Official Review: The Wondrous Apothecary by Mary E. Martin,

[Storm+]

[Following is an official OnlineBookClub.org review of "The Wondrous Apothecary" by Mary E. Martin,.]

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3 out of 4 stars

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Mary E. Martin’s The Wondrous Apothecary tells the story of renowned artist Alexander “Alex” Wainwright as he attempts to collaborate with his friend and nemesis Rinaldo. A conceptual artist, Rinaldo uses a variety of different mediums to reveal the dark side of human nature, whereas Alex’s paintings attempt to do the opposite, ultimately serving as a way for him to portray the light that suffuses even the most ordinary situations. Despite their obvious differences, Rinaldo is insistent that joining their artistic styles is the only way to provide each artist with what they have always been missing. However, when Rinaldo is accused of attempted arson and the theft of Alex’s most recent painting, he is sent to a mental hospital to determine if he is fit to stand trial. In the process, he catches the eye of a cruel doctor determined to “cure” his so-called mental illness by bringing back the horrific and antiquated practice of electro-shock therapy. Trapped and terrified, Rinaldo must find a way to escape in order to secure his literal and artistic freedom, something he has no hope of accomplishing without Alex’s help.

The greatest strength of this novel is the fact that all of its characters are extremely interesting and wonderfully engaging. Not only are all of the characters in this novel beautifully complex, but they also achieve a level of depth that is rare in novels with so many compelling characters to contend with. Furthermore, I loved that every event that occurred within the pages of this novel had a clear purpose and contributed to the overall flow of the plot. Each event or conversation transitioned smoothly to the next event or conversation; in fact, this is the sort of novel that a reader could easily get caught up in, reading from cover to cover without even noticing.

Unfortunately, there were still a few things that I found disappointing about this book. For instance, a lot of the dialogue felt rather unnatural. At times, the conversations taking place between characters came across as too formal, and it often felt as though the author was attempting to use characters as nothing more than a way to give information to the reader. While this was likely the case in some instances, there are ways to use natural conversations to subtly give readers needed information. Further, there were a variety of spelling and punctuation errors sprinkled throughout this book, which. ultimately, made for a lot of awkward sentence constructions and made the book harder to read.

Still, I would recommend The Wondrous Apothecary to anyone with an interest in art or fantasy. However, I would not recommend this book to younger readers or people who might be triggered by descriptions of violence and/or the use of profane language.

I decided to rate The Wondrous Apothecary by Mary E. Martin 3 out of 4 stars. Although I found some dialogue and all of the errors to be very frustrating, the author was able to make up for much of it by telling such an interesting and engaging story. After one more round of edits, I believe that this novel would easily be worthy of 4 stars.

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The Wondrous Apothecary
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[Mrunalpatki]

Seems like a unique story to me and like you mentioned strong characters always make a good book. Your review justifies the rating and recommendation. Thanks for the review.

[Nonso Samuelson]

Rinaldo and Alex sound like two parallel lines, artistically speaking. Why they tried to work together would be interesting to read about.

[hasincla]

Definitely an interesting premise for this book! I think I would like the friendship between the two artists, but I'm not sure I could handle all the errors and misspellings. I'll pass on this one, thank you for your honest review.

[Kachi_Ejiogu+_]

I like that the writer was able to develop the characters effectively and engage the reader by continuously making them interesting. Excellent review.

[AvidBibliophile]

A renowned artist, his nemesis, a sparky touch of arson, AND some antiquated electroshock therapy?! Now that sounds like a good one indeed. Thanks for providing such an insightful review of this title!

[Adanna Inya]

Rinaldo and Alex are like two parallel lines that should never meet. But in this case, they probably can't live without each other. This sounds like an interesting and intriguing book.

[Laurina Michael Olowoniran]

Sounds like a good novel that needs some help and it would stand out. I love how you tell the story in this book, beautiful.

[Ediomis_Enwongo01]

The interesting and engaging story in this book is as a result of the good character development especially between the two artist. This gave rise to the flow of thought, the errors notwithstanding. Good review.