14. Firesong - Jospeh Hone

Well this book has taken me quite literally months to read. It was very hard to get into, and finally very hard to follow later on. The story followed 2 twins in WW1 Russia, just before the revolution, and their way of surviving through the revolution and after. Sounds simple, yes? Well not quite. The author insisted on describing events and items in excruciating detail, making the whole book much longer than it could have and ought to have been. The story would have moved much faster and probably have been more of a pleasure to read if this were the case.

The characters of the story were all blatantly different to help the reader differentiate, but it was done in a very simplistic and patronising way. The prologue was far too long and also had too much detail. The speech used in it was also far to simple and obvious that it was trying to tell the reader what had changed – it would have been more bearable as a narration I think. Lastly, the story was believable to a point, however certain aspects such as ‘magical powers’ and many so-called coincidences ruined this.

Stripped down, the basics had potential, but the author managed to maul the story and make it hard and boring to read.