I don't know how to review a Kelly Link book. Things written by Kelly Link will make you scared and sad and glad to be a human. They will make you think and feel and want to stretch farther than you currently are, to be more than you currently are. They are too much and just enough. They remind you why it's good to be a human even while they're reminding you why it's so very hard to be a human.

This one has magic (they all have magic) and music (they don't all have music) and tigers (not a main plot point but worth a mention).

I’m a huge fan of Kelly Link’s surreal short stories, and was extremely excited for a full-length novel about teens that return from the dead and are entered into some type of supernatural challenge in order to protect their loved ones. Unfortunately, I found the entire thing to be a complete snooze; over-written, extremely slow, and tough to follow along. I really struggled here, which bums me out, because this one had all the makings of a Jordy classic.

Kelly Link's The Book of Love is an enchanting masterpiece that demands attention and adoration. With prose akin to poetry and a narrative woven with fable-like wonder, Link creates a world simultaneously familiar and fantastically impossible. As a fervent admirer of Link's work, I found myself utterly captivated by the intricate characters and their haunting journey through life and beyond. From the enigmatic disappearance of Laura, Daniel, and Mo to the mystical resurrection orchestrated by their high school music teacher, Mr. Anabin, every twist and turn is laced with mystery and magic. Link's portrayal of diverse personalities, from the upright Laura to the wild Susannah and the wise-beyond-his-years Mo, is nothing short of mesmerizing. Moreover, her evocative depiction of magic, ranging from the dark and eerie to the whimsical and grand, invites readers to surrender to its spellbinding allure. With nods to pop culture seamlessly integrated into the narrative and a writing style that tilts reality, The Book of Love is a literary gem that demands to be cherished and shared. In my fervent love for this book, silence is simply not an option—I am compelled to sing its praises far and wide.

I had a really hard time reading and understanding what was going on with this book and unable to connect to what was going on.

"The Book of Love" is a genre-bending, metaphysical journey that blurs the lines between reality and the supernatural. The story follows Laura, Daniel, and Mo - three teenagers who mysteriously reappear in their hometown of Lovesend a year after being presumed dead. Guided by their unassuming former music teacher, they embark on a series of magical tasks as a condition of their return, all while concealing the truth from their loved ones.
Link weaves an intricate narrative filled with imaginative twists and turns. Her lyrical prose seamlessly transitions between the ordinary and the extraordinary, keeping readers delightfully off-balance. The book explores diverse forms of love - romantic, platonic, familial - with Link's trademark wit and compassion.
While the magical elements provide a sense of whimsy, the story's true strength lies in its emotional depth. Link deftly explores themes of grief, loss, and the enduring bonds that connect us, even in the face of unfathomable circumstances. The relationships between the characters, particularly Laura and her sister Susannah, are beautifully rendered and form the heart of the novel.
"The Book of Love" is a mesmerizing, genre-defying tale that will captivate readers with its unique magical realism and profound emotional resonance. Link's extraordinary imagination and skill as a storyteller shine through every page, cementing her status as a modern literary master. A must-read for fans of thought-provoking, boundary-pushing fiction.

A huge thanks to NetGalley, Random House Publishing Group - Random House, and of course, Kelly Link for providing me with an eARC of this book. I am voluntarily leaving a review, all opinions are my own.

I enjoyed the time jumping, it's always something I've enjoyed in books. But this book seemed to drag at times, It took me ages to finish because I couldn't just focus and do some solid reading- it was all over the place.

My biggest gripe with this book isn't necessarily an issue with the writing or anything, but I just couldn't connect to the characters and just honestly found myself not caring about them or the outcome.

It was an interesting read, it just wasn't quite what I was expecting and was so drawn out and so much longer than I would've anticipated.

This is a very interesting story about three teens who return from the dead and have to compete for their chance to return to the living. If that sounds interesting to you, I recommend you give this book a chance and stick with it. It took me awhile to get used to the stream of consciousness prose style. While I found it off putting at first, after adjusting to it, it started to flow better. It is worth pushing through!

It is multi-POV, first person narration. There are a lot of perspectives (which makes this a very long book for the amount of plot). Despite being convoluted, it is a really fun, convoluted ride. And it is weird, embrace the weirdness!

Thank you to NetGalley and Random House Publishing Group for providing an eARC of this book.

Thank you to the publisher and Netgalley for providing an advance copy in exchange for honest feedback. Loved this book so much. Would recommend to fans of buffy the vampire slayer or Neil Gaiman

Firstly I want to thank Random House for providing me with a digital arc of this novel. Sadly, I ended up DNF’ng it. I really gave it the old college try but ultimately I just wasn’t feeling compelled to keep reading or really cared for the characters. Most of the time I was confused. I have read plenty of novels with multiple POVs however this felt disjointed. I think Link’s writing style and voice is good but I think it could’ve benefitted from a stronger edit.

A compelling blend of fantasy and murder mystery with lyrical descriptions and a plot that will keep you guessing to the end.

How to even describe this fantasy book?! Essentially, at the start of this novel, it’s been a year since high schoolers Laura, Daniel, and Mo disappeared, when they suddenly reappear in their high school music classroom - and their teacher essentially tells them they’ve been brought back through magic and have to complete certain tasks to stay. And everyone else in town - including their families - no longer will remember they disappeared but instead will think they were abroad for the year. And things only get stranger from there…

It’s hard to rate this one - great strange vibe, interesting story, interesting writing, interesting characters - but it was just SO LONG. And it’s kind of fascinating - Kelly Link has written many short story collections (two of which I’ve read and loved) but this is her first novel - so it’s kind of crazy that her first long form fiction weighs in at a whopping 630 pages! So I ended up reading this one a little at a time over a few weeks instead of as my main book. And it’s funny - I rarely felt compelled to pick it up when I wasn’t reading it, but then every time I did pick it up I got sucked in.

Ultimately I really liked it - but it just didn’t need to be that long. Like it wasn’t some epic story that required 600+ pages - it would have been so much better if it was say 400 pages. And yet I’m glad I read it and totally would read her again. So I’m going to average that all out and give this 3.5 stars.

Buckle up, bookworms! If you're looking for a story that'll shake things up, Kelly Link's "The Book of Love" is your jam. Forget the usual YA tropes – this isn't your average high school drama. Link throws a whole heaping helping of magic, mythology, and the downright bizarre into the mix, and the result is a wild ride that'll leave you grinning like a fool.

Personally, I fell head over heels for the characters. Laura, Daniel, and Mo – these kids are going through some crazy stuff, coming back from the dead and all. But even with ghosts and gods breathing down their necks, their friendship stays strong. It's their bond, their love for each other, that's the real magic of the story. You can't help but root for them, even when things get super weird (which, trust me, they do).

And oh boy, does Link get creative with the weird! Think folklore with a modern twist, a dash of mythology thrown in for good measure. The plot kept me on my toes, with twists and turns I never saw coming. Just when you think you know what's happening, BAM! Link throws you a curveball that sends the story sailing in a whole new direction.

But here's the thing, beneath all the spells and spooky stuff, there's a beautiful message about love. Love for your friends, for your family, even for the quirky town you call home. It's a reminder that love, in all its messy, complicated glory, can conquer even the craziest challenges.

So, if you're looking for a story that's both heartwarming and mind-bending, "The Book of Love" is a must-read. It's the kind of book you devour in one sitting, then spend days mulling over because it gets under your skin and stays with you. Trust me, you won't regret giving this one a try.

I wanted to love ‘The Book of Love', however it took a long time to get into it. Overall, I like ‘The Book of Love.’ While the premise is intriguing, the story's pacing is choppy and there are too many perspectives - it feels like it slows things down unnecessarily. If you can stick with verbose fantasy novels with side stories - this might be the book for you.

Thank you NetGalley and Random House Publishing Company for sending an eARC of The Book of Love for review consideration.

I can’t say that I understood everything that goes on in this book, but it was interesting and entertaining. What primarily kept me reading was the characters; I wanted to know what would happen to them in the end. Unfortunately, I didn’t quite understand exactly what did happen to them. I mean, I got the jist of things, but I didn’t understand how they could take on their new assignments but still go on with their lives as normal.

While it does touch on various kinds of love, this book isn’t really bout love. This is a fantasy tale. It’s all about paranormal beings, about magic, about mind-control, shapeshifting, and more. At times, it verges on horror. The author does a good job of setting the atmosphere for what’s going on. However, she alternates between writing lightning fast and snappy sections and extremely slow ones. She goes off on tangents about various things, like guitars and coffee. In my opinion, this book too long and repetitive, bloated. It could easily have been significantly shorter.

The book focuses on LGBTQ relationships and diversity. There’s a lot of crude language and intimate interactions, straight and gay. It takes place in Lovesend, Massachusetts. I was completely immersed in that town and it’s residents. It’s a town of happiness, sadness, grief, love, magic, and ordinariness.

There are a lot of surprises, especially in the last quarter of the book. Those were interesting and unexpected. I just wish that the first three-quarters of the book were as interesting.

If you have the patience to plow through some the extraneous sections of this book, and if you enjoy fantasy that’s not always clear in its purpose, this might be a good book for you to read, Just go in knowing that things could be rather scrambled and confusing, this could be a good book for you to investigate.

If you enjoy books that center around death and the afterlife, of coming back from the dead, about family and friendship, this might be a good choice for you.

I received an advanced reader copy of this book from the publisher through NetGalley. I thank all involved for their generosity, but it had no effect on this review. All opinions in this review reflect my true and honest reactions to reading this book.

DNF @ 13%

What I did read (~83 pages) was a meandering slog to get through, and I was horrified to think I'd spent another 8+ hours reading. I saw slight shades of both American Gods and Netflix's The OA, but Link's writing was just so slow that I didn't care enough to get further along to see if the plot went anywhere.

Three teens, Laura, Mo and Daniel, abruptly awaken in a school classroom, aware that they were dead. They’re met by Mr. Anabin, and the frightening Bogamil. Anabin informs them they must learn to perform magic within a year, or they will be returned to death. They will be given specific magical tasks to complete, and they can tell no one outside their small group of where they have been.

While they were gone, the teens’ families have reconciled themselves to their deaths. We see this in how all of them have moved on in some way or the other, or are trying to cope, as we see with Laura’s sister Susannah, who has transformed herself from the messy child into responsible one. Formerly, Laura was known to be the organized and responsible of the two.

When the three teens return home, their families’ memories are rewritten to incorporate their return, which is explained away as the trio being in Ireland the past year at boarding school.

The three try to return to their former lives, but notice the changes, and struggle. They also struggle with learning magic, while Susannah tries to pull the two realities she feels in her mind together: Laura, Mo and Daniel dead, contrasted with Laura, Mo and Daniel back from Ireland. (Note that Laura, Mo, Daniel and Susannah are all point of view characters, and each chapter is named for the character the reader will be spending time with.)

As if this wasn't enough, there are other supernatural and possibly malevolent beings in town attracted to the magic of the teens' resurrection. These beings begin infiltrating the lives of the adolescents and the town, causing chaos and deaths.

This is a long book, and it takes quite a while to get to the point where the trio are making a go of their new lives, and in some cases, new powers. Much of the prose is devoted to the confusion, anger and sheer amazement each member of the trio feels about being alive again.

What is interesting, and obvious, but not to them, is that returning from the dead does not magically heal the existing problems in their relationships with each other, or their propensity for making mistakes or in some cases, dumb or harmful decisions. They're still teens trying to figure out who they are and what they want, and the stress of learning magic and pretending they were away at school exacerbates some of their less laudatory qualities. Meaning, all the jealousies, insecurities, crushes, angers, wants, needs, aspirations and ambitions are still in them, and often their worst selves are at the fore making choices during the year they each have.

The characters are lovingly crafted and flawed, and in one case fairly unlikable, even though she is a point of view character. Probably my favourite characters in this book are Mo and his dead grandmother, a hugely successful romance novel writer, and Susannah.

There is also much happening in the town with its large cast of characters, and there are some fairly loopy ideas and scenes throughout the novel. But there are also emotional moments as the four try to navigate who they are and what they can do, and where do they want to be. Author Kelly Link does a wonderful job with the characterizations, and she even makes a bloody, terrifying being who has a stake in what happens at the end of the year at times sympathetic.

This is not the easiest book to get through, partly because of its length and the time it takes to move all the characters into place and set the stakes so that when the teens have to use what the have learned and deal with the outcomes, it feels earned.

If you're in the mood for a dark, sprawling story with flawed characters making mistakes and bad decisions until they don't, with sweet and shocking and scary and sad moments, and this this is for you.

Thank you to Netgalley and to Random House Publishing Group - Random House for this ARC in exchange for this my review.

Laura, Daniel, and Mo disappeared without a trace a year ago. Now they're back and need to figure out where they went, how, and why in order to save themselves and their town from a darkness even worse than the one they'd been in.
It's a story full of questions that takes its sweet time answering them, and that's a big part of its charm. You start the story as lost as the protagonists and get little pieces revealed from their very different perspectives in a way that makes everything feel utterly magical. Everyone is so different in temperament and desires that you get to explore the situation from varied angles.
It's also a story about relationships and how they shape a person and their future. Everyone's decisions are, at one time or another, directly influenced by the people around them and the feelings they have for each other. It makes for some very emotional moments that don't always pay off becuase there are so many of them that you don't really get the chance to connect with everything going on. The unfortunate truth is that the same thing that makes it great, the varied perspectives from many different characters, is also what makes it hard to truly connect when you don't get time to process one revelation before you're smack dab in the middle of another event.
I think it suffered a little from the fact that I've been hearing such raving reviews about it that I kind of expected too much from it. It is a phenomenal read and incredibly well-written, it's just not the genre-redefining work that people kept pushing me to read. The typical case of too much hype for its own good.

Very happy thanks to NetGalley and Random House for the magical read!

Thank you for the ARC of this book, sadly I had to DNF this book because I just couldn't get into it. The plot was kind of all over the place. There were way too many points of view and it was hard to keep track, and lastly the book was way too long for me especially making it 40% into the story and nothing special had happened and I wound up with more questions than answers. I'm sure this book is up other people's alley but it just hit the mark with me.

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.