Not a book for everyone but I can see why many enjoyed it. I wouldn’t highly recommend this one across the board but within a readers advisory conversation, I would know if this was a book a specific reader would really enjoy. It was expansive; not a quick read but still very rewarding. I enjoyed its strangeness be how immersive it was. I look forward to reading Link’s short fiction. I know that’s what she’s known for. But this was still a gargantuan triumph just the same

This book is, frankly, bizarre and baffling.

The story is told by several narrators (maybe a dozen), each of which is unreliable. And all of whom are lost.

The plot is twisty and nonlinear, and goes round in circles and ties the reader in knots.

The genre of this novel is dark academia, but sometimes it obfuscates in darkness and grey so much that even the biggest fan of magical realism may be confused.

Me. It's me. I'm confused.

I just think maybe there was too much going on. Was the author going for Midsummer Night's Dream? That would make sense.

Susannah starts the book saying "I'm tired of this. Not knowing. Being in the dark. Being alone in the dark. Don't you ever get tired of it?"

And honestly, that's how I felt about this book.

“The book of love” conta a história de Susannah, Laura, Daniel e Mo. Mas ao mesmo tempo conta outras várias histórias no meio. Mas vamos começar do começo:

Um ano se passou desde um dia fatídico: Laura, Daniel e Mo desapareceram da face da terra. Susannah ficou sozinha sem a irmã, o amigo e o ex-namorado. Num ataque de fúria, ela pega a guitarra que era de sua irmã e quebra no quarto porque está sozinha, porque sente falta deles, porque se sente culpada mesmo não tendo ideia do que aconteceu.

É é então que os três desaparecidos “acordam”. Eles estão na sala de música do colégio e lá eles recebem a notícia de que sim, eles morreram um ano atrás e agora, se eles quiserem ficar vivos, vão ter que cumprir com um acordo de encontrar algo para os dois que falam com eles ali. Porém, eles não estão sozinhos.

Além deles, mais uma pessoa aparece na sala, uma pessoa que não lembra quem é ou o que fez e como chegou ali que eles dão o nome de Bowie. Assim eles entram num acordo: os quatro vão tentar conseguir o que é procurado, mas, ao fim de tudo, apenas dois vão poder ficar e dois terão que voltar para o mundo dos mortos.

Quando eles voltam para suas vidas, ninguém estranha porque uma mágica foi feita para que todos acreditem que esse ano desaparecido eles estavam na verdade estudando na Irlanda em uma bolsa que eles ganharam pra ir até lá.

Enquanto a história vai passando e eles tentam seguir as regras impostas a eles, também outros personagens vão surgindo na história: Thomas, sendo um dos mais importantes para o que se dá com o quarteto de pessoas mortas.

Eu gostei muito desse livro. Ele é separado, cada capítulo, mostra o ponto de vista de cada um dos personagens, e mesmo que tenha sido bom, muitas vezes muitos pontos de vista foram exagerados. Até mesmo o ponto de vista da cidade nos temos em algum momento e essa é minha única reclamação.

Fora isso, todos os personagens são ótimos: Kelly Link faz com que a gente se importe com aqueles personagens e queira saber o que vai acontecer com eles, se no fim tudo vai se resolver ou se eles terão ainda que perder suas vidas.

Existe uma vilã no livro, mas ela não é a única a fazer coisas questionáveis e isso foi uma das coisas mais interessantes pra mim. Todo mundo em algum ponto fez algo ruim, algumas coisas que machucaram outras ou coisas com um resultado mais trágico do que o esperado, mas todas igualmente questionáveis e isso é algo que eu gosto bastante porque gosto desses personagens que não são 100% perfeitos.

O livro tem um final fechado, que eu achei maravilhosamente escrito tanto no que é o final da história quanto ao que se fala sobre finais e como eles nunca realmente acontecem.

É um livro também que é cheio de reflexões. Você fica se perguntando o que faria no lugar dos personagens e como lidaria com aquela situação, além de tocar em pontos bem importantes e honestos sobre o luto.

Vale muito a pena ler esse livro e eu estou aqui de dedos cruzados torcendo pra que ele seja comprado por uma editora brasileira!

Thanks for the free e-book, Penguin Random House International.

There's whimsy and beauty in the unexpected and no one does it better than Kelly Link. The story sits with you and slowly unveils itself around you - it's not a story you fly through and forget about,. Like grief, the story surrounds you and carries you, though I did start noticing the length of the story around the 70% mark.

Thank you to Random House for an ARC of this in exchange for an honest review.

A solid premise spoiled by a plot that was needlessly convoluted and a story so much longer than it needed to be.

I received a pre-release copy of The book of Love by Kelly link all opinions written here are my own.
The book of Love is not something that I would have picked up myself. The cover piqued my interest and while it was a good story, I also found it very confusing and hard to follow. There were a lot of places where the characters did. Things that I felt were a bit of filer they didn't really need to do them. Or say them. There were other parts that I wish the Kelly, link had expanded on. An example of this would have been the relationships between characters. Another example is the motivation for the two main characters and why they want to not have their particular jobs anymore. As well as why they care for each other a little more backstory on who they are.
Due to the slack of backstory and the little bit of sci-fi or fantasy that you will find in this book gives The book of Love. A little bit of an eyes wide shut sort of flavor. I'm glad I stepped outside of my comfort zone to read this book, but I'm not sure that I would read it again. However, I would be interested to find out more about the genre that she writes to see if this is on par for what is normal for her style of writing.
I thank you for the opportunity to write this review.

This has all the things I love about Kelly Link's short fiction. She's a master at melding the mundane and the magical. And while the magical is truly next-level here, it's getting to know these teenaged characters and seeing them manage the relationships in their lives.

Thank you to NetGalley, Random House & Kelly Link for a digital ARC of The Book of Love in exchange for an honest review.

This book was ALL the buzz & I just had to read it. I will admit, it took me a while because it's double the length of what I normally read.

This story follows Laura, Daniel & Mo who mysteriously disappeared from their hometown without a trace. They then reappear almost a year later in one of their old school classrooms. Their music teacher is there & seems to know how & why they disappeared & how they can come back for good. For one, they're dead. However, the music teacher tells them that they can reclaim their lives by performing a series of magical tasks for him. They will return to the world of the living with their friends & family, but can tell no one of anything they know. To complicate matters, other supernatural figures begin to infiltrate the town due to the miraculous resurrection & now everyone is in danger.

This sounded so incredibly unique & original and it was getting so much hype. It was so-so for me. I rated it 3 Stars.

The pacing was so slow! Not only was the book extremely long to begin with, but it DRAGGED. If an author is going to right a 640 page book, it needs to have a good pace. The characters also bland. I didn't really form any attachments to them. The writing was great. Kelly Link is certainly talented, but the slow pacing, boring plot at time & bland characters just didn't work for me.

This book is incredible. Kelly Link is an astounding talent, which we all knew already, but this book just seals the deal. I loved the set-up of this narrative and the characters kept me drawn in the whole time.

Kelly Link's _The Book of Love_ is excellent. Daniel, Susannah, Mo, and Laura found a magic object of great power, but lost it because they didn't know how to use it. Then, Daniel, Mo, and Laura disappeared. When they return, they, along with Bowie (whose origins are uncertain), Susannah (Laura's sister), Thomas (who lives to avenge his brother's death), and Mr. Anabin (their music teacher), must find the lost magical object and complete their quest, preferably before winter break is over.

Although the characters are all adults, they are very young adults and have not really assumed adult roles. Laura and Susannah still bicker with each other. Laura, Susannah, and Daniel are in a band together. Susanna and Daniel have an on-again-off-again romance. Despite the characters seeming immature, they are sexually active. And some of the sex scenes are explicit, if not especially erotic.

I really enjoyed the book. Exposition and world building can be tricky. Readers don't like being confused, but neither do we like an info dump. Link fed information as I needed it. Just when I was getting frustrated, there was another crumb of information to provide context. I don't mind doing a little work as a reader, and I enjoyed the puzzles and riddles that the characters (and readers) had to figure out to piece together what comes next.

Beloved short story writer Kelly Link’s first novel, The Book of Love, will be polarizing. It is character-driven, meandering, philosophical, and really quite strange. Many readers will find that this isn’t for them. In news that should surprise no one, I ate it up.

It’s almost impossible to describe what this book is actually “about,” but I’ll take a stab at it. Four friends, all on the cusp of adulthood, stumble into a centuries-old magical feud. Before the events of the story, three of them die. The story itself chronicles them coming back to life, trying to stay alive, and battling two creepy, cunning old guys and their petty, vengeful, moon goddess mistress. There’s a grimy otherworld where characters run around as wolves. There’s a little girl who turns into a unicorn. There’s a deceased romance novelist whose creations come back to life. There’s a character who, in an adolescent tantrum, turns himself into the Atlantic Ocean. And yet it all comes together and makes sense somehow!

The writing, the themes, the vision! Kelly Link, I apologize. I wasn’t familiar with your game. The Book of Love is tender and wry, generous and cutting. It’s existential and deeply embodied. I could see, smell, and hear the environment, the characters, and their magic. But what I loved most were the characters: flawed, annoying, hilarious, stupid, stubborn, generous, and trying their best to be good. I loved them all (even Laura, who never quite has the self-awareness to realize how awful she can be), but Mo claimed a special place in my heart. A young, Black, gay guy living in a small town? Grieving, vulnerable, but tough? Obsessed with opera, has a crew of fun queer besties, and enough charisma to pull “straight” guys and a centuries-old hottie? Yeah. He’s a king. Wishing only the best for you and your murder boyfriend, buddy.

The Book of Love is not a page-turner – it’s a slow-burner. There are a ton of plot threads here and Link is in no hurry to help readers put them together. She simply trusts that you will – and I did. The first act had me confused about what was happening, where the story was going, and what the structure would be, but when I started to understand it felt like I was being lit up from the inside out. This is a story about stories, about life, love, and loss, about choices and how they can hurt or heal people. It’s also a story about intense teenaged musicians and romance novels. Is it any wonder that I loved it?!

I devoured this book in a few short days, which I attribute primarily to January Lavoy’s masterful performance as the audiobook narrator. Lavoy does an excellent job voicing each of the POV characters — which is saying something, because there are about a dozen. Her performance perfectly highlights the humour, heart, angst, and even some of the gentle absurdity of the story. The almost 24-hour long production absolutely flew by, and I’m not sure that the text alone would’ve done the same. Highly recommend giving the audiobook a go.

The Book of Love isn’t for every reader. It’s complex, slow, and somewhat opaque (at least initially). But those readers out there who actually like those things? Readers like me? You’re going to love it. One of my favourites of the year so far.

While this book initially drew me in with it's mysterious and magical premise, it was just a little too drawn out for me and I couldn't stick with it. I am hopeful that this was just a "not now" and not a "not ever" read and I am looking forward to coming back to it when I'm ready.

Thank you, Net Gallery, for the advanced copy. The book started off a little choppy and confusing and then I realized it was just the character. Some of the characters were hard to like and did not even like each other. There is some mystery, some magic. I would recommend.

This book was interesting because on one hand, I wanted to really, really like it. And there were parts that I did really, really like. But at the same time, I felt like I was slogging through huge swaths of the book, and I really can't pin down the things that made it a slog and not as enjoyable as I hoped.

I found the characters interesting and wanted to spend more time in the story with each of them. I enjoyed the central premise and the sense of an answer hanging just out of reach the entire time. The writing had a good flow (although it tended toward repetition) and had several passages that I highlighted on my Kindle. The ending made sense and seemed to tie up most of the loose ends in a satisfactory way. I enjoyed the concept of magic in the book and how it was used.

But for some reason, it didn't all come together for me. I'm still going to try out more of Kelly Link's books, and I hope that she writes another novel. This one just felt... incomplete. It wasn't bad by any stretch. I would call it a good book, but it seemed to have the makings of a great book, which gives it a slight air of disappointment.

I was both thoroughly confused and utterly intrigued by this book. I think I know what happened, generally, but I also think that this whole story truly only makes sense in the mind of the author, who knows so much more than I do about the magical realms she created for this story. I cannot explain why I kept reading this book. I didn't like it and I didn't dislike it. But I also have never read anything comparable before, which kept me powering through. Do I feel like I just woke up from a fever dream? Yes. And I imagine that the longer I am awake, the more it will fade in my mind until I truly can't tell you what I just experienced. But it was a wild ride!

What more do you need to say about Kelly Link? If you enjoy her short stories you will also enjoy her first full length novel.

DNF 33%

I was so excited to read this one and even more excited to receive an advance copy, but this one was a disappointment. I'm not intimidated by a 640 page book, but that book has to be at least a little gripping from the get go. The story is sooooooooo slow and I refuse to force myself to read something just for the sake of saying that I finished it.

Thank you NetGalley for the ARC of this book.

A lot of the descriptions in this were hauntingly vivid, and I really liked the themes of the shape and manifestation different forms of love/relationships take, but ultimate found this too long and weird for my current mood. Worth a try if it sounds appealing, though;, as it is really well done, I think I picked it up at the wrong moment (moody readers are so fickle).

Book Name: The Book of Love
Author: Kelly Link

ARC
Thank you to NetGalley and **Random House Publishing Group - Random House | Random House** for an ARC of Kelly Link’s The book of Love

Stars: 1 (DNF)

Thoughts
- Overly Long
- Overly Complicated
- Overly Ambitious

This book was too ambitious. It was overly long overly drawn out and with too many characters to feel emotionally connected to any of them. The concept for the narrative made me want to enjoy this more than I did and made me try this book multiple times. I feared that this was a good book wrong time scenario and disregarded the publishing date to try it over and over again every few weeks. I regretfully came to the conclusion that this book is not a book that I am not going to finish or appreciate. Its skill is that it blends literary fiction with fantasy. I am not a literary fiction reader, in this regard. Thank you to the publisher for graciously allowing me the time to try and appreciate this heavy work.

Due to the Negative Nature of this review, I will not be posting it to Goodreads or retail sites with respect to the publisher and author.

Susanna is having bad dreams and things are not where they should be, including her sister, Laura. Laura, meanwhile, is in a place with Daniel and Mo where they can't get out. When they finally do get out, there are four of them and they are in the music teacher's classroom at their school. He and his friend set tasks for them and make it so that everyone thinks that they were off in Ireland during their absence.

This book felt so long. It was also very repetitive with a lot of scenes being told from more than one character's point of view. There were far too many POVs so that it felt a lot like a soap opera despite having one main story. And there were just so many unnecessary words that it felt like the author was trying to hit a specific word count.

Thanks to NetGalley for a free copy of this book in exchange for my opinion.