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A review by claire_loves_books
Stray Souls by Kate Griffin
2.0
DNF @50%
I tried so hard with this book, I kept picking it up reading a few chapters and then getting bored/annoyed and putting it down, it took me over a week to get half way through! I really enjoyed the Matthew Swift books (I read them straight through in a day or two each and couldn't put them down) but this book really didn't work for me.
Each chapter seems to be written in a different style and from a different point of view, we keep coming back to Sharon's POV but it's also interspersed with chapters from the POV's of everyone we meet, with Monologues from the magical anonymous group, and everything is written in a different style, some of it's 1st person like they are talking to you, some of it's just 1st person, some 3rd person (both close 3rd person and distant 3rd person) and sometimes it's just about the city and wasn't particularly connected to any character. Personally I found this made the story feel disjointed and jumpy, every chapter seemed to break up the narrative flow.
It was slow going, the jumpy chapters that didn't move the plot forward (so many of them were providing background information without any sort of plot development), the characters have no idea what's going on and Sharon just seems to fall from one situation into the next, she's lost and doesn't seem to have a plan (neither did Matthew n the Matthew Swift series, but he was explosive, if he didn't know and didn't like what was going on he'd just get destructive, Sharon just seems to get more confused)
Sharon also isn't Matthew, both books are set in the same world- a slightly grubby London but where Matthew found beauty and majesty in the life of the city Sharon doesn't. Matthew is in a slightly dreamy state of wonder at the humans as they go through their life (both as a sorcerer and as a semi-non-human) but Sharon is human and without that sense of wonder the city just seems a bit bleaker, a bit grubbier and less magical.
Perhaps it's not fair to compare to another series but I really loved Matthew Swift and this was just such a let down for me in comparison.
I tried so hard with this book, I kept picking it up reading a few chapters and then getting bored/annoyed and putting it down, it took me over a week to get half way through! I really enjoyed the Matthew Swift books (I read them straight through in a day or two each and couldn't put them down) but this book really didn't work for me.
Each chapter seems to be written in a different style and from a different point of view, we keep coming back to Sharon's POV but it's also interspersed with chapters from the POV's of everyone we meet, with Monologues from the magical anonymous group, and everything is written in a different style, some of it's 1st person like they are talking to you, some of it's just 1st person, some 3rd person (both close 3rd person and distant 3rd person) and sometimes it's just about the city and wasn't particularly connected to any character. Personally I found this made the story feel disjointed and jumpy, every chapter seemed to break up the narrative flow.
It was slow going, the jumpy chapters that didn't move the plot forward (so many of them were providing background information without any sort of plot development), the characters have no idea what's going on and Sharon just seems to fall from one situation into the next, she's lost and doesn't seem to have a plan (neither did Matthew n the Matthew Swift series, but he was explosive, if he didn't know and didn't like what was going on he'd just get destructive, Sharon just seems to get more confused)
Sharon also isn't Matthew, both books are set in the same world- a slightly grubby London but where Matthew found beauty and majesty in the life of the city Sharon doesn't. Matthew is in a slightly dreamy state of wonder at the humans as they go through their life (both as a sorcerer and as a semi-non-human) but Sharon is human and without that sense of wonder the city just seems a bit bleaker, a bit grubbier and less magical.
Perhaps it's not fair to compare to another series but I really loved Matthew Swift and this was just such a let down for me in comparison.