I love to read and I read a lot.
I can cruise through 6 books a month without breaking a sweat.
So, when the Dollar Tree started carrying hardback books, the habit escalated.
HOW can you say no to a book-for-a-buck? (Book for a buck) (I totally just made that up and I love it) (OMG! We should have a BFAB club!)
But it's a risky business when choosing a BFAB because, sometimes, there's a totally valid reason for a hardcover book to find itself on the Dollar Tree shelves as it's final resting place. Sometimes (thrice to be exact) it truly stinks! But then sometimes....
You find a book so incredibly poignant and beautiful
(if not graphic and totally inappropriate),
that it makes you wonder how you'd never heard of it!
I picked up and bought MY BOOK (as we will now refer to the book that you'll never read) because I thought the cover was pretty.
I didn't even read the jacket, I bought it simply for the artwork.
When I got home, I put it on my nightstand and knew I'd get to get to it eventually.
A few weeks later I found it cued up in the pile and began the story.
The first few chapters were nothing short of torturous. The unnamed narrator is in a car accident that leaves him with 3rd degree burns over all of his body transforming him into a severely disfigured version of himself. And the author spares no detail when describing the inner workings of a burn unit. It turned my stomach enough to make me want to walk away from the book entirely. The next chapter covered the narrators fantasy of killing himself immediately upon his release from the hospital. Again, it's graphic.
I've read many (MANY) books that kept me turning the pages just in the hopes that it would "get good" only to be bitterly disappointed on the last page.
This is not one of those books.
It does "get good".
No, it "gets incredible"!
When the narrator meets a psych patient who claims to be a 700 year old nun from Germany, the entire dynamic of the book changes. And it's not the only outlandish claim the nun, Marianne, makes! She also claims to have known the narrator in the 1300's when he'd worked for the Condotta as a mercenary soldier.
From there, the author spins a beautiful tale.
Marianne takes in the burn victim and tell him 4 poignant ancient love stories
before revealing to him their own love story from so long ago.
I am doing this book absolutely no justice as I try, in vain, to "sum it up".
As the Kirkus review puts it, "this spellbinding narrative seems considerably less ludicrous when reading it than when summarizing it.” One hopes.
I won't say more (I've given you too much already) but I can say that when I finished the book at 2am a few nights ago, I was sobbing.It very well could be the greatest love story of all time.
And for that reason, I can't share it with you.
- For one, you won't like it.
It's graphic, stomach turning and delves into some very controversial topics.
-Secondly, it has questionable language. I'm just trying to protect you.
-But finally, and this is the kicker, it's mine.
Have you ever seen a movie you loved so much that you recommended it to all of your friends only for them to come back and say "Eh, it was alright"?
Well, that is this for me! I love this book so much, that anything less than "OH MY GOD! I CAN'T BELIEVE HOW AWESOMELY AWESOME THAT AMAZING BOOK WAS!" will break my heart.
But, if you REALLY want to read it (which you won't)
I'll give you a teeny tiny clue:
So, good luck with that.
I can cruise through 6 books a month without breaking a sweat.
So, when the Dollar Tree started carrying hardback books, the habit escalated.
HOW can you say no to a book-for-a-buck? (Book for a buck) (I totally just made that up and I love it) (OMG! We should have a BFAB club!)
But it's a risky business when choosing a BFAB because, sometimes, there's a totally valid reason for a hardcover book to find itself on the Dollar Tree shelves as it's final resting place. Sometimes (thrice to be exact) it truly stinks! But then sometimes....
You find a book so incredibly poignant and beautiful
(if not graphic and totally inappropriate),
that it makes you wonder how you'd never heard of it!
I picked up and bought MY BOOK (as we will now refer to the book that you'll never read) because I thought the cover was pretty.
I didn't even read the jacket, I bought it simply for the artwork.
When I got home, I put it on my nightstand and knew I'd get to get to it eventually.
A few weeks later I found it cued up in the pile and began the story.
The first few chapters were nothing short of torturous. The unnamed narrator is in a car accident that leaves him with 3rd degree burns over all of his body transforming him into a severely disfigured version of himself. And the author spares no detail when describing the inner workings of a burn unit. It turned my stomach enough to make me want to walk away from the book entirely. The next chapter covered the narrators fantasy of killing himself immediately upon his release from the hospital. Again, it's graphic.
I've read many (MANY) books that kept me turning the pages just in the hopes that it would "get good" only to be bitterly disappointed on the last page.
This is not one of those books.
It does "get good".
No, it "gets incredible"!
When the narrator meets a psych patient who claims to be a 700 year old nun from Germany, the entire dynamic of the book changes. And it's not the only outlandish claim the nun, Marianne, makes! She also claims to have known the narrator in the 1300's when he'd worked for the Condotta as a mercenary soldier.
From there, the author spins a beautiful tale.
Marianne takes in the burn victim and tell him 4 poignant ancient love stories
before revealing to him their own love story from so long ago.
I am doing this book absolutely no justice as I try, in vain, to "sum it up".
As the Kirkus review puts it, "this spellbinding narrative seems considerably less ludicrous when reading it than when summarizing it.” One hopes.
I won't say more (I've given you too much already) but I can say that when I finished the book at 2am a few nights ago, I was sobbing.It very well could be the greatest love story of all time.
And for that reason, I can't share it with you.
- For one, you won't like it.
It's graphic, stomach turning and delves into some very controversial topics.
-Secondly, it has questionable language. I'm just trying to protect you.
-But finally, and this is the kicker, it's mine.
Have you ever seen a movie you loved so much that you recommended it to all of your friends only for them to come back and say "Eh, it was alright"?
Well, that is this for me! I love this book so much, that anything less than "OH MY GOD! I CAN'T BELIEVE HOW AWESOMELY AWESOME THAT AMAZING BOOK WAS!" will break my heart.
But, if you REALLY want to read it (which you won't)
I'll give you a teeny tiny clue:
So, good luck with that.
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