Real Rating: 3.5 / 5 Stars

This isn’t your standard fantasy. It’s more like if someone wrote fantasy in the style of literary fiction, which is something I normally eat up with a spoon and ask for second helpings of. It just didn’t happen with The Book of Love, though.

The Book of Love is lovingly crafted and intricately woven. The story is compelling enough to start and engaging enough to keep reading until somewhere in the third act where I found myself losing steam. I finished the book and I liked it but I can’t say it’s something I’d read again.

Kelly Link is a brilliant writer, but this book should’ve been shorter. I fell in love with the story, the characters, the world building, and the dialogue, but nothing can save a book from a plodding pace.

I was provided a copy of this title by NetGalley and the author. All thoughts, opinions, views, and ideas expressed herein are mine and mine alone. Thank you.

File Under: Coming of Age/Fantasy/Occult Fiction/Supernatural Fantasy/Urban Fantasy

The Book of Love by Kelly Link was a unique and utterly fascinating debut novel.
A stellar novel that blends myths, supernatural, and magic.
It was amazing, vivid, joyful, fast-paced and perfectly described! I didn’t want this fantastic journey to end. The storytelling is superb and the protagonist was finely drawn. Effortlessly diverse, beautifully written, whimsical, and always engaging.
A story of love, death, friendship and magic.

Thank You NetGalley and Random House for your generosity and gifting me a copy of this amazing eARC!

Great concept. The book is on the longer side. A bit mystical with some violence and mystery.
Definitely a combination to make you think.
Thanks NetGalley for the ARC.

This book truly took me on a journey and I think I ended up really loving it. The premise is endearing (teens come back from the dead and have a series of trials) and there are a lot of wonderfully lovable characters. I almost put this book down several times but, kind of like the characters in the book, felt tied to the story in a deeper way and never stopped working myself toward the ending. I’m so glad I kept going and I really loved the sweetness of the ending. Thanks for the chance to give it an early read. Ultimately this book was memorable (similarities to Lincoln in the Bardo? The Magicians?) and I look forward to seeing the discussion once more people have read it.

I received an ARC of this novel in exchange for an honest review.

The Book of Love is about a group of friends navigating their return from the dead as they try to remember how they died and how they can keep on living.

This was a quirky and unusual read. I was excited when I first began reading it and was really interested to see where it would go. Despite generally liking the novel, I felt that it was far too long and should have been at most half the length that it was.

The Book of Love was beautifully written and fun to experience. That being said…it was loooooonnnngggggg. At times I just looked to see how much was left because it was suddenlt just dragging. I’ve read the author before and I was prepared for the style of writing. There were just so many times that I forced myself through a chapter hoping we could get back on track. It was a good book that was beuatifully overwritten.

What a beautiful world Link has created in this story. A whimsical world for an epic adventure. While I did enjoy the writing style of this book, it was a bit of a slower read. While the world for this story was beautifully created, I would have liked to see the author focus more on the character building and momentum. I think it’s a fantastic story, but suffered from excess space exposition and exploration.

I wanted to love this book, but it kind of fell flat for me. I went in super intrigued by the mystery of how these four characters ended up in a classroom only to find out they were dead and were back alive and able to do magic. Sounds like a great set up for a super intriguing book, but it went on for about 300 pages too long. I liked the format of the book and how we got to spend so much time with each of the characters, I felt like the characters had personality and were relatable, except for the whole bit about them being able to do magic. It was a fun read and the ending was cute, although a bit disappointing given the push and pull that the guardians face. Although I loved visualizing Malo Mogge's outfits, maybe I just wasn't the right target audience for this one.

Thanks to Netgalley for this ARC.

Thank you so much NetGalley and Random House for the ARC. I think so many people will love this book. Unfortunately, it just was not for me. It sounded very interesting but I did not get hooked as I usually do. I know there are a ton of good reviews on goodreads of people who loved it and I truly don't think it has anything to do with the book, I feel it was just a more personal preference!

DNF-A lot of great authors have recommended this so I was excited to read it. I just couldn't get into it. It's odd-beautifully written but odd. It was slow moving, the POV jumps between characters, the characters weren't too likeable. It felt like I was reading like a fever dream. After 2 weeks, I was still only 21% into the book. I might pick it up again but for now it's just not for me.
Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC in return for my honest review.

Thanks to NetGalley for an early copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. Please note, this books was a DNF for me at 15%, I think I read enough to offer helpful feedback but I did not finish the novel so feel free to take this review with a grain of salt.

I’d been eager to read something by Kelly Link for a while. Several people have recommended her to me and I had heard such good things about her writing. So when I saw this new novel on NetGalley I jumped at the chance to read it. Ultimately I was frustrated and disappointed by this book, I don’t know if that has more to do with the book or with me.

First a synopsis.

Four teens come back from the dead one night in their music teacher’s classroom. If they want to stay in the land of the living, and they certainly do, they’ll need to complete three tasks. The magic, all the while the sinister entity who presides over the underworld shadows their steps, eager to reclaim their souls once more.
On paper this novel has absolutely everything going for it. In practice I found it impossible to break into. The premise is so arresting and intriguing but I found the prose to be actively working against the book. Monotonous details and emotions are given pride of place and the magic and mystery of what’s happening to these teens gets glossed over in a perfunctory way. Maybe that is this author’s writing style but I found it did a disservice to the story which I really did want to learn more about. The writing, while beautifully rendered, doesn’t seem to go anywhere from what I could tell.

I wanted to know more about these characters but even after reading several chapters they still seemed like ciphers to me. I got surface level details, thoughts, and memories only. I could paint a picture of each character’s houses, but I knew nothing about them beyond that they were dead and then alive and wanted to stay that way.

Maybe this book will be a hit with other readers. Maybe I did not give it enough time although I did try my best and made it to 15% without ever really being drawn in, despite really wanting to be. I’m still excited to read Kelly Link’s shorter fiction some day and maybe I’ll even pick this one up again, however this time I simply was not able to connect with this book.

So, I decided to take a chance on Kelly Link's "The Book Of Love" without knowing her writing style. And guess what? It was a pleasant surprise! Her prose reads like a dream – all atmospheric and enchanting. There's definitely a good story buried in there somewhere. The scenery? Totally diverse and exciting. But man, the journey was a long and winding road. It's beautifully written, but sometimes, it felt like we were meandering a bit too much. There were whole chapters that could've been left out without affecting the plot. The first half? Kinda dragged on for me. But things picked up a bit in the second half, thank goodness.

Now, let's talk about the plot. Talk about a wild ride! Without giving too much away, everything from resurrections to tiger attacks, murder, and even unicorns was thrown into the mix. It was like a whirlwind of craziness, and I'm still not entirely sure what I read.

But you know what? Despite the ups and downs, I'm a total sucker for quirky writing styles, and Kelly Link totally nailed it. Once you get used to the whole stream-of-consciousness thing, getting lost in the story is pretty easy. The only hiccup? The book could've used a serious trim. 600+ pages is a lot to chew on.

And hey, while some loose ends left me scratching my head, I can't deny that the Maryanne chapter was something else. It was like a little nugget of beauty amid all the chaos. So yeah, "The Book Of Love" may have its quirks, but it's worth checking out if you're up for a whimsical adventure with a touch of mystery.

Eh. I wasn’t quite the target audience I think. It’s definitely written at the far literary end of the genre. I’ve slogged through a lot of long books in my life. Enjoyed most of them. I think what was wrong about this book for me as a reader is I’ve never really loved short stories. This book drifts through one vignette after another in a way…. It felt like a long novel of short stories. I think fans of her short stories are going to love it. People who like magical realism are going to like it. People who want their fantasy to be more literary are going to love it. People that just want to read a fantasy novel aren’t going to find this is the best book for them, 2 to 4 stars depending on what kind of reader you are.

I think there are maybe a couple dynamite Kelly Link short pieces in these 600 pages but the longer version just did not connect with me. A group of young protagonists become embroiled in a magical feud and as you do when you are in the midst of a situation like this where everyone you know and love and the world itself is at stake you see how many romantic trysts you can have.

"Magic, like grief, could come welling up. The difference was how grief slammed into you without any kind of ceremony or invitation. Magic you could use. Grief just used you up."
-The Book of Mo

Thank you to Random House and NetGalley for the ARC.

To say that The Book of Love is nothing short of spectacular would be doing the novel a great disservice. This book was entertaining, captivating, beautiful in its entirety, and a definite re-read for my bookshelf. Combined with a near-lyrical prose and fable-like incredulity, Kelly Link creates a world that is entirely too familiar and yet vastly impossible, along with characters that are whole and complete in their own right.

The Book of Love, through a myriad of point-of-view perspectives, follows a small group of New Englanders a year after they died. Laura, Daniel, and Mo mysteriously disappeared one night and have been presumed dead. Pulled back to life by their high school music teacher, Mr. Anabin, they are given a chance to reclaim their previous lives as if nothing happened, as long as they can discover how they died that fateful night.

All of these characters, ranging from upright and sensible Laura, to her wild and grief-stricken sister Susannah; dutiful and loyal Daniel; sarcastic and wiser than his years Mo; and even mysterious and fluid Bowie, have complex and in-depth stories that are laid out in the tiniest puzzle pieces. It is a feat for authors to not only create such vastly different personalities, but to show us their wants and vulnerabilities in such tender increments.

What also captivated me was the system of magic Kelly Link creates. At times frightful and dark, and other times whimsical in a Hayao Miyazaki-esque grandeur, this book invites you to get swept away, to throw out all sense of reality, and to go with the flow. There are references to pop culture that don't feel entirely dated or forced, and combined with a tilted writing style, there is so much to devour and enjoy on every page.

I loved this Book of Love, and I don't think anyone will be able to let me be silent about it.

A dizzying, mind boggling, awe inspiring work of creative insanity. I don’t think I’ve ever read anything like this and I can’t even wrap my head around the reality of someone having this story in their head. Friends in a small town get caught in a game of gods is the only way I can think to describe it at all and it doesn’t even come close to doing it justice. I’ve been a fan of Kelly Link’s wonderful short stories so I was excited for this novel and was stunned to find it over 600 pages. I love long books but this one could have trimmed about 200 pages off and still been ok. It does drag at points. Still if you like your fiction weird, wild and fantastical you won’t want to miss this. Thanks to Netgalley for the ARC.

All I knew going into this book was that I adore Kelly Link's work, particularly for its absorbing quality. Her stories are dreamlike, and stay with me in the same way the memory of a dream does--everything in the memory seems both impossible and completely sensible and correct. This book really captures that same feeling! Surreal, a little creepy and a little funny, intriguing, and written in what I think of as Link's typical style: a sort of syncopated rhythm of straightforward sentences in surprising patterns, straightforward words in surprising combinations, and little gems of imagery that pop out sparkling. There's a cyclical fairy tale quality to her work that appears here also, a real sense that these events have happened before and will happen again and I should be paying attention in case I'm involved next time.

And it IS a book about love as the title proclaims, but messy, muddy, difficult love. Love here is smashed guitars and ill-fated gifts and spontaneous hookup choices and centuries-old vengeance, about embracing power or resisting it and how it changes you either way, about working around obstacles (there are so many obstacles).

Though it was quite long--possibly too long--I loved The Book of Love. It was surprising, it was intriguing, it felt deeply archetypical and at the same time delightfully specific and real. The four main characters' voices and perspectives were so distinct, as was each new voice that cropped up to take over a piece of the story--a whole ensemble of imperfect people making imperfect choices and loving imperfectly.

So Kelly Link has written a novel. Not just any kind of novel. No, a Russian novel weighing in at 600+ pages. If you like Link's short stories, definitely give this a try. If not, don't. You'll find a convoluted plot with numerous characters, magic, horror and teenage angst.

If you like mysterious magical realism and are prepared for over 600 pages, this book is for you! It is a unique story that is as mesmerizing as it is mysterious. I enjoyed the book and would give it 3 1/2 stars. I would have given it 4 stars if it was edited down about 100 pages. Laura, Daniel, and Mo return to their quaint hometown of Lovesend, MA, after a year-long absence. But their homecoming is shrouded in confusion — contrary to popular belief, they weren't away for a music program abroad; they were dead. Dark magic has inexplicably resurrected them, thrusting them into a game where survival is not guaranteed. Desperate for answers and grappling with their newfound magical abilities, they strike a perilous deal with supernatural beings to unlock the secrets of their death. However, as memories resurface, Lovesend reveals itself as a nexus for otherworldly entities and a vengeful god. But their pact for survival proves more complex than anticipated, as they try to find a way to keep the gods appeased, their town safe and themselves in the realm of the living.

Delighted to include this title in the February edition of Novel Encounters, my column highlighting the month’s most anticipated fiction for the Books section of Zoomer, Canada’s national culture magazine. (see column and mini-review at link)