This may very well be the hardest book I have ever reviewed. In fact, I admit I did something very weird with it. But more on that in a bit. First a synopsis. Honestly, I could try to write one but it's a story that I feel is almost two separate stories, so this one is from Goodreads. Whoever wrote this summary did a better job that I can do:
Once a promising Midwestern football star, Brink was transformed by a traumatic brain injury that caused a rare medical condition: acquired savant syndrome. The injury left him with a mental superpower—he can solve puzzles in ways ordinary people can't. But it also left him deeply isolated, unable to fully connect with other people.
Everything changes after Brink meets Jess Price, a woman serving thirty years in prison for murder who hasn't spoken a word since her arrest five years before. When Price draws a perplexing puzzle, her psychiatrist believes it will explain her crime and calls Brink to solve it. What begins as a desire to crack an alluring cipher quickly morphs into an obsession with Price herself. She soon reveals that there is something more urgent, and more dangerous, behind her silence, thrusting Brink into a hunt for the truth.
The quest takes Brink through a series of interlocking enigmas, but the heart of the mystery is the God Puzzle, a cryptic ancient prayer circle created by the thirteenth-century Jewish mystic Abraham Abulafia. As Brink navigates a maze of clues, and his emotional entanglement with Price becomes more intense, he realizes that there are powerful forces at work that he cannot escape.
Ranging from an upstate New York women's prison to nineteenth-century Prague to the secret rooms of the Pierpont Morgan Library, The Puzzle Master is a tantalizing, addictive thriller in which humankind, technology, and the future of the universe itself are at stake.
So, here's the weird thing that I ended up doing. I got an e-book copy of it and seemed to really be struggling with it. I almost gave up on it and thought that maybe if I got a physical hard copy it would be better. Well, that actually worked. I don't know what it is about me. I just love to hold a book. Usually, it doesn't matter too much to me, but this one I had to hold in order to finish it.
I have such mixed feelings about this book. It took me way too long to finish and, for me, it read like a text book in some places. BUT, in some places, it really sucked me in, especially toward the end. I thought it started picking up immensely. Now, all that being said, while I may not have devoured the book, I applaud this author's creativity! I cannot even imagine being able to come up with this kind of intricate plot. So, overall, I am going to say I did enjoy this even though I spent more time with it than I would have liked. I wish the author the best. One more note: I think this would be a good movie! Thank you to NetGalley and to the publisher. No review was required.
No comments:
Post a Comment