Julia Sarene's Reviews > The Book That Broke the World

I enjoyed The Book That Broke the World by Mark Lawrence, but I must confess I didn't love it anywhere near as much as the first.

It's hard to put my finger on why exactly - the prose was just as gorgeous as always, but the characters somehow didn't connect with me as much, which I think is more due to the scattered plot than the characters themselves?

I really enjoyed the new POV with two siblings who lived as slaves until we meet them, and they move on to a life within the library. I found their perspective fascinating and liked another view on things.

However all our characters from boon one seem to stall, both in their character as in what actually happens. It doesn't seem like much has changed from the start of the book to the end of the book, even though quite a lot of running and fighting was going on.

I did enjoy the world building and a bit more glimpses into the library, but I would have loved a bit more exploration of those parts.

The time jumps and interconnected strands, worlds, and plot lines were at times just a bit too much for me. Not that I couldn't follow, it just switched so much I started to care less? It was just a bit too restless to let me settle in, if that makes sense?

I'm also not a fan of most romance, and the (not overly much to be fair) romance in here did not work for me at all.

All in all not a bad book at all, just not a favourite, like I was expecting.