The Ghosts of Maraval by Siobhan FraserMy rating: 3 of 5 stars
This is almost a wonderful book, but I felt like I was reading a draft. There is so much potential here, and all it needs is smoothing over from a couple more rewrites. The omniscient narrator is difficult to pull off and I felt there was frequently more telling instead of showing. Lots of typos, misplaced or missing paragraph breaks, punctuation errors, things like "loose" instead of "lose." I acknowledge that I am pickier than a lot of people about the mechanics, but I personally dislike stumbling over things like that. It pulls me out of the story.
BUT. ..there is a lot of good stuff here too. I really like the characters, quirky and half-crazy. I love the lion dog and the Dutch nudists. The sense of place is wonderful. I'd look up from reading and think, wait a minute, I really need to be camped out by a falling-down old farmhouse in the French countryside .. what the heck am I doing on this metro bus in downtown Seattle? The story itself is original, nicely plotted, and as enchanting as the spring of Maraval. I’m interested to read more from this author.
I received an ARC through NetGalley and Cameron Publicity in exchange for an honest review.
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