel has a few mild profanities, but you can still enjoy the story as they are used sparingly. There is also mild sexual content, but it’s so subtle you can glance through it without missing the main bits of the novel. The harsh reality of the world was well ingrained in this book. Ben and Esther learned of this through Alec’s life experience. It turned out this book was more than just an entertaining story.

I would recommend this book to people who enjoy reading historical novels. Students can also find a lot to gain by reading it. The Bridge is professionally edited and is based on true events that happened.

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The Bridge
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[Lennox Kuyokwa]

The book was well reviewed with careful use of right words.