A Peculiar Peril

I listened to this as an audio book. I had heard it was hard to get into, and I didn’t want to drag a giant book around with me forever especially while doing stuff with the kids. I loved this. It was definitely hard to get in to. The writing style is similar to the rest of vandermeer’s work (and if I’m being honest, I have had a hard time focusing on the opening in a few of his works, so no surprise that this was the same), but something about this also felt similar to the narrative style in Harry Potter. And not just because it is magic-centered. There are tons of magic-centered storylines that don’t have the same feeling. I think for me it was more about how often the story is not necessarily specifically to further the plot, but instead to make you interested in the setting. I know that is completely frustrating to some people, especially when noting how long the book is, but I’ve never been someone that needs action to enjoy a story. With how awful JK Rowling has proved to be, reading something new that was written in a similar but more grown up style made me love this 1000x more. The characters are diverse. And as per usual the world building is detailed in a tangible way. Someone else said they would definitely recommend this to certain people and definitely recommend that others don’t bother with it, and I feel the same.

I have absolutely no idea why this book was so frustratingly long. I have no idea what was happening most of the time. I don't believe I will ever pick up another book by this author whether because I'm too brainless to understand the complex ideas or some other reason.