Brightly Burning

by Alexa Donne

[brdsk]

In theory I should have loved this book. Space + Jane Eyre? What could be better? I was terribly excited when my digital hold came through. I jumped right in. And yet at about 100 pages in I am abandoning it.

In the past I have always felt awfully guilty not finishing books. I thought doing so I was not really giving the books a real chance and potentially missing out on something that just took time to develop. So I would grind my teeth and keep going, feeling satisfaction in being critical in my following negative reviews. I though "well, I have finished reading these, so I am really allowed to hate them now". Undoubtedly, there was some weird pleasure in that, but the hours I wasted on books I did not really care for also felt silly.

This year I want to give myself a full permission to abandon books at any point for any reason. Life is too short to waste it reading anything that gives no enjoyment, intellectual value, or cash in return. And that was Brightly Burning for me. Sadly.

I tried to get into it. Then I put the book down for a week and read 3 other books instead. In a haze from a terrific read, I opened this novel again and could not remember reading any of it until I scrolled through the pages to the very beginning to try and refresh my memory. Not a good sign.

The main character? A cardboard bore hard to care for, with too many epic skills that just did not work well together. The setting? Epic in idea but falls flat in execution and details, full of silly plot holes and faulty logic. The pacing? Meh. The writing itself? Not bad, but lacking any real ability to capture my attention and interest. It felt like dull homework trying to read this book despite such an excellent premise. I could try to go into more analysis and aim to be more objective, but even thinking about this read now is boring me, and I myself am not a good enough writer to do that justice.

Based on the very mixed reviews of this book I've seen (despite a shockingly high rating here) I do think there are readers that would enjoy this novel and find it entertaining. I feel sad I was not able to join their raving party or even comprehend what exactly made this book good for them when all I saw were mildly interesting ideas at best.

Will I try this author again? Possible. Would I mention and recommend this book to any of my friends? No.


[Edit] One thing I will give this book as a total win is its terrific opening line. The gravity stabilizers were failing again. Best part of the book and a terrifically strong beginning. If this line was the whole book my rating would be way higher. :>