Scan barcode
A review by sjj169
Fallen Land by Taylor Brown
2.0
I feel like it took forever to finish this book. It's completely written in beautiful language but I felt like that very language just tried too hard. I think [b:Cold Mountain|10920|Cold Mountain|Charles Frazier|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1442416348s/10920.jpg|1006369] and some of [a:Cormac McCarthy|4178|Cormac McCarthy|https://d.gr-assets.com/authors/1414695980p2/4178.jpg] books are written in that same style so it may be that these types of books just aren't my genre. I'm including several passages from the book in this review to give an idea of the way it is written. I'm sure it will sell thousands and millions of copies because it completely bored me.
This one starts with a very young (around fifteen year old) Callum. He is riding with a group of soldiers after coming to America as a orphan, he had taken up being a horse thief to make his way and fell in with this group.
Then he finds Ava........
Ava has a nightmare time with that same group of soldiers and Callum leaves them to "save" Ava. He ends up with the two of them being hunted across the "fallen land." They are crossing the south during the last points of the Civil War, trying to get to one of the coastal cities where Callum remembers some relatives being.
Some smexy times happen:
Callum snorted through his runny nose. Then he turned his head and pinched the bridge of his nose and blew a thick tail of snot onto the trail.
"Careful your brains don't go missing," said Ava.
I'm poking fun there but there was never a connection with these two characters for me. There should have been because the book is mostly about them, but it's mostly just...
Get on the horse.
Ride the horse.
Be cold and hungry.
Get back on the horse.
It's cold and we are hungry.
There are a lot of these types of passages:
He listened closely for the rumor of hooves on the wind from the north. Listening so hard for danger seemed only to invite the hearing of it. There was the faintest thunder he may or may not have heard. He first thought it was coming downwind from the way they'd come, but the wind was swirling in the meadow and it could have come from the direction they were heading. Or it could be nothing.
So the book never connected for me. I did finish it because I was hoping for something to happen that would save the entire book. But nope. Boring times abound.
Callum slipped off the horse and walked to the edge of the road and sat. He stared, disbelieving, for a long time. He could hardly breathe, like the fire had sucked the air from the night. This was beyond hell, beyond any biblical image of torment. This was real, and it was happening as if it happened just for them.
Booksource: Netgalley in exchange for review
Sandra's review here gives the book five stars, that goes to show that two readers can look at a book differently and that's fine. Not everyone loves the same things.
This one starts with a very young (around fifteen year old) Callum. He is riding with a group of soldiers after coming to America as a orphan, he had taken up being a horse thief to make his way and fell in with this group.
Then he finds Ava........
Ava has a nightmare time with that same group of soldiers and Callum leaves them to "save" Ava. He ends up with the two of them being hunted across the "fallen land." They are crossing the south during the last points of the Civil War, trying to get to one of the coastal cities where Callum remembers some relatives being.
Some smexy times happen:
Callum snorted through his runny nose. Then he turned his head and pinched the bridge of his nose and blew a thick tail of snot onto the trail.
"Careful your brains don't go missing," said Ava.
I'm poking fun there but there was never a connection with these two characters for me. There should have been because the book is mostly about them, but it's mostly just...
Get on the horse.
Ride the horse.
Be cold and hungry.
Get back on the horse.
It's cold and we are hungry.
There are a lot of these types of passages:
He listened closely for the rumor of hooves on the wind from the north. Listening so hard for danger seemed only to invite the hearing of it. There was the faintest thunder he may or may not have heard. He first thought it was coming downwind from the way they'd come, but the wind was swirling in the meadow and it could have come from the direction they were heading. Or it could be nothing.
So the book never connected for me. I did finish it because I was hoping for something to happen that would save the entire book. But nope. Boring times abound.
Callum slipped off the horse and walked to the edge of the road and sat. He stared, disbelieving, for a long time. He could hardly breathe, like the fire had sucked the air from the night. This was beyond hell, beyond any biblical image of torment. This was real, and it was happening as if it happened just for them.
Booksource: Netgalley in exchange for review
Sandra's review here gives the book five stars, that goes to show that two readers can look at a book differently and that's fine. Not everyone loves the same things.