Review--Swans by Petra Aeron Lohmann

[khudecek]

2 Stars...

This book isn't that long, which is something to be thankful for, and it took me three days to read it. I read a 400+ page book in less than twenty-four hours before I read this one. The difference was simple. One book was great. This book couldn't hold my attention. But I did finish it.

I had a hard time following it at first but once I got into the rhythm of it, it went better. I liked the background story between Fernie and Andes. It was important to the rest of the story but after the two of them met up again, things got convoluted because I could tell Andes was in love with her and she was so flaky or stupid or something, she didn't see it. It wasn't like she had any love or felt any allegiance to her husband for reasons that are revealed later in the story.

The timeline was messed up, too. 12 months ago, such and such date in September. I finally got frustrated enough to where I didn't care anymore and blew by them. I got into the present without even really realizing it.

There are a lot of insightful lines in the story which earned it the two star rating. Fernie coming home to her father was quite moving. Other than that, I didn't really feel anything between her and Andes. I thought she was flaky, stupid and self-centered. I liked Andes although I wondered if he ever divorced his wife.

Now onto the technical stuff.

I have been reading books since I was four years old. I am now 50 and never in my life have I seen a book where all the dialogue was done in italics. I don't know why that irritated me but it did.

I don't mind languages in books that I don't know as long as they're translated in a timely fashion which doesn't mean, "Buenas noches[good night]". I think the translation could have been artfully written into the story. I'd never seen that before, either. There were numerous misuse of words and misspellings which really did detract from the story and were annoying. Properly placed commas would have been a nice touch, as well.

Overall, the story is dry with a few high points and excruciatingly long. I thought I'd never get to the end. The insightful lines kept it going for me.