Kelly Link brings the same spookiness that pervades her shorts stories to this novel. Recommended for anyone who like Kelly Link and weird horror fiction.

This book was a struggle for me to get into. I found the narrative to be too mismatched for my personal tastes but I can see myself recommending it to readers who like fantasy/magical realism with a focus on family and found family.

I was excited to read this one! The blurb was super intriguing. It was listed as anticipated sci-fi release as well as the first full length novel from a popular short story author. I'm not well versed in this genre but all these factors made me ready to dive in! I was not disappointed. It's definitely a slow burn, plot wise, and had me scratching my head a lot, but in the best way. Things don't piece together until the end which I enjoy! It's no fun having it all figured out in the beginning, just enjoy the ride.

I think Kelly did an amazing job writing interesting characters that also made sense as teenagers. Sibling rivalry, young and confusing love, the road to discovering who you are, etc were all touched on in a great way while mixing in the weird and extraordinary. I really enjoyed this!

Thanks Netgalley/Random House for the copy in exchange for an honest review.

The long awaited Book of Love is the debut novel by author Kelly Link, best known for her fantastical short stories. Much like her other works. The Book of Love falls into the category of magical realism or slipstream, where the characters move through time and space but the settings are familiar and known. In the story: Late one night, Laura, Daniel, and Mo find themselves beneath the fluorescent lights of a high school classroom, almost a year after disappearing from their hometown, the small seaside community of Lovesend, Massachusetts, having long been presumed dead. Which, in fact, they are.

With them in the room is their previously unremarkable high school music teacher, who seems to know something about their disappearance—and what has brought them back again. Desperate to reclaim their lives, the three agree to the terms of the bargain their music teacher proposes. They will be given a series of magical tasks; while they undertake them, they may return to their families and friends, but they can tell no one where they’ve been. In the end, there will be winners and there will be losers.

But their resurrection has attracted the notice of other supernatural figures, all with their own agendas. As Laura, Daniel, and Mo grapple with the pieces of the lives they left behind, and Laura’s sister, Susannah, attempts to reconcile what she remembers with what she fears, these mysterious others begin to arrive, engulfing their community in danger and chaos, and it becomes imperative that the teens solve the mystery of their deaths to avert a looming disaster.

I found the premise intriguing and wanted to be drawn in, which the first few chapters do. However, as chapter after chapter wore on, and I was introduced to character after character, I began to feel less drawn in and less intrigued. There is A LOT to wade through and much of it feels unnecessary to the story. The chapters are short and detailed, with just enough to draw you in but then ends on a cliffhanger before moving you to the POV of yet another character....and there are many characters and points of view. After a while the book felt like a tedious slog, a bit like being edged, despite the beautiful, poetic, and vividly descriptive prose. As one who reads book straight through, I had a very difficult time doing so with this book. I put it down and picked it up again more that I like. I did enjoy the ending but feel that we could have arrived at the same place with 100 fewer pages.

If you like magical realism and have time and patience, then this book might be for you. What I would really like is to see this book as a movie. On screen, the story would be visually stunning and the telling of it, over a multi-part series would do this book justice. (I say this as one who is oftern skeptical of books being turned into movies)

3.75 ☆

30, 50, even 100 pages in, i couldn't make sense of why this book had a low(ish, 3.50+ isn't bad at all!) average rating, because it seemed great to me. however, by the time i finished it, i got it. i still liked it quite a lot, and i am sure i will think about it for a long time, ruminating over every little detail and wondering if i understood everything correctly. but i can't blame the people who didn't love it.

for one, it's so damn long. there's only so much you can drag a story onward without it really going anywhere before it becomes unbearably repetitive. maybe it wasn't exactly unbearable, but there were a few—okay, plenty—of times towards the end where i just kept going because i couldn't wait to be done with it, because for so long the story stalled that i just needed it to end. i was lucky that i liked the beginning so much that i was invested enough to want to see it through, was curious about where the characters were going to end up, but i can imagine how tiresome it must have been for people who didn't feel the same way.

secondly, while i wasn't completely disappointed by it, i didn't find the ending to be satisfactory, either. not to sound like a broken record, but after 640 pages, instead of using at least 200 of them up to run in circles, i think we could've come up with something better than what actually happened, i don't know. maybe i'm just bitter because i didn't like the fate of some of the characters. or maybe i'm not, i'm being very objective in saying that the plot sort of... lost the plot, pun intended.

but it wasn't all terrible, quite the opposite. i really liked the writing, especially the parts that reminded me of a stream of consciousness, jumping from one thought to the next and feeling like you were right inside the characters' brain. i loved some of the characters, alas not all of them, and i loved exploring the relationships that bound them to one another.

i reserve the right to change my mind over the course of the next week as i spend my days obsessively trying to understand whether i really really liked this book as a whole or if i just liked some parts of it so much that i feel like i have to be kind to its entirety. i don't know and i think this review shows, lol

thank you to PRH International for the book!

Link's imaginative abilities and playfulness make for successful short stories, but this novel fails to satisfy. It is very meandering and far too long, often over-complicated. The dialogue felt performative and stilted and the character voices weren't distinct. Again, this works well in a short story: very polished and deliberate speech patterns that might feel like a fairytale, but it didn't work well in a novel where I needed to believe in the teenagers at the heart of the story. (And I'm all for precocious teens, don't get me wrong.) I'd looked forward to this book but found it hard to get through because the plot didn't advance quickly and because the author seemed to get in the way of her writing somehow. It was so set on being unorthodox and whimsical that it couldn't find the beating heart of the story.

I ended up a bit disappointed by this one. Going in, the premise really grabbed me. It sounded both mysterious and magical to me. In the end, I think the book was trying too hard to do too many things. Some of the story fell flat and didn’t have a satisfying wrap up. The characters needed some work too. That being said, I would definitely pick up other work from this author because with ideas like this she can only get better

I mean, Kelly Link is a genius. Surely we all knew that already. The Book of Love will stay with me for the rest of my life, the way the best, most beautiful novels always do. Dreamlike, mythic, gorgeous... the kind of thing it feels like a privilege to read.

This novel is only for some, so if you're expecting a fast, fluffy read that is merely plot-driven, then it's not for you, BUT it is precisely the kind of novel I love. It's weird. It has so many moments of "Wait, what?" I can't wait for a friend or two to read it because I need to discuss it.
I loved it for several reasons. First, the writing is enchanting. I pride myself on being a "fast" reader but I had to slow down and "sip" Link's prose. I've written down SO many quotes (and have even used a couple of them as mini mentor text in teaching). "Every footfall was a strike on a bell stopped with mud. A clot of blood trembling on a rusted wire" (The Book of Love Kelly Link). How VIVID. The imagery is such that I often found myself re-reading excerpts, but slower so I could savour word choice.
Second, I became so attached to the characters, especially Mo. He made me laugh; he made me cry. He made me wonder what choices I would have made if I were in his shoes.
Third, the plot is intricate, twisty, and filled with suspense, humour, shock, and a plethora of WTF moments.
I loved the elements of allegory, which lent themselves so wonderfully to the revelation of themes. What would I do if I was capable of magic? What would I do if I realized the manifestation of my dream was not real and I had to send it away? What would I do with responsibility beyond my imagination when I had NO life experience?
Loved it. It's not a fast, fluffy read; I had to take my time and read it carefully to appreciate the author's story.
Thank you to Netgalley and Random House for the Copy.

Reading this book was like entering a dream world. It was immersive, atmospheric, haunting... but also slow, confusing, lacking a narrative I could grip onto. It was beautifully executed, hard put down, but also hard to pick up. A book of contradictions. For the right reader, I think it will sing.

I really tried to read this book. After a week of making myself pick it up and forcing myself to read, I decided to give up. Reading isn't hard and shouldn't make you miserable. Everything about this book just made me hate reading. There were words on the page but they meant nothing and said nothing. Just no. Please don't write another book.

I just couldn’t with this book. There was just way too many characters which made the story jumbled and the author was constantly jumping from character to character and honestly it was just really annoying. There was no good character development because there was no time to do it.

I really wanted to like this one more, but honestly, it was confusing for the first chunk and then moved on to where I didn't really care for the characters that much. Also my copy kept on glitching and kept sending me back to 2% when I had already read so much more and that became frustrating for me.

I requested this book from NetGalley after reading Link's terrific book of short stories, <I>White Cat, Black Dog</I>. I was nervous for Link going in, because it seemed as if there was so much hype for this book and her ability to deliver a novel as wonderful as her short stories. Personally, I love short stories, and I marvel at any writer who can accomplish such an impossible feat, never mind do it well. So I don't agree with the idea that short story writers "move up" to novels. Having said all that, at times, while reading this, I longed for this book to be a simpler set of interconnected stories.

When I first began reading, I was happy that Link seemed to deliver on her promise with another wildly imaginative and fiercely compelling book. I consider Link in the company of some of my favorites, like Erika Swyler, Erin Morgenstern, Emily St. John Mandel, though I haven't read anything by Leigh Bardugo, whose blurb for the book was running across my Goodreads banner as I opened it this morning.

I loved the format of the book, with each chapter named "The Book of —" (with a character's name) though I'm not sure if that is just my lazy gratitude. In a story told from so many points of view, (and reading it on my kindle), I find devices like this help me adjust quickly and keep the story moving. Sadly, I did need help to keep this story moving. This, as you might have heard, is an epic novel. In ambition and in size. Despite its size, there was, strangely, a chapter with a complete information dump that jarred me. I wondered if all that information could have been woven into the story in a less conspicuous way, especially since it would have made earlier parts less confusing.

I have heard criticism that this should be a YA book, and I have to agree that I thought this while reading. For me, the problem with this "criticism" is that it is not criticism; that's a compliment. Some of the best writers are writing YA books, and, like Link here, they seem to be able to take tremendous risks. So no, I don't think this is the best thing Link has written, but it's her first novel. And I will definitely be here for the next one.

I still don't know whether I loved this book or not. The writing was definitely something to get used to and I had to go at it a couple times to really continuing reading. I am a mood reader through and through and I definitely wasn't into this the first couple of times. It did take me a long time to get through this book because of the depth of everything involved. There are alot of things to pay attention to and it was quite difficult sometimes. The idea was definitely there though, I loved the idea of the trials and death.

The Book of Love was difficult for me. It is out of my genre and it was long. But, I am so glad I read it. The high school setting got me hooked and I was desperate to know the outcomes for these characters. While I do wish this was a bit shorter, it is a great book to get lost in

In "The Book of Love," Kelly Link spins a captivating tale brimming with magic, mystery, and the complexities of love. From the quaint seaside town of Lovesend to the eerie high school classroom where our protagonists reunite after their mysterious disappearance, Link's storytelling is spellbinding. Laura, Daniel, and Mo's journey back from the dead is fraught with twists and turns, accompanied by a cast of supernatural figures with their own agendas.

While Link's prose is undeniably beautiful, I found myself struggling with the book's hefty length. At over 600 pages, it occasionally felt like a marathon to get through. There were moments where my mind wandered, and I had to take breaks with other reads to stay engaged. Nonetheless, for readers seeking a sprawling narrative with lyrical prose and a touch of magic, "The Book of Love" might be just the ticket.

Quick Synopsis

Laura, Daniel, and Mo come back after being missing for a year. Their music teacher knows about what happened to them and makes a bargain with them. They have to use magic in order to stay where they are and figure out what happened to them.

My Review

I gave this book 2 out of 5 stars. It took me a long time to get into this book, which is already a bad start. If it takes me a long time to get into a book, that is not a good thing. Some parts of this book just didn’t make sense to me. Things would happen so quickly that I didn’t even know they happened. The plot of this story was focusing on so many different characters. I didn’t quite understand the god thing. The characters in this book were a bit annoying. They constantly seemed to be complaining or arguing with someone else. I didn’t like them. This book dragged out a lot. I wouldn’t recommend this book to others.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC. All opinions are my own.

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

To say it simply, I really struggled with this book. At the beginning, I thought it was beautiful prose, and the characters were all gripping and interesting, but that didn’t last long.

This is my first read by Kelly Link. I know that she’s typically a short story writer, which shows in this novel. The writing was lyrical but sometimes to a confusing extent. As a reader, I want things left to my imagination. I don’t need to know about every thought of the characters of the story.

There was potential for the characters, but I found there was just too much to keep track of within this plot. Also, it was oddly graphic with sexuality within the book, but I didn’t feel like it brought much to the story.

I did enjoy the mythology of the magic within the story, and I wish there had been more towards the beginning of the story, rather than spilling it all out near the end.

I felt like there were many stories that could be pulled from this novel and made into separate stories or an anthology in the same town. It was just so difficult to digest as a 600-page novel…

Thank you Random House and NetGalley for an eARC in exchange for an honest review!

4.5 stars!

I absolutely love Kelly Link’s short fiction, so I was over the moon to see she had a novel coming out. The Book of Love is weird and wonderful, and despite the fact it’s definitely a commitment of a book at over 600 pages, it’s absolutely worth it.

I originally picked this up in a weird slump, but despite that it managed to hold my attention when I could wrangle my brain into agreeing to read, which I think says something in and of itself. I did find that it took the book a little bit to really get going—which, you know, you really do feel that when a book is so long, 10% of a book feels quite a bit longer—but the payoff was so good. I was okay with the setup taking its time because I love Link’s prose and the whimsy in her work, and I found it difficult to force myself to put the book down during the second half of the novel.

This is an urban-ish, portal-ish fantasy that borders on literary fiction, which is… probably what we should all expect from Kelly Link. It’s definitely a slow going story compared to what I usually read, but I really enjoyed lingering in the pages. I do think this book asks a lot from its readers and it’s definitely not straightforward (it does, at times, feels like it goes out of its way to misdirect you) but it’s the kind of book meant to be savored.