Only Time Will Tell (Jeffrey Archer)

Only Time Will Tell- Jeffrey Archer

Hokay, so, this was one for my book challenge. We each had to choose a book for the other person to read, and Sarah picked this one. For a while I wasn't sure I was ever going to like it, but when it took off, man did it take off!

First things first, this book is full of plenty of Shakespearean twists in the plot. There was really no point in time until the very end where I could have told you where it was going. And that's good, since if I knew it would only make the book drag on forever.

The book did, however, drag more than I would have liked. It isn't that the book wasn't interesting, because it was once I would actually read it. The problem was that if I put the book down, it was REALLY easy to put it down and leave it there.

The story is... super complex. It revolves around the events of a boy's life, and is told from the perspective of each of the closest people in his life. The plot thickens slowly but surely, but I didn't really have my interest piqued until well into the mother's narrative. After that I found myself wanting to continue reading, but it is kind of a tough slog getting there.

Having said THAT, I will say that this is the first in a series of books following the Clifton family's dramas, so I feel  like the following books will probably move more quickly, now that the basic back story has been established.

I literally can tell you very little about this book without giving something away, so you're just gonna have to go by this final statement and the rating: If you like historical fiction, especially from World War era England, this book is a good investment of your time.

The Book
🌹🌹🌹🌹

The Writing
🕯️🕯️🕯️🕯️

Readability
🕰️🕰️🕰️

Goat Dance (Douglas Clegg)

Goat Dance by Douglas Clegg

If you asked me how I ended up with this book... I have no fucking clue. That's what happens when you can't sleep because of painsomnia and so the Ambien made you high instead helping you drift off, so now you've gone down a rabbit hole of Pinterest book suggestions and the Kindle app. You wake up with a book that could be really good, or could... be a hot-mess train wreck like this one.

Don't listen to this asshole.

There was so much potential here. The book is written from multiple perspectives, with seemingly different story lines that you hope will come together into one amazing, mind blowing, existentially fulfilling plot that answers all of your questions and leaves your heart raw with emotion.

None of that happened.

But it was SO. CLOSE!  I haven't read any other works by Douglas Clegg, but he seems to have a big following among the horror junkies, so maybe this was a one off disappointment. It felt like the concept was just too large, and Clegg couldn't quite bring it altogether.

There was another problem, and I'm warning you now, telling you this is sort of a spoiler, so if you're gonna read the book, don't read the next part of this review.

I warned you.

Don't scroll down anymore.

Here we go...

This was basically just a knock off of Stephen King's It, and if you look back through my archives you'll see just how much love I have for that book (the answer is- not a whole fucking lot.)

There was very little character development throughout the whole book. Most of them were very cliched, cookie cutter characters that you could lift out of any "How to Write" manual.

Overall: I don't recommend this book unless it's free and you have  no other options available to you. And no matter what Ambien Walrus tells you- buying a book because the name sounds "legit" is never a good idea.

The Book
🌹

The Writing
🕯️

Readability
🕰️