Review: Nathaniel's Diary
Rating: 4 out of 5
Date: 07 20, 2013
When I started this, I had forgotten that it was a novella.It actually didn't feel like a novella because it ends up totally pulling you into the story like a good book does. I actually wasn't sure if I was going to like it because of the way it is told. I am happy to say that it was totally worth the read.Emma is a conservator of ancient books at a museum. An ancient diary is found and she becomes fascinated with it. The diary tells the story of Nathaniel who lived during the 16th century. The story is told in the form of a blog by Emma and the translation of the diary that she includes in her blog. Since it is a novella, I really don't want to tell too much and spoil Nathaniel's story. I will say it is supernatural and involves him meeting a beautiful Gypsy that totally changes his life forever.The blog and the diary really work as a way to tell the story. We actually get a picture of Emma's life at home and at work along with the diary translation. Because it is a blog, we don't get a lot of background about Emma and that was okay and really wasn't a problem. If I have a criticism, it would be towards the end of the story when everything changes in Emma's life and the mechanics of how it happens is not really shown. I have actually gone back twice and tried to figure out if I had missed something.I hadn't. It's actually not necessary to the story but I think I would have liked to read that scene. But that is a pretty minor criticism because for the most part this was a good novella and the author knows how to write an interesting and pretty great story. I rated it 4 stars.