Friday, December 14, 2012

Book Review: The Brides of Rollrock Island

TITLE: The Brides of Rollrock Island
AUTHOR: Margo Lanagan
PUBLISHED: September 2012
CATEGORY: YA
GENRE: Selkies, Urban Fantasyish
PREMISE: On Rollrock Island a witch can bring a man a wife from the sea. For a price.
MY REVIEW: So confession time: I have never read Tender Morsels. I know, for shame. This is my first time trying out Margo Lanagan. Which from what I've read, may have been a mistake because people keep telling me Tender Morsels is much better.
I certainly can't fault the writing on this. Lanagan's writing is supurb. I can totally buy that she's won writing awards. It is also a wonderful idea. I just don't think the execution works very well. For one, this book jumps around a lot and I spent a lot of the novel being confused trying to keep up with what was going on. I still can't exactly tell you what the point of the novel is either because I never really saw one.
Honestly I think enjoyment of this one will depend on the reader. Because for just as many people like me who were just confused by it, there are people who loved it. I personally love the idea of it, I just don't care for the result.
WHO SHOULD READ: Margo Lanagan fans, fans of Selkie stories
MY RATING: Three and a half out of Five for beautiful writing but confusing story.

Note: putting this under my Mermaid tag even though Selkies aren't really Mermaids, I just don't have a Selkie tag because there aren't many Selkie books out. YET. 

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