2024 Reading Challenge

2024 Reading Challenge
Jill Elizabeth has read 1 book toward her goal of 285 books.
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2023 Reading Challenge

2023 Reading Challenge
Jill Elizabeth has read 5 books toward her goal of 265 books.
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Book Review: Archibald Finch and the Lost Witches

I’m so disappointed… I really liked the way this one started. But then, ugh.

The one thing that drives me crazy is when a book in a series just stops. “To be continued” is not how you end a book – it is how you end an installment program, where the next installment will be along any minute now. Unless the new book intends to be published and released within days of the first one, to end something in the middle of the action with a “to be continued” feels like short – changing the reader.

Don’t misunderstand: I have no problem with cliffhangers. I don’t need everything to be wrapped up in a tidy bow. But the story you are reading in a volume of a series should have some closure when it ends. Storylines carrying over to the next book are not a problem. But to me, going from a very long and involved narrative with very detailed world-building and slow-building action and plot lines, to yanking the main character out of the detailed scene he was in and throwing up a “to be continued”, leaves me feeling lost and irritated and unfulfilled…

It colored my earlier impressions of the book, which were generally positive-although I do feel there was an awful lot of detail in an awful lot of places that kept the action from moving forward… The world-building here is fantastic – I do not mean to knock that at all. But as Archibald’s adventures in Lemuria carried on throughout the book, I actually found myself wanting to skim some of those chapters and move ahead to the action back in London – because that was actually more engaging to me.

I also didn’t get to see any of the cool illustrations I’ve seen referenced. I listened to it on audio book. The narrator was fantastic and definitely kept me in the story where another narrator might have seen my attention flag more.

As a result of all this, I am not sure if the series is for me on the whole or if I will follow through with the next book. But seriously – how incredible is that cover?? It’s enough to draw you in – and if all of the series books were published, none of my criticism might apply. So maybe the trick is to wait to read these until they’re all available…

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for my obligation-free review copy.

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