Review of Aurelius
Posted: 18 Jan 2022, 08:59
[Following is an official OnlineBookClub.org review of "Aurelius" by Ariel O'Suilleabhain.]
Ariel O'Suilleabhain's novel Aurelius is about a little Irish girl named Aibrea'n who grows up in the Alaskan tundra in the 1960s. It describes her day-to-day activities and travels. The book delves into her relationships with her family and how they shape her outlook on life. The novel is a work of fiction, yet it is informed by the author's real-life family.
The concept of the book appealed to me. The idea of depicting the life of a little girl growing up in the Alaskan wilderness was fascinating to me. I admired Aibrea'n's independence. She appeared to be extremely capable of assisting her father with his fishing business. Her love for her family shined through in the story, which I found really touching.
The episode with the pocket watch was one of my favorites. It felt like a passage from A Midsummer Night's Dream, which I rather loved. The author added an unexpected twist with the mystery of the Russian man, which I believe added to the story's allure. I was intrigued by the mystery surrounding the origins of Aibrea'n’s family, and I wish it had been explored further in the novel.
I enjoyed how the narrative started with her as an elderly woman reflecting on her life. I was pleased to see her large family, which included great-grandkids because I felt she had had a full life.
However, I found the sentences to be too wordy. This made the book more difficult for me to read since I could not always figure out what the author was trying to express. The author should, in my view, have changed the length and structure of the sentences. Using a combination of long and short sentences would have substantially improved the reading experience and avoided a monotonous tone. The sentences also had a lot of repetition. Some sections included large amounts of text that were difficult to read.
I rate this book 2 out of 4 stars because the construction of the sentences made it hard to read. However, I would like to point out that, despite the difficulty of the sentences, grammatical mistakes were few. This work, I believe, would benefit from the assistance of an editor, particularly when it comes to sentence structuring. I would recommend this book to youngsters aged 12 to 15 years old because they would be able to relate to the main character, who is of that age.
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Aurelius
View: on Bookshelves | on Amazon
Ariel O'Suilleabhain's novel Aurelius is about a little Irish girl named Aibrea'n who grows up in the Alaskan tundra in the 1960s. It describes her day-to-day activities and travels. The book delves into her relationships with her family and how they shape her outlook on life. The novel is a work of fiction, yet it is informed by the author's real-life family.
The concept of the book appealed to me. The idea of depicting the life of a little girl growing up in the Alaskan wilderness was fascinating to me. I admired Aibrea'n's independence. She appeared to be extremely capable of assisting her father with his fishing business. Her love for her family shined through in the story, which I found really touching.
The episode with the pocket watch was one of my favorites. It felt like a passage from A Midsummer Night's Dream, which I rather loved. The author added an unexpected twist with the mystery of the Russian man, which I believe added to the story's allure. I was intrigued by the mystery surrounding the origins of Aibrea'n’s family, and I wish it had been explored further in the novel.
I enjoyed how the narrative started with her as an elderly woman reflecting on her life. I was pleased to see her large family, which included great-grandkids because I felt she had had a full life.
However, I found the sentences to be too wordy. This made the book more difficult for me to read since I could not always figure out what the author was trying to express. The author should, in my view, have changed the length and structure of the sentences. Using a combination of long and short sentences would have substantially improved the reading experience and avoided a monotonous tone. The sentences also had a lot of repetition. Some sections included large amounts of text that were difficult to read.
I rate this book 2 out of 4 stars because the construction of the sentences made it hard to read. However, I would like to point out that, despite the difficulty of the sentences, grammatical mistakes were few. This work, I believe, would benefit from the assistance of an editor, particularly when it comes to sentence structuring. I would recommend this book to youngsters aged 12 to 15 years old because they would be able to relate to the main character, who is of that age.
******
Aurelius
View: on Bookshelves | on Amazon