That's the summary of my review for this book in case you don't want to go over the whole thing. Not that it's going to be very long. I can't say much about something I don't understand. Well, I do understand but kind of not and really ... I stared at the last page for a few minutes after I read it. Okay maybe just seconds. Normally, I don't like writing a summary of the book in a book review because that's what a blurb is for but just so I can prove I understood (lol), I'm going to write one along with why I found the stuff confusing.
***SPOILER ALERT***
This is a story of a colored (but not really) magician, Henry Walker. It's narrated by different characters whose lives were touched by (or at least who encountered) Henry. (That in itself can be confusing. In this book it is especially confusing because one narrator isn't confined to one chapter. You just have to be quick on the uptake and if you're not then I'm sorry.) The series of events from the day her mother died went from bad to worse for him. Henry was taught Magic by the devil (or so he believed), Mr. Sebastian, who also took his sister from her. He believed that was the payment for the "knowledge and power" he gave him which is actually just a few card tricks. It turned out his sister, Hannah, was given by their father to Mr Sebastian (real name Callaghan) for adoption and Henry was the only one who wasn't in on the secret. The only thing that this explained was why his father was so nonchalant about his daughter missing and why he didn't get angry at Henry for it because it's supposedly his fault. From then on, it has been his mission to find him and kill him and maybe retrieve his sister too. That was when he traveled the world and became famous and joined the circus in the end. That was when he met all these people narrating in the book.
I thought at this point I was catching up but the most puzzling part for me came towards the end. Was the private detective able to talk to Henry or not? Because he was supposed to be missing, that was what the circus/carnival people told him. It was even dated at the beginning of the chapter but then those dates were also messed up. <spoiler>And then they suddenly knew where he can be found, which was some watering hole, so the detective came for him and "talked" to him which was how he found out about Mr. Sebastian and how Henry apparently killed him. And then he was back with the kids who beat him up.</spoiler> Normally (again), I'd go back to the pages that I think might answer my question but I just feel so tired and emotionally drained after reading this sad, sad story.
I'm not even fussing about Henry supposedly killing Mr. Sebastian. Everything that took place in Henry's life was because of that lie. He couldn't explain how things happened and this, I think, made him just create an explanation for it. One that he could understand. One that would help him cope and keep going on.
About the genre, this is a fantasy, I was thinking this should be some sort of psychological ... mystery ... genre ... something. But then there's the part when Henry's mother's ghost was narrating too. And the thing about the magician's assistant I don't even remember her name she was sort of uneventful for me.
So there. Even my review is confusing. And it turned out long-ish after all.
2.5 stars?
No comments:
Post a Comment