The Ruinous Sweep

by Wynne-Jones Tim

[Eve1972]

Before I started reading this one I wanted to take a peek at a few reviews and get a general feeling about the book. I saw that this book was getting mostly negative attention, and after skimming a few of them, I was more than a little tentative to start it. However, I ended up liking this one a lot. The story had me hooked right from the beginning.





Oh, sure there were parts that were a bit confusing and chaotic (especially the sections told from Donovan's POV). And parts that I am still not entirely sure I understand. I am assuming Donovan's journey is supposed to resemble Dante’s Divine Comedy, but since I haven't read that since high school English Lit, the symbolism was a bit lost on me. Nevertheless, I still found myself pulled into the story. I especially loved Bea and her determination to find out what really happened to Dono. I also loved that was set in Ontario my home province, and not particularly far from where I grew up.

So yea, it wasn't a perfect book, and I can certainly understand some of the issues other reviewers have brought up in their reviews. However, for me, this was a case of the plot being intriguing enough that the good outweighed the bad. Therefore I am going to give this one two thumbs up.