The Author Name Experiment Went Awry

I thought the writing was decent. I was actually pretty invested for most of this book until I realized how far in I was and how little had actually happened up until that point. Pacing was off.

That said, I still really enjoyed this. I found that it vividly captured the feeling of this era and brought it to life. It felt like I was living this, and that is exactly what I want from this kind of narrative history.

It was very solid, but it was never going to be particularly new or revelatory to me personally just because of where I'm at as a reader. So I thought it was good. It just found me a little bit too late in my reading life.

Some sections worked beautifully. I thought that Julia Blackburn's reflections on losing her own husband were incredibly moving, and I think they allowed her to connect more deeply with the memory of John Craske's wife, Laura, who spent most of her life caring for her sick husband. But then other parts of this book felt like filler.

The first section I was barely interested in. I almost put the book down. The second section did pull me in, but then by the time the third section came around, I was ready for the book to be done.

I don't think it was necessarily terribly written but it was terribly plotted, and I was genuinely shocked to see how high of an average rating this has on Goodreads. I mean, I'm happy for everyone out there who liked it. Clearly, it worked for some people, but it did not work for me.