A VERY mixed genre story of a woman whose choices have not always been right or good. As her lifestyle mixes with her fantasy, the story can be hard to follow, but it comes right at the end. Not an easy read but definitely a good one.

The Absolute Book is an esoteric, often maddening, epic fantasy that is ultimately rooted in contemporary concerns. It really defies summation but what we’re dealing with here is an ode to stories, language, and libraries that takes the form of a quest/portal fantasy and incorporates a kitchen sink’s worth of myths and legends from Celtic, Judeo-Christian, Norse, ancient Greek traditions and more.

I really wanted to like this book more than I did. There's a core of a great story in there and I would love to revisit this world and the characters.in another book. What held me back? 1) Some tedious passages that overstay their welcome and could have been extensively edited 2) A surprisingly anticlimactic ending. I enjoyed the fate of the characters and the epilogue but the end of the central plot left much to be desired. 3.5 rounded down to 3.

As featured in the 2020-21 Modern Mrs Darcy Winter Book Preview live event and magazine, recommended for readers seeking a robust fantasy from an established author who nevertheless is publishing for the first time in the United States.

I started reading this book and found that it was not for me. It didn't seem fair for me to review a book that I didn't finish.

I’m judging the L.A. Times 2020 and 2021 fiction contest. It’d be generous to call what I’m doing upon my first cursory glance—reading. I also don’t take this task lightly. As a fellow writer and lover of words and books, I took this position—in hopes of being a good literary citizen. My heart aches for all the writers who have a debut at this time. What I can share now is the thing that held my attention and got this book from the perspective pile into the read further pile.

From the first pages I can already say this book is deftly plotted.

It's hard to know what to say about The Absolute Book - it's incredibly layered, pulls from many different genres, and seems to be telling many stories that are maybe just one big story in the end. What I know for sure though is that I loved it and will be thinking about it for a long time to come.

I really tried hard to get into this book but it just didn't work for me.

Thank you to Netgalley and the Publisher for the opportunity to read and review this title. All opinions and mistakes are my own,

The Absolute Book, by Elizabeth Knox, is one of the critical darlings of the moment. I was drawn in by descriptions of strange books and mysterious journeys. When they go well, stories that blend fantasy details with literary aesthetics can be wonderful. The trick, I think, is knowing how much to borrow from each genre and knowing when to strike out into original territory. It’s a delicate tightrope to walk. And I’m afraid that The Absolute Book missed the mark for me.

Taryn Cornick has a sad but privileged life. On the one hand, her father is a wildly wealthy actor and her grandfather owned a mansion. On the other, her sister was murdered, her mother died of cancer, and Taryn just can’t seem to find her way out of her personal darkness. At her worst moment, Taryn reveals her story and the fact that the man who killed her sister is getting out of prison after a shockingly short sentence to someone known only as the Muleskinner. The next thing she knows, the Muleskinner follows her back to England and suddenly her sister’s murderer is found, face down in a puddle in a back alley. Then, the next thing we know, there are demons and sidhe in the world and Taryn is being whisked between the worlds in the hands of a man (creature?) who can do incredible things.

Confused? I was. Normally, when I say that a book’s plot keeps doing unexpected things I mean it as a compliment. I like books that break genre conventions to do something new or plots that I can’t figure out too far in advance. The thing about the unexpected is that it all has to make sense, in the end. At the end of The Absolute Book, I couldn’t say that I understood what this story was trying to be. There were parts that I liked; Knox does some interesting things with prophecy and sacrifice. On the other hand, there was some upsetting violence, at least one too many plot threads, and what I saw as some missed opportunities with several characters.

Just like I said in yesterday’s post, I feel like I need to go back to the reviews to see what I’m missing about The Absolute Book.

It starts off slow and kind of dense, but once the action begins, it's hard to resist the story as it drives forward. It reads as a true epic, one that makes you feel the world really has been reshaped as you read it. Would recommend.

I requested this book because of the stunning cover, and the synopsis had me hooked. I love a thriller with horror or fantasy elements woven in, and when it's done right, it can be breathtaking. An example of this is Broken Monsters by Lauren Beukes. I wanted so badly to love this book, but it didn't happen. I was confused much of the time, and the pace was glacial. It seemed like a lot was happening, but nothing really compelling, if that makes sense. This book just felt too much like work, and life is too short to slog through a book that isn't doing it for you. Regretfully, I DNF'd The Absolute Book at 29%. Thank you to Viking and Netgalley for this advance copy.

Review forthcoming through Shelf Awareness. Please see their newsletter for more information and feedback.

I really wanted to like this one and I gave it longer than I otherwise might've, but ultimately I gave up the ghost around the halfway point. Just felt like the structure was all wrong, like I was missing things -- but not in a fun way, not in a "this puzzle will get solved" way, but rather in a "this is messy" way. Plot points seemed to elide off-screen, or to happen in the space between paragraphs, and while I'm very game to 'suspend my disbelief', there are some logic jumps that the characters make in the early going that felt quite challenging to me. There's a lot of ambition here and a lot of interesting stuff, but it never came together enough to keep me going.

The Absolute Book by Elizabeth Knox has a lot going on in it, but too little of it, unfortunately for me, captured my interest or attention and so I ended up giving up about 40% of the way through.

Taryn Cornick’s sister died after being struck, apparently purposely though it’s unclear, by a car years ago. Now, with the driver of the car that killed her sister soon to be getting out of prison, Taryn meets a strangely compelling hunter known as The Muleskinner, who offers up a tempting proposal that will change Taryn’s life as much as her sister’s death. Soon, Taryn finds herself being haunted by threatening phone calls, hounded by a relentlessly inquisitive policeman, caught up in an investigation by (maybe) MI5, possessed by a demon, conversing with faerie and gods, and traveling between our world and other ones. And, as noted, that’s all before the halfway point.

Which is, also as noted, about as far as I got. While I liked a lot of the concepts in the novel, and a few of the set scenes, I was never caught up in either plot or character. I often had the sense characters were not acting as actual people would in the given situations and instead were acting as characters in a novel needed to act. I never felt engaged by them as they seemed more crafted than alive. This was a running issue for me and had a cumulative effect so that it became harder and harder for me to enjoy the novel as it continued. Style acted as a barrier as well due to Knox’s abundance of detail. At times it’s effective and lovely, but just as often I felt I was getting detail that didn’t further either plot or characterization and so for me simply slowed the story down unnecessarily, making the novel feel all of its 600+ pages and more. Finally, the plot often felt muddy (as opposed to complex).

Definite talent and craft here, but for me at least, they didn’t combine to create an interesting story or compelling characters.

DNF @ 16%. The beginning of this book absolutely drew me in. While I don't usually read mystery thrillers, the fantastical elements were enough to keep me interested. However, the misuse of indigenous terminology and the use of miscarriage as a plot device was unfortunately too much for me to handle. Womp. Disclaimer: I would not normally rate something I DNF'd, but will include a 2 star rating for my enjoyment up until the point of discontinuance, due to Netgalley's restrictions.

I think this is very sharply written, and I felt a surprising amount for the lead despite the fact that it feels very removed. I started to find I just didn't want to pick the book up every time I put it down, and eventually I DNF'd it.