Disclaimer: Review originally posted at www.audiobookreviewer.com
This is the story of Jacob, Remington and Leopold in their search for the Living Man, a legend in the world of the dead. This living man is believed to have passed the veil dividing the world of the living and the world of the dead, and Jacob believes that this man can help them to cross this veil in the opposite direction.
Jacob is a preservationist, a professional in fixing corpses to make them look like living people; Remington is a boy missing part of his skull, where a crow nests; and Leopold is a gambler with dubious intentions. Other characters with missing body parts will join the trio in their search.
A crossover between Neil Gaiman’s novels and Tim Burton’s Beetlejuice, this promised to be such a good story, but I soon found that the plot was buried in baroque language, corpses and debris. I found very difficult to follow the story and after a while I completely lost interest in it. It seemed the very long monologs and descriptions were more important to the author than the story itself. I think Squailia focuses more on the path than the real goal, more on the characters evolution than on how realistic they can be. Unfortunately this does not make them alive but just simple caricatures.
This book is narrated by Gabriel Squailia himself, and the long speeches become alive in the same theatrical tone as it was written, like taken a from a play. This made them not completely believable, and most of the time I did not understand their motivations. I think Squailia tries too hard when narrating, and he overdid it. He gives personality to the characters, but again, it is like we are watching a play, and instead of regular communication we listen to infinite speeches in front of an audience. I found it very tiresome and unnatural.
I loved the initial concept and I was ready to be amazed by this story, but I just couldn’t get through the style and general pretentious tone of the book.
My name is Elena. Since I was a little child I loved science fiction and fantasy, and I can’t resist a good novel. In 2015, while wait I started to listen to audiobooks and I discovered the pleasure in being able to read while doing my daily tasks, so there’s always an audiobook playing on my phone. If you see me with my Bluetooth headphones on, please be gentle, I get easily startled.
I live with my boyfriend, which I met during my six-year stay in Belgium, four cockatiels, eight lovebirds, and a hamster in Madrid, Spain; and I like to spend my free time knitting and sewing while listening to audiobooks.
