The Museum of Extraordinary Things A Novel

2.5 stars The Museum of Extraordinary Things felt like it was trying to be too many things all at once. There are elements of a murder mystery, a love story (if you can really call it that...more details on that below) and a portrait of grief.

There was too much of a male perspective for my taste, as I thought this was women's fiction and would focus mainly on Coralie, the daughter of the professor who runs the Museum of Extraordinary Things. But Eddie seems to be in it more than Coralie, and I found him unlikeable at times. I much preferred and cared more about Coralie's storyline and her POVs, that is until the abuse she suffered became too much. Going along with too much of the male perspective, I thought a lot of the dialogue didn't work well coming from and between male characters. It would have been better from the female POV.

This book also tries to tell so many stories at once that don't seem to be interwoven well at all. A story of a Jewish immigrant/refugee, the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire, a girl who is abused by her father, a Coney Island freak show, a missing girl who turns up murdered...these elements may have worked fine on their own, but they were meshed haphazardly together, leaving the book kind of messy.

It also tried very hard to be a nonfiction book, with too many facts included at once instead of peppered throughout in Hoffman's usual style. This added to the fact that this book is simply boring.

Essentially, this book is very disjointed. It's heavily implied this book was going to be a love story, but almost 200 pages in and there was no sign of any romance. That's more than halfway through. And then once the romance finally arrives, it falls flat. Eddie and Cora do not know each other and experience 'insta-love.' I'm not really a fan. They hardly spoke to each other at all, now that I'm looking back on it.

I do like that this was short and fairly fast paced/easy to read so that I didn't trudge through it. The mystery element seemed to be enough to keep me going, but even that was over too soon and not too exciting. Everything is fairly predictable.

This book was very dark and had many examples of abuse and even animal cruelty. It was hard to read at points, which was unusual for Alice Hoffman. Some of her works, like The Dovekeepers, have darker themes, but nothing compares to how twisted parts of this book were. Not that I haven't read things of that nature before, but for this author it was jarring. I don't expect those elements from her.

Alice Hoffman is normally one of my favorite authors and this is probably her worst book I've read to date. If you're reading this far, please don't let this dissuade you from Hoffman's works. They are normally much better than this. It was just weak.

i think this book and me just met at the wrong time because when I finally got I to this I did really enjoy it however it took me a FRICKING long time to get into it. I was in a YA rut and this was the first non YA book that I read in a LONG time and I just don't think I was ready for the world of adult fiction again but this book honestly was so well written and such an uplifting story it just didn't agree with me right now but I would like to give it another chance but for now it's a no

I read this book in 2015. I bought it in Target with Taylor and I will always remember making that spontaneous decision. I wanted a book and this one had the word museum on the cover (I love museums). But I got so much out of this book that I did not expect at all. Plot Home life Interesting family dynamic Uncovered lies Abuse Romance Friendship and Loneliness Loyalty A Coming of age story Insta-love (and I LOVED it) A beautiful cast of characters A perfect ending that made me so happy! Literally this book had so much so beautifully incorporated into it. I applaud Alice Hoffman. Favorite book of 2015.

read. this. book.