Man was this a hard book for me to get through at first! Empire of Lies turned out to be really good! However, the first 200 pages felt like they were just setting up for the plot. I got bored throughout those pages, the history being rewritten and the character backgrounds were really cool, don’t get me wrong, but it was a lot!
Now the last 245 pages were absolutely incredible. Once things got rolling, I was absorbed into the writing, wanted to know how things were going to turn out for our unlikely heroes. It was a roller coaster, and I loved it!
Wins:
-action packed plot once we got to it.
-character development. Kamals character development and change throughout the novel was absolutely incredible. I know at first he was supposed to be unlikeable. I didn’t get that, I liked him from his first chapter.
-a good history lesson for people -like me- who didn’t know much about the Ottoman Empire.
-absolutely heartbreaking moment towards the end. I wanted to scream, throw the book and cry all at the same time. Didn’t see it coming, super impressed with it!
Opportunities
-as I said above, the first like 180-200 pages are setting up for the plot. At first, I wanted to DNF the book because nothing really happened.
-a lot of Turkish that doesn’t have any explanation or meaning that’s just kind of thrown in there, but then the year is constantly pointed out as being 2017 in the footnotes. I would’ve liked a page just with translations or footnotes for those.
This book is very heavy, and it’s not one you want to pick up for an easy fast read, this took me a few days to get through, and that was after a reading streak of reading 450 page books in 1 day. I was definitely afraid of it putting me in a reading slump. Until I got to the actual plot, and things started flying by and the action was fast paced and real. The heartbreaking moments hurt like hell! All in all, a very good read once everything is established!
Now the last 245 pages were absolutely incredible. Once things got rolling, I was absorbed into the writing, wanted to know how things were going to turn out for our unlikely heroes. It was a roller coaster, and I loved it!
Wins:
-action packed plot once we got to it.
-character development. Kamals character development and change throughout the novel was absolutely incredible. I know at first he was supposed to be unlikeable. I didn’t get that, I liked him from his first chapter.
-a good history lesson for people -like me- who didn’t know much about the Ottoman Empire.
-absolutely heartbreaking moment towards the end. I wanted to scream, throw the book and cry all at the same time. Didn’t see it coming, super impressed with it!
Opportunities
-as I said above, the first like 180-200 pages are setting up for the plot. At first, I wanted to DNF the book because nothing really happened.
-a lot of Turkish that doesn’t have any explanation or meaning that’s just kind of thrown in there, but then the year is constantly pointed out as being 2017 in the footnotes. I would’ve liked a page just with translations or footnotes for those.
This book is very heavy, and it’s not one you want to pick up for an easy fast read, this took me a few days to get through, and that was after a reading streak of reading 450 page books in 1 day. I was definitely afraid of it putting me in a reading slump. Until I got to the actual plot, and things started flying by and the action was fast paced and real. The heartbreaking moments hurt like hell! All in all, a very good read once everything is established!