I really wanted to like this book better than I did but this book is a slog. The problem is that it would have made a much better short story than the bloated, overstuffed novel that it became. There is little actual plot, the characters are paper thin with no development and they keep repeating the same plot points over and over with no new information added each repetition (for example we hear the story of what happened on the night the three kids disappeared about five or six times without learning anything new). The writing reads more like YA than adult fiction. The mythology reads like gibberish. The depth and nuance is just not there. No idea what motivates these characters, Why, for example, does Daniel not want to use magic only to realize 600pg later that maybe he didn’t have a good reason to begin with.?Why do the sisters hate each other so much when they don’t seem to do anything that terrible? Why does Mo keep his music secret? Overall, it’s not that this book is fundamentally flawed. There are some interesting concepts here that could’ve been excavated through some focus and editing.

This story is about a group of friends tries to remember how they died and how they can keep living while navigating their return from the dead. Also describes the difficulties these young people face as they fight to reclaim their lives before they died.
The plot of the book centers on Laura, Daniel, and Mo. Who are three high school classmates who passed away but have been brought back to life by their music teacher, Mr. Anabin. Alongside with Bogomil, a man-animal hybrid also known as Anabin. These two come up with a game for the teenagers to play, as a form of entertainment...? The children should go on a mission to sort out some way to utilize the enchanted they have been saturated with as vivified figures. Two of the friends will be allowed to live, while the other two will be returned to the afterlife.
To tell you the truth, this book didn't have to be this long. It is around 600+ pages, yet it felt long and got hauled at specific pieces of the plot. I also wished that there was more indept with the characters. They were quite interesting at first. It has lgbtq rep

Beautiful writing, but I just couldn't connect with this story. Unfortunately, this was not a story for me. Also, it is SUPER long. That is not normally a huge turnoff for me but I found myself zoning out so many times due to pure boredom. I'm sure this one has a target audience, but I'm sorry to say I'm not part of it.

Thank you to NetGalley and Random House for providing an advanced copy in exchange for my honest review.
2/5 stars

Thank you Random House and NetGalley for the opportunity to review this book. All opinions are my own.

Magic, death, reincarnation and music. In this debut novel by author Kelly Link we follow a group of young adults as they must solve the mystery of their disappearance (or death?) all while doing the bidding of a power hungry goddess from another realm. This story features multiple points of view and while definitely fantasy, takes place in a very real New England town.

Initially I struggled to get into this story, the writing style is not linear and the multiple POVs didn’t help. For the first half of the book it felt like I was reading snippets of characters’ dreams that happen to align and attach themselves to the same plot line. But once I became acclimated with the beautifully strange writing and prose I really became invested in the storyline and the characters. I do feel this book could have been shorter, at times it felt like I was slogging through a continuous cycle and the plot was not advancing towards a conclusion.

I will definitely check out some of the authors earlier short stories because I really did fall in love with her unique writing style and character development.

Full of Link's signature and singular magic, this debut novel of the estimable and long-lauded short story writer is at once beguiling, surreal, and mind-altering. Yes, it's long and detailed, as many reviewers have remarked, but there are many riches and surprises within.

The premise of this book is what initially drew me in. It sounded so exciting! The Book of Love follows three teenagers who died after disappearing one day. The characters are then in their high school classroom with their music teacher who tells them about a chance for them to return to the world of the living. As the teens complete their tasks and the plot thickens, we get to be a part of a fun, adventurous journey! The fact that the book is 600+ pages was daunting and the content could have been a bit more concise. The characters are written very well and humanness is just embedded in them. The world building and dialogue are amazing! There’s a very whimsical and fairy tale aspect to this book and I really enjoyed that.

Three high school students, Mo, Laura, and Daniel died almost a year ago. Now they find themselves back in a classroom with their odd music teacher after being held in a strange realm by a man with strange abilities. They are tasked with completing requests and challenges in order to keep themselves alive. They must keep everything secret from the people they love in their lives, and must work together to figure out what is truly going on, and how to save each other.

This book was so wacky, I loved it from start to finish. I thought this book would get tedious being or 600 pages, but honestly it was such a joyous, outrageous adventure urban fantastical time I did not mind in the slightest. There was such a great balance of serious topics, and campy humor I did not want to put it down once i really got into the story. You root for the characters but also get very annoyed by them, but their flaws made them so relatable. It is hard to get into too much detail, but this was just masterful in every aspect.

Bizarre, beautiful, and brilliant. A strange book full of magic, love, and the occasional tiger turned loose. It's a weird one, but the right reader will get it ;)

I thought that this books premise was a very intriguing. While overall I enjoyed reading this book, I would be lying if I said that at times things didn't feel bogged down. Still, when I was into it the blend of fantasy, mystery, drama, emotion and whimsy did charm me, sadly, it just couldn't keep me under its spell though. So, for me this book was just ok.

4.5 stars, rounding up!

This book was wonderful. I felt this would be a good book, but it exceeded my expectations!

The character development of this story and how seamlessly she weaves them all together is beautiful.

The vibe is mysterious and captivating throughout.

The plot and the way the story unfolds and is fun. The book starts off with an intro of the missing friends and what happened, As you go through the book, more and more layers are uncovered, the story gets deeper, deeper, and even stranger. And things don’t always turn out the way they originally seemed.

Loved this so much.

Caveat: this is the first I've read of this author, having heard a lot about her.

The book is...fine. If "creepy magical realism wonderment" in a similar vein as Francesca Lia Block or Lemony Snicket is your bag, then you will probably love this (not imply this is YA?). It's really not my taste tho--I abandoned Gaiman's Ocean at the End of the Lane, which this also feels similar to.

Recommend, just not for myself.

This book is a wild ride--it's full of music and arcane gods and shapeshifting, doors and keys, tokens, carousels, mobile statues, snowball fights, ancient undead people and tiny premies. It begins with three high schoolers, Daniel, Mo, and Laura, who are surprised to find themselves in the high school band room, wearing dirty feet and scrounged musical costumes, startlingly raised from the dead by their high school band director. Even more startlingly, they are not guaranteed a place in life. Everything gets stranger and more delightful from there. It's a long novel, but worth the time--what we get in those extra pages is the sheer density of everyone's lives (the characters have parents and siblings and employers; they have jobs that they like or dislike; they spend a lot of time eating and doing laundry) even as their world gets increasingly strange. I read the last 150 pages in one delighted gulp.

Thanks to the publisher, the author, and Netgalley for my free earc. My opinions are all my own.

One night three friends, Laura, Daniel and Mo, suddenly wake up in the music room of their high school with their teacher, Mr. Anabin. They soon discover that they've been missing for almost a year, dead, and have been temporarily returned to life. In order to stay alive they agree to several magical tasks. While they attempt these tasks they can take their lives back up and no one will remember that they have been missing. But only two can win this contest and stay alive.

But life has moved on for the friends and family that were left behind, and the three friends struggle to settle back in amidst some pretty big changes, all the while trying to complete their tasks and solve the mystery of their deaths. They aren't the only ones interested in the outcome though - there's something, and someone, far more powerful that is watching and waiting. And the outcome will affect not just these teenagers and their families, but their entire community.

I'm giving this book 3 stars, which for me equates to "I liked it, it was fine." I think if it hadn't been a staggering 640 pages, I might have rated it higher. At times I felt like the story was dragging, and yet I'm not entirely sure what could have been cut. I don't usually like magical realism because it starts to feel too nebulous and, at times, pretentious, but that isn't an issue here. The writing is frankly beautiful and it is very atmospheric. The characters are well written, complex, and highly believable. The main characters are teenagers dealing with some unbelievable events, angsty, messy, sometimes unlikeable, but you find yourself rooting for them because really, who can blame them? At times I felt like this book was too slow, but we get to know the characters so well because of how much time we spend with them. They are exceptionally unique and memorable. And this book is truly about the characters and their relationships. (And I just have to say that my favorite character is a tie between Mo's grandmother and Daniel's sister Carousel. I love Carousel. If I ask you what is the first thing you would do if you got magic, and you don't say 'turn myself into a glittery flying unicorn' then why are you lying?)

I'm not entirely in love with the title. Although love is certainly a theme here, and the driving force behind many of the events, it doesn't really seem to capture what this book is.

In the end, this is an atmospheric, beautifully written, slow burn of a book. A group of teenagers struggling to figure out who they really are, which is a story we can all relate to. It is whimsical, fantastical, and vivid, and I think the only thing that really put me off was the slow pacing in combination with the sheer length. If that's something you look for, then I believe you will love this book.

Thank you to NetGalley and Random House Publishing for the advance copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.

I am so grateful to have been given an ARC of Kelly Link’s The Book of Love thanks to Netgalley and Random House.

Leigh Bardugo’s quote on the cover sums up this book SO perfectly - “a dizzying dream ride you will never forget.”

This is the story of a group of teens and their families who live in the shore town of Lovesend, Massachusetts. Set in the present day, these teens finds themselves in the music classroom of their high school with their old music teacher, in the middle of the night, only to discover that they have just recently escaped from another realm and come back from the dead.

What follows is their story, told in alternating perspectives with the chapters named The Book of Susannah, The Book of Daniel, The Book of Mo, and others, where we slowly piece together what happened to these teens and try to figure out where they, the supernatural characters they encounter, and even the rest of their town, will go from here.

This book is as captivating as it is confusing, and as Bardugo says, dizzying, to which I would add, dreamy — both because you feel like you are in a hypnagogic state and also because of the powerful writing. I was hooked from the description. I wanted to learn about these teens and see what happened to them. While I had an idea of the premise, what I didn’t expect was just HOW much of a magical story this would be.

The magic in this story is over the top, and you must know that going in or these 640 pages might not be a ride you want to embark on. But in between all the “what is happening?!” moments, there were so many real moments — of teens trying to figure out who they are, how to love, who to love, how to make the most of the gifts you’ve been given and how to deal with loss.

I will say, the story was very confusing at times. There are some things I reread and just did not understand how they pieced together. In any other writer's hands, this would have likely frustrated me much more than it did here. But the plot, the well-drawn out characters who I was invested in (regardless of whether I loved or hated them,) the writing and the theme of love propelled this story forward in a way that made me want to keep reading even when I wasn’t sure what was happening. There was something warm and nostalgic about the way this book was written, and it is a story I will not forget.

Couldn't get through this one. The premise is very interesting, but the book just didn't hold my attention.

The writing is spare and detached. There are a few lines that felt like they had some oomph to them, but overall it fell flat for me. There's something that made me feel distant from the characters and story. I kept waiting to feel a connection, to feel excited about this story...but it never happened. I kept picking it up and putting it back down again.

I should mention that I've read short story collections by Kelly Link and enjoyed them immensely. However, this novel took to long to pick up, at least for me. It felt like a chore to read it, so I moved on.

Note: I received a review copy of this book via NetGalley.

The Book of Love follows three high school students (and one stranger) that were brought back from the dead by their otherworldly music teacher and his partner, a fearsome being that guards the realm of the dead. If they wish to remain earth-side with their loved ones, they must complete a series of magical tasks while keeping the details of the bargain to themselves. Over the course of a few days, the students learn how to use their magic and begin to unravel the mystery surrounding their deaths. However, a malevolent goddess has been waiting for them and threatens to endanger their town along with everyone they love.

Link brilliantly uses supernatural elements to explore themes of music, artistic expression, love, life, and death. The richly detailed seaside town of Lovesend, MA, the solid cast of imperfect, endearing characters, and the quick, alternating chapters had me completely immersed in this 640 page novel from start to finish. Death plays a large role in the story so it can be bleak but is also hopeful as these strong-willed teens work to reclaim their lives and set their own rules. Link infuses the story with compassion, humor, and love in all its forms—from familial bonds to romance to friendship. I loved every minute of this enchanting, adventurous, heartwarming tale!

I'm not sure what I expected with this book. I was drawn to the cover and the blurb, and immediately requested an ARC. I've never read Kelly Link's work before, but her writing style is definitely interesting. The first chapter was odd and I had to push through what felt like complete gibberish, but I was hooked by the second chapter.

I've never read anything like this before. Kelly Link is a creative genius, both with her writing style and the concept of this story.

The only downsides, and reasons for rating it 4 stars, were the length and flow. I feel as though there were some POVs that could have been left out or shortened. There are points where it slows down and there's a lot of exposition, rather than action and dialogue.

I love horror, I love mystical and magical, and I love weird. This book absolutely has elements of all of those.

Laura, Daniel, and Mo suddenly come back from the dead and find themselves in the music classroom at their high school with their old music teacher. They’re given very little information about how they died and how they came back. Suddenly several people in their town begin exhibiting signs of magic and they all seem interconnected and interested in Laura, Daniel, Mo, and Laura’s sister Susannah. How did they all get here and how can they stay?

I may never have read a book with such beautiful and visceral writing. I do not have a great visual imagination and usually scenes in books don’t play out as images in my head but in this book, I could picture every detailed description perfectly. The authors prose and meandering, stream-of-consciousness narration was beautiful, authentic, and wholly unique. Especially when talking about music.

My only issue with this book was the length. There were some points where I was bored and I felt like the story needed to get a move on, especially at the beginning. Once I started getting into the book though, I couldn’t stop thinking about it.

Thank you to the publisher and Netgalley for the eARC.

DNF at 5%

I tried several times to get into this book, because it sounded promising. The writing took me out of it, however, because It felt detached and didn’t endear or draw you to the characters. It didn’t come to life for me.

Thank you to the publishers for an arc of this book!

The premise was so interesting. Unfortunately, the interest did not last once I began the book.

Perhaps I'm just not the target audience? It was incredibly boring, pretentious, and there were too many characters for the plot to handle and so many that I just did not care about. If I could rate 0 stars I would. I'm sure there are those who will enjoy this but sadly I was not one of them.

Thank you to NetGalley and Random House for the eARC in exchange for an honest review.