I always get my hopes up for big books. Yes, maybe don’t judge a book by it’s cover but sometimes you have to judge a book by it’s length. When you pick up a lengthy book you are making a commitment. This isn’t something you can do in one sitting. You are recognizing that this going to be a long adventure. You are making an agreement with the author that you are going to trust them to entertain you. 

It matters more with a lengthy book. I have a hard time putting down lengthy books as a DNF because I keep looking at the amount of pages left and think, it’ll get better… there is time for it to improve.

This was true for this book. I was SUPER annoyed with the author for dropping dialogue quotes. I’m all for a little artistic freedom when it comes to writing books BUT GIVE ME MY DAMN QUOTATION MARKS. Honestly, it’s just an ease of reading, ease on the eyes, ease of understanding… STOP DROPPING THEM. You aren’t ‘cool’ if you drop dialogue quotations. 
    Okay – got that off my chest. 
    The cast of characters in this book IS MIND-BLOWINGLY CURATED. I couldn’t dream up these very unique characters myself. The way they interacted with each other … It was a piece of magic. I found myself laughing outloud while reading. Can’t say enough of how perfect this group was and how perfectly the author brought them all together. I really, really, really enjoyed getting to know these characters. 
     To me, this is a book with no plot. There is no point of this book. There is not point to a lot of things. And … with this book, honestly, I was okay with that. I was okay being taken along for the ride. I enjoyed the disorganized feeling of Ulysses and Evelyn, I didn’t understand why they were intertwining, why I should care, etc. … but I did enjoy it either way. 

I don’t understand the last section where the author attempts to rewrite (ish) ‘A Room With a View’. It annoyed me. It was a waste of paper. I didn’t enjoy the story. I didn’t enjoy the fact that I just read ALL these pages. I was at the ending. I was happy with the way the story was being zipped up and then the author slapped me with some choppy, Evelyn based back story crap. It pissed me off. We (the author, character and I) have just been through so much and it felt like we were wiping it all way to try to sneak in this ‘new’ story to prove something, I don’t know. Either way, those last chunk of pages took all the happiness of the first 400+ pages away and left me annoyed. 

I’m struggling with how to rate this. If my rating was based directly on ease of reading due to lack of quotation marks, I’d give it 1 star. If it’s based on the last chunk of pages that ruined my tidy, happy ending, also 1 star. If I base it on the 400 other pages that stole my heart, 5 stars. Again, due to the length of the book and the commitment I made to the length of the story … I’m going to take the two offenses by the author personally and rate it 3.5, rounded down to 3. [UGH]

Note: future CMAC doesn’t mind the lack of quotation marks and actually finds it a beautiful way to write. Funny how opinions change with time and experience.