publisher: Random House Children's Books
date of publication: April 10, 2012
format: digital review copy
pages: 449
source: Netgalley
read it in: tried for 8 days; did not finish
From Goodreads:
It was like a nightmare, but there was no waking up. When the night began, Nora had two best friends and an embarrassingly storybook one true love. When it ended, she had nothing but blood on her hands and an echoing scream that stopped only when the tranquilizers pierced her veins and left her in the merciful dark.
But the next morning, it was all still true: Chris was dead. His girlfriend Adriane, Nora’s best friend, was catatonic. And Max, Nora’s sweet, smart, soft-spoken Prince Charming, was gone. He was also—according to the police, according to her parents, according to everyone—a murderer.
Desperate to prove his innocence, Nora follows the trail of blood, no matter where it leads. It ultimately brings her to the ancient streets of Prague, where she is drawn into a dark web of secret societies and shadowy conspirators, all driven by a mad desire to possess something that might not even exist. For buried in a centuries-old manuscript is the secret to ultimate knowledge and communion with the divine; it is said that he who controls the Lumen Dei controls the world. Unbeknownst to her, Nora now holds the crucial key to unlocking its secrets. Her night of blood is just one piece in a puzzle that spans continents and centuries. Solving it may be the only way she can save her own life.
I went into The Book of Blood and Shadow with a level of anticipation and enthusiasm that made the prospect of reading the book even better. However, when I began to read, what I found was a combination of elements that made reading this book difficult. I had much trouble connecting to the main character, Nora, due to her often disjointed way of thinking. I did enjoy the historical aspects of the novel... at first. After a while, however, it became more and more prevalent until I felt as though I was being inundated with it. It wasn't presented in a way that made it appealing to me, making the going very, very slow. I read 50% of the book and originally planned to finish. However, when I was contemplating picking it back up this evening and realized that I was dreading it, I knew that I would be doing both the book and myself a disservice. It's unfortunate, as I had really wanted to enjoy this book, but it just wasn't happening.
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