Review: Visceral and Intense
Rating: 4 out of 5
Date: 07 3, 2014
I have a real passion for authors who dip their toes outside the range of normal form and structure of a classic novel. While Evans didn't color outside the lines too often, I enjoyed the extremely emotive passages, some of which felt more like poetry and prose, without letting that intense beauty of writing interfere with the underlying plot or character development. It was as though Evans was seeing the story through the eyes of her characters and allowing the words to stream directly from their experiences and senses. It was staggeringly lovely at times, and I was hooked within a few pages. Add onto that the impressive complexity of the plot and the interwoven lives that seemed to only get more intense and complicated as the story wound on. From London to Indonesia, travel, romance, tragedy, terrorism, intrigue, betrayal, and death swarm the pages of this book and make for one extremely intense read. I felt overloaded at times, perhaps why the book got four stars from me, because I understand how easy it can be to run away with elaborate plots, but there has to be a limit. When some of the developments didn't seem to go anywhere, or when I became distracted unnecessarily by some of the exposition moments, it detracted slightly from the energy and pace of the story. Overall, it was a very enjoyable story, although emotionally draining. I wouldn't put this in the "casual summer read" category, but if you want some quality writing from a talented author, A Study in Flesh will be a unique and memorable choice.