I received this arc from Bookish First in exchange for an honest review. After reading "The Kingdom of Back" by Marie Lu, I feel torn. I love historical fiction and beautiful writing, but there were just areas of this story that were stagnant and frustrating.
Before I discuss those parts, though, I will start by discussing what I enjoyed about this piece. Marie Lu did a wonderful job of explaining how passionate one can be about their art and how their passions can lead them to make poor decisions. I enjoyed reading about Nannerl's relationship with her brother Wolfgang and how they grew up together. It was interesting to see both children thrive on their love of music and their shared experiences in the Kingdom of Back, but have such different experiences underlying it all. It was also very refreshing to see that while Nannerl wanted to be remembered and valued for her music, her biggest fan was by her side the whole time.
My overarching concern with this story was that it felt very stagnant. There were beautiful moments about Nannerl teaching the next generation of girls and that immortality and fame are not often worth the cost. But the characters are in particular what felt truly stagnant and caused the whole piece to lack forward movement. Nannerl's father is greedy and slightly abusive to his children at the beginning of the book and at the end with no change in his character; Nannerl's mother was more of a background character there for Nannerl to look to as an example of her future; and the character of Johann is brought up briefly only to be completely disregarded the moment his character is no longer convenient.
I also found the way the book ended was slightly jarring. For the majority of the story time moves at a steady pace, however all of a sudden Nannerl is 18 and her and Wolfgang are being separated. Right after that, in the epilogue it has been 25 years and Wolfgang is dead and Nannerl has fallen into the life that was always planned for her. This ending felt like a forced way in order to end the piece as it began.
I appreciate Marie Lu's attempt at mixing historical fiction with elements of fantasy and I hope people continue to do more of this in the future.
Before I discuss those parts, though, I will start by discussing what I enjoyed about this piece. Marie Lu did a wonderful job of explaining how passionate one can be about their art and how their passions can lead them to make poor decisions. I enjoyed reading about Nannerl's relationship with her brother Wolfgang and how they grew up together. It was interesting to see both children thrive on their love of music and their shared experiences in the Kingdom of Back, but have such different experiences underlying it all. It was also very refreshing to see that while Nannerl wanted to be remembered and valued for her music, her biggest fan was by her side the whole time.
My overarching concern with this story was that it felt very stagnant. There were beautiful moments about Nannerl teaching the next generation of girls and that immortality and fame are not often worth the cost. But the characters are in particular what felt truly stagnant and caused the whole piece to lack forward movement. Nannerl's father is greedy and slightly abusive to his children at the beginning of the book and at the end with no change in his character; Nannerl's mother was more of a background character there for Nannerl to look to as an example of her future; and the character of Johann is brought up briefly only to be completely disregarded the moment his character is no longer convenient.
I also found the way the book ended was slightly jarring. For the majority of the story time moves at a steady pace, however all of a sudden Nannerl is 18 and her and Wolfgang are being separated. Right after that, in the epilogue it has been 25 years and Wolfgang is dead and Nannerl has fallen into the life that was always planned for her. This ending felt like a forced way in order to end the piece as it began.
I appreciate Marie Lu's attempt at mixing historical fiction with elements of fantasy and I hope people continue to do more of this in the future.