I am back with another Monday Reviews! This week I am reviewing a book that comes out tomorrow, The Cost of All Things by Maggie Lehrman. I received an Advanced Readers Copy of this book from HarperCollins Canada/HCC Frenzy in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.
As always, let's start with the synopsis:
What would you pay to cure your heartbreak? Banish your sadness? Transform your looks? The right spell can fix anything…. When Ari's boyfriend Win dies, she gets a spell to erase all memory of him. But spells come at a cost, and this one sets off a chain of events that reveal the hidden—and sometimes dangerous—connections between Ari, her friends, and the boyfriend she can no longer remember.
Told from four different points of view, this original and affecting novel weaves past and present in a suspenseful narrative that unveils the truth behind a terrible tragedy.
Ok, so this book. I liked it but I didn't love it. I was confused most of the time and frankly, I think it was trying too hard to live up to the "for fans of We Were Liars" statement. There was even a fire at the end, similar to WWL.
The characters also felt a little flat to me. I didn't really get a feel for Ari and Win's relationship because Ari erased her memory right at the beginning, and she remembered nothing of their relationship. I also felt like the four POV were a little much. One of the characters, Kay was just whiney, I never really understood the problem with Markos and his "non-lobotomy." As for Win, he was ok most of the time, but his POV didn't really give too much info on the story.
I enjoyed the concept of the book, but I'm still confused on what a hekamist is and how all that stuff works. Are they like witches or something? And why was there such an emphasis on them being illegal, yet when things went wrong, they weren't reported. They were never really fully explained and I didn't really get it. Was it supposed to be magical realism? Maybe, but I didn't get it.
Overall, this whole book left me with a lot of unanswered questions and frankly, I'm not sure I would read it again. I feel bad saying that, but it is the truth.
I ended up only giving it a 3/5 star rating, which is actually, I think a little generous.