Helpful Score: 1
THE MUSEUM OF EXTRAORDINARY THINGS was the June 2015 pick in my neighborhood book club. I really wish I'd enjoyed it more.
I thought it was a pretty predictable and boring story set in early 1900s NYC, about a young girl named Coralie and her weird "Professor" father, an evil and macabre man who runs the museum featuring extraordinary people born with all sorts of deformities and abnormalities.
And there's also a guy named Eddie, a photographer with a yawn-able narrative of his own thrown in.
The narrative alternates between italicized 1st person POV with Coralie and Eddie, followed by standard text in 3rd person with both, which made for a very disjointed feel, and the story just didn't flow very well; the middle portions really dragged.
Overall, I'm not a fan of Alice Hoffman's writing. I've read at least one of her other books and the writing is just too dreary and bores me; her prose may be lyrical at times but just not engaging enough for me. And in this book, there was WAY too much lazy 'telling' and not enough showing. Almost like the narrative was always in black and white, no color.
I give it a generous C.
I thought it was a pretty predictable and boring story set in early 1900s NYC, about a young girl named Coralie and her weird "Professor" father, an evil and macabre man who runs the museum featuring extraordinary people born with all sorts of deformities and abnormalities.
And there's also a guy named Eddie, a photographer with a yawn-able narrative of his own thrown in.
The narrative alternates between italicized 1st person POV with Coralie and Eddie, followed by standard text in 3rd person with both, which made for a very disjointed feel, and the story just didn't flow very well; the middle portions really dragged.
Overall, I'm not a fan of Alice Hoffman's writing. I've read at least one of her other books and the writing is just too dreary and bores me; her prose may be lyrical at times but just not engaging enough for me. And in this book, there was WAY too much lazy 'telling' and not enough showing. Almost like the narrative was always in black and white, no color.
I give it a generous C.
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