My Rating: 4.5 stars
Last year, there was one book that I not only kept seeing
repeatedly atop many “best of” lists, I also saw that nearly every one of my
Goodreads friend who had read the book (and whose opinions I trust) raved about
it. Of course, I immediately put the
book on my TBR and even bought a special annotated hardcover version with the
goal of reading it as soon as my time allowed.
That book, as I’m sure most have guessed already, was John Boyne’s award-winning
masterpiece The Heart’s Invisible Furies.
Unfortunately (and much to my disappointment), things didn’t turn out
the way I wanted and I ended up not being able to read the book last year as
planned (though with that said, in planning my 2019 reading goals, I have
prioritized the book as a “must read” for next year). When I saw that Boyne would have a new book
out this year, a novel entitled A Ladder to the Sky, I just knew
that I could not repeat the “missed opportunity” from last year, so I jumped on
getting an advance copy and prioritized it for this month. Now, having finished this brilliantly written
novel, I’m so glad I was able to get to it and finally experience for myself
Boyne’s masterful storytelling (not to mention I think I’ve found myself yet
another author to add to my “favorites” list)!
Truth be told, I felt conflicted the entire time I read
this book. On the one hand, I absolutely
loved the writing (to say that the writing in here is “brilliant” is actually
an understatement – it’s so good that I can’t think of a proper word to
describe it that would give it justice) and the story was well-executed,
powerful, and magnificently told (I was engrossed in the story from first page
to the last). In the area of character
development, Boyne’s skill is beyond phenomenal, as the meticulous way he
crafted the character of Maurice Swift – a “protagonist” so without morals and without
a single redeeming quality about him that it was impossible not to hate him (I
actually loathed him with every fiber of my being) – yet at the same time, the
character is written in a way that is so realistic and utterly believable that
there were many moments where I felt like I was reading about a real person instead
of a fictional character. Never have I
read a book where I despised the main “protagonist” so much that I almost didn’t
want to continue reading after part 2 because I was so overwhelmingly disgusted
with Maurice’s actions up to that point that I didn’t think I could bear reading
any more about his bad deeds without wanting to pull my hair out. The only reason I persevered was because I
absolutely HAD TO KNOW whether Maurice would get his comeuppance in the end (and
in another first for me -- as I read every subsequent page after that middle
section, I hoped that the ending would be satisfying, but more importantly, I
actually “prayed” that the ending would involve the character’s demise). Of course, I’m not going to spoil it for
those who’ve yet had the chance to read this, so I’m not going to say anything
further about the plot or my feelings about the ending.
Bottom line, this was a fantastic read, one that I can’t
recommend highly enough! Rating-wise,
this was easily a 5 star read given how much I loved the magnificent writing
and the engaging story (plus parts of the story and the dialogue between some
characters did give me food for thought and made me ponder some previously-held
beliefs), but I ended up giving 4.5 (rounded down) because I hated the
character of Maurice so much (and disliked many of the other characters as
well) that I just couldn’t bring myself to rate it higher. With that said though, I will echo the
sentiments of many of the other reviewers here in saying that if you haven’t
read a John Boyne novel yet, rectify that by reading this one. I personally intend to go a step further in
that I plan to read as many of his previous novels as I can while I eagerly wait
to see what Boyne has in store for us next!
Received ARC from
Hogarth Press and Crown Publishing via Penguin First to Read program.
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