I've been a fan of Kelly Link's short stories for ages, so when I saw she'd written a full-length book, I was intrigued. And what a labyrinthine book it is - over 600 pages for a very simple premise: four people return from the dead, but only two can stay. To do so, they must complete and win magical challenges.

That's the pitch - but the reality of the book is much simpler. It's about grief and coming of age - of finding one's place as an adult in a world that keeps trucking on despite your pain and hesitancy. I loved this book because it reminded me of all my favorite fairy tales mashed into one: it's whimsical, funny, heart-breaking, and gorgeously written. There's an argument to be made that it's too long - and perhaps it is; it takes a very long time to get going - but I loved every moment of subtle character work that Link did as she set up the players of this story. Fans of whimsical tales such as any of Neil Gaiman's work or Susanna Clarke's novels will likely find a lot to enjoy here, as I did.

I will admit from the first that I really like Kelly Link's work, mostly. And I liked The Book of Love a lot--it's a fairy tale, a mystery, a tale of friendship tested to its limits, a chronicle of disenchanted young people in a world that doesn't seem to have a future, a romance. The villains are excellent, their henchpeople unexpected, and everyone is created with depth and originality. The narrative is beautifully paced as it moves from focus to focus, and offers insights into real human behavior and desire.

A little disappointing -- I liked her latest book of short stories and this had the elements of a good tale but it took too long to do too little -- sorry!

Holly Black and Leigh Bardugho led me astray blurbing this one.

Absolutely intolerable. This was easily the most boring book I've read this year. Generally, a book takes me three days to finish, no matter the length. This monstrous volume took me just under a month to push through. The writing was trying way too hard to be unique and different. It's written in this confusing manner where it tells us every mundane thought that passes through our character's heads but does nothing to further explain the plot. This went on for 640 pages.

At the end of the day, I don't even understand this book. I'm not above reading material that's outside of my IQ, but that's not the issue here. The problem is this book goes out of its way to misguide and confuse you, all for the sake of "prose." If you want to be insufferably bored, by all means, check this one out. Genuinely, I'm sure there is an audience out there for this book; I for the life of me can't figure out who it would be.

Thank you NetGalley and Random House Publishing Group for the advance copy in exchange for an honest review. All thoughts expressed are my own.

This was my first experience reading Kelly Link and I was rather disappointed. The book moved way too slowly to hold my interest. This was a DNF for me.

So slow and not much there. This book was way longer than it should have been with nothing to show for it.

I am a sucker for anything Kelly Link writes. I was so excited to read her first novel. This story did not disappoint. I LOVED this book so much! It's fantasy, horror, and romance all rolled into one story. Go buy and read this book!

I enjoyed reading Kelly Link's debut novel and am very interested in reading more of her short stories. I found the character's engaging and the world building fantastic. I especially enjoyed how seamlessly the magic system was interwoven into ordinary life. The writing was lyrical and engaging, if at times the dialogue was stilted and repetive. My major criticism was how long the book was. There were many moments where events narrated by one character were then narrated again by another character, most frequently by the Laura, Daniel, and Susannah triad. I also felt like more attention was paid to establishing the atmosphere and descriptions of magic which did make the book an interesting read. However, the plot seemed to be an afterthought, and I found myself skimming towards the end to see how everything would be resolved. Overall, this was an engaging read, and I would read Link's other works. The final manuscript, however, could have been shortened by at least 200 pages.

I spent a year in college listening to 69 Love Songs on repeat. This is the most quintessential queer-teenager experience I've ever had, although (a late bloomer in this respect) I was in my early twenties before I owned the album. One of the Magnetic Fields' sixty-nine songs is "The Book of Love." After half a lifetime of falling for books full of music without recognizing any of the allusions, I'm startled when I know a reference:

The book of love has music in it
In fact that's where music comes from
Some of it is just transcendental
Some of it is just really dumb
But I... I love it when you sing to me...



There you have it: The Book of Love is about music, unclearly reciprocated devotion, being nineteen, and--the book in the song was, it warns us, "written very long ago"--the weird stretched feeling of eternity. Book of Love is also the first full-length novel by Kelly Link. For some people, that will be recommendation enough on its own. For people who want to know more, or enjoy watching writerly attempts to describe the numinous reflect each other like lines of mirrors, here is a sketch of what appears.

Near the beginning of the book, four teenagers return from the dead. Two of them, David and Laura, used to be in a band. Laura's sister Susannah was also in that band. Neither she nor Laura can shake the feeling that they are backwards--that Susannah is the one who should have fucked up in an unpredictable way, like dying.

One of the other songs layered into The Book of Love is the ballad of Tam Lin. It's not a direct Tam Lin retelling, not even as close as Nghi Vo's Siren Queen, which weaves the ballad in among many other strands. However, we do meet a beautiful man named Thomas who serves a dangerous mistress. That mistress is the book's antagonist, though it's possible that Laura, who has always been a good girl--ambitiously good--is even more terrifying.

One of the characters in The Book of Love is a Black woman who had a hugely successful career writing romances about a purple-eyed redhead. Rather than settling down after one book to live happily ever after, as modern genre convention would have it, the doubly fictional Lavender Glass fled between pirate ships and Scottish castles, having one adventure after another. I don't want to imply that all the love in Book of Love is romantic--for starters, the romance writer character I just mentioned is a beloved grandmother--but I was interested in the book's take on romantic love. There's a strong measure of awe in much of it. There's also a lot of casual sex that nobody expects to last. Often these feelings exist simultaneously.

Romance novels generally assume that the romantic leads are good for each other, even if it takes them a book's worth of misunderstandings to realize it. In The Book of Love, it's always possible that the beautiful person who just kissed you might be la belle dame sans merci. That kiss might also be something that is tremendously important now, but will not matter when you cease to be nineteen; or you might be destroying a relationship that matters dearly because you assume nothing you do can matter yet. I very much admire Link's willingness to let all these possibilities exist simultaneously.

The Book of Love reminds me of another Tam Lin book, Diana Wynne Jones' Fire and Hemlock, which I read over and over when I was beginning to be a teenager and didn't want to be. Both books slide back and forth between hilarious and meticulously observed accounts of everyday life and supernatural danger. They're each packed with enough reference and mysterious implication to fill six ordinary novels. These are not the books you read if you want every little thing explained (unless you want to make a career from the explaining), but they are books to read more than once.

The Book of Love is fascinating and mystifying. While I wanted desperately to see if my predictions were correct, and therefore read until the end, at times it was tedious. All in all the magical realism was satisfying but not as fulfilling as I would have liked.

First, my thanks to Random House and net galley, for allowing me this ARC in exchange for my free and unbiased review.

Second, a synopsis. There are four friends, all of them have died. All of them are on the cusp of adulthood, at just the end of high school. In one night, they're brought back from the dead by somebody who seems to be their former music teacher, Mr. Anubin, a thinly disguised version of the Egyptian god Anubis made apparent by his repeated assertion that he "stands in the balance." He tells them that they're all being allowed to come back from the dead briefly in order to perform specific tasks. If they do these correctly, then two of them will get to live, but the other two will have to remain dead. They are then sent back to their homes and families, which have been made clueless as to their deaths over the last year. This detail, somehow magically not explained, is a blatant, annoying deus ex machina on the part of the author. But that's the problem with most time, travel novels or novels about people returning from the dead colon reality. It becomes very difficult to undo timelines that have continued during a character's absence.

So, then, third: my opinion. I really struggled to crawl through this book. I found it's pacing very slow. In its promise it reminds me quite a lot of Neil Gaiman's or China Mieville's far more readable and successful works of fantasy and magical realism. American Gods and Good Omens both come to mind. But what Gaiman and Mieville do well is offer explanations to outlandish scenarios that seem entirely believable. They also give us supernatural characters that round, that we can invest in, that are full characters in their own right. I didn't feel that Link's book does either of these things well. The negative repeatedly omit information rather than offering believable explanations. It caused me to wanna stop reading in frustration. Also, the main character as far as the supernatural concerned is Mr. Anubin. He doesn't feel round at all. He feels kind of like a one line character, who just set things in motion, and then drops back in for the reveal. He wasn't a character of interest me at all. Also, the background of the four dead students with their families felt really mired in detail. I couldn't read another page about the two sisters having a conflict between them. I found I just didn't care. By about 2/3 into this book, I was forcing myself to finish because it's an ARC copy. How did not been, I likely would've DNF far earlier. It makes me sad and somewhat guilty to say this, because the author is a friend of a friend. I don't know her personally, and I'm sure she's a lovely human. But I just did not feel this book at all.

I had a hard time reading this book not what I thought it was going to be a really slow. It was ok but not great at least to me.

I loved the story, the world building and meeting the different characters. I felt completely immersed in the story and couldn't stop reading it.

This book was definitely out of my comfort zone and I didn't particularly like or dislike it, but I do think it will find readership at my library. We will be purchasing a copy for the collection.

Agreed with other reviewers that this was longer than it needed to be, with several points along the way that felt irrelevant both to itself at the time and later to the story as well. The other part that made it a slog was the constant POV-switching between a half dozen characters, give or take.

All that to say, I had a lovely time reading this book, even if it progressed a bit more slowly than I felt it could have. The plot was haunting and capricious in the way good magic can often be. I'm new to both Kelly Link and the gothic flavor of fantasy, and thoroughly enjoyed her cadence and the ambience. I'm definitely looking forward to diving into some of her shorter works next.

I’ve had a very difficult time determining how to rate this book.

On the one hand, the first 40-45% of the story was a slog. It was like trekking through the overgrown jungle with dull machete. The scenery was interesting and diverse, but the going was long and difficult. It was beautifully written to be sure, but so descriptive that it meandered at times. There were entire chapters I felt were completely unnecessary, bringing nothing to the plot or character development (or at least not enough to make an impact) so that the story would lose nothing if they were cut.

On the other hand, the remainder of the book was wonderful; inventive, exciting, and at times quite intense. Still wonderfully eloquent, but with more energy to keep you fully engaged. The world-building was unique and the characters were singular, each bringing their own charms, quirks, and at times, reprehensible behaviors. Even the unlikable characters were interesting in their own way.

So, although the first half of the book was difficult to get through, it never made me feel like quitting. I suppose that says something about the storytelling. The second half was a delight. It didn’t make up for my early frustration, but it did lead to a most enjoyable conclusion.

My advice . . . If you pick this book up, see it through to the end. I think you’ll be pleasantly surprised. Marked as 3 stars; actual rating 3-1/2 stars.

I received an ARC from NetGalley for my honest review. I thought the plot seemed interesting. Teenagers die and a year later they are brought back to life by their music teacher. They are told they will need to perform magic to stay alive and they all will not make it. I did not finish this on page 104. I was bored out of my mind with the slow pace. At 25% into the book, something should have happened to keep me interested. The part I read could have been cut down to a few pages. I have no idea if it gets better because sadly, I could not hang on to finish the book.

The Book of Love is the absolute best book of the WINTER! I loved it so much and enjoyed everything about it.

I had read a little of Kelly Link but now will immerse myself in the worlds she creates. An amazing and enthralling story of 4 friends, sisters Laura and Susannah as well as Daniel and Mo. A year ago, a mysterious moment that changed their lives when three of the four disappeared potentially forever. A deal with a devil allows the three to return but they have upset the delicate balance of the universe their friends and family still reside in and it's not long before everyone is in danger.

Link create an utterly believable story where the supernatural seems natural. Best yet, she allows us in to each firiend's mind and it's truly intimate and beautiful, chaotic and revealing. So pick this intriguing work and visit
Lovesend, Massachusetts, where friends have been holding grudges but are possibly acting out the ancient grudges of supernatural beings instead!
#Randomhouse #thebookoflove #KellyLink

From the very moment where I saw this description, I knew that I had to read this book. The premise reminds me of Reverie by Ryan La Sala, a YA portal fantasy, but the resemblance ends there, and in a good way. This book had me sucked in from the very beginning and is the kind of book I would love to have a physical copy of so I can just read it again and again.

"The Book of Love" by Kelly Link is an extraordinary and magical book that fans of "The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue" by V.E. Schwab and "Gods of Jade and Shadow" by Silvia Moreno-Garcia will happily devour. It is a long novel, taking me over ten hours to read and I am a fairly fast reader. However, it is so beautifully written that a reader will want to savor each exquisite sentence. I think it would make an excellent book club selection as there are many interesting characters to discuss and exciting occurrences to unpack.

When Laura, Daniel, and Mo die one night after a concert at a local venue, their deaths set off a chain reaction that changes the small town of Lovesend, and indeed perhaps the world, forever. However, when they miraculously come back to life and find that no one else remembers that they had died, just that they had been away, the three young adults endeavor to discover what happened to them, how and why they came back, and how they can stay alive. This book is packed full of magic, magical beings, and really is fantasy at its finest. I was thoroughly engrossed in the story and couldn't wait to find out what would happen next. Just when I thought I had everything figured out, there was another twist that I didn't see coming.

Author Kelly Link is an incredibly talented writer and I will definitely read more from her. This book deserves five, bright shiny stars! Many thanks to NetGalley, the publisher, and the author for the privilege of reading an advanced copy of this fabulous book. It is scheduled to be published 2/14/2023.