I literally couldn’t finish this book because it really hurt my head.
This book is confused about what it wants to be. Is it a thriller, or a Tolkien wannabe? Is it a fantasy or a murder mystery?
Honestly the thought of having to go through 700 ish pages of that made me want to quit, so yes, I quit.
The description was misleading and wasn’t at all what I expected it to be.
Would not recommend.

This is a challengingly complex, but hugely enjoyable, novel. Stretching to over 600 pages, it melds the genres of murder mystery and science fantasy with a sub-text around environmental concerns about manmade despoliation.
The story revolves around a scroll box which is occasionally alluded to in tales going back hundreds, perhaps thousands of years. In these tales, the box is known as The Fireraiser, a misnomer because it doesn’t start fires, it survives them. It really only comes into human consciousness when the library, or other place in which it resides, is burned down and the box is retrieved essentially undamaged from the ashes. Attempts to open it and examine its contents have always failed.
Taryn Cornick’s grandfather’s lives in Princes Bridge near the River Wye. Among the esoteric possessions housed in his library is a box. In 1995 Jason Battle, a young historian helping the old man with his archiving, suddenly goes mad and tries to burn the place down. Taryn, aged ten and her sister, Beatrice, thirteen, prevent this, but their grandfather then conceals the box and it disappears from consciousness for the next 15 years or so. In 1983 Beatrice is killed by a car and the driver is jailed. Taryn procures or at least condones his murder when he is released, but there is no evidence as to her involvement. A suspicious police detective, Jacob Berger, starts to investigate and this provides one of the strands of the novel.
Taryn, meanwhile, now an author, is trying to trace the Fireraiser, the existence of which has come to her attention while researching her book ‘The Feverish Library’. To prevent her being killed by a macabre creature, she is snatched by a young man named Shift and transported through a ‘Gate’ (a sort of rift in Space-Time). She is now on what might be another world, called Sidh, and here the second strand begins, as she continues her search, hopping back and forth between the worlds, helped by Shift (his name describing, in part, his ability as a shape-changer). This world, beautifully and completely realised, features elements and characters of Welsh, Nordic and Judeo-Christian Mythologies. Echoes of other books (notably classics by Pullman, Tolkein, Lewis, Stewart, to name but a few) are evident, but not obtrusively so; more as stirring pleasant memories. How these strands are resolved and how the sub-text becomes clear will keep you happily occupied for many hours.
I would like to thank NetGalley, the publishers and the author for providing me with a draft proof copy for the purpose of this review.

The Absolute Book is a complex and sprawling fantasy novel of a very unusual sort. And it’s all the better for being so.

To try to even describe the plot would be foolhardy, but it starts in a contemporary world, mostly in the UK, but with excursions to Canada and New Zealand, and tells the story of Taryn. Her life has not been simple – her sister, we learn in the first few pages – died at the hands of a driver who deliberately hit her. Her family left their grand old house, and now her father stars in a fantasy series that is filmed in New Zealand (“Peter” [Jackson?] gets referenced at a certain point).

While on holiday with her husband in Canada, where he was doing outdoors-y kinds of things, she meets The Muleskinner who becomes somewhat enraptured with her, and offers to murder her sister’s killer once he’s released from prison back in the UK.

Then there’s the policeman, Berger, who suspects that Taryn may be implicated, as well as a mysterious guy we first meet in the woods, carrying a pile of books barefoot.

All the while Taryn herself has become a successful author and is touring book festivals promoting her book that tells the stories of libraries and fires therein. Just don’t ask her about the Nazis and bookburning.

To some extent The Absolute Book draws on – and explicitly namechecks – authors like MR James, HP Lovecraft and Robert Chambers, while dodging away from the likes The Da Vinci Code and The Shadow of the Wind. Although it’s not mentioned, I thought Foucault’s Pendulum might have been an inspiration too.

But I haven’t really even got into the fantasy element of the novel, where the novel veers away from many of those themes. The sections that take place ‘the Sidh’ are key – and extensive. With elements of faerie lore, Celtic mythology, Old Norse mythology and much more besides, it’s a unique perspective on the world. Although all is not quite as it seems there either.

The obvious comparisons probably need to be made with Neil Gaiman’s work, and especially American Gods, although this goes off at completely different tangents to that. I couldn’t help thinking of Good Omens too as I read this book. But there is definitely also a flavour of Ursula Le Guin here too.

I thoroughly enjoyed this book – taking you way out of the present, yet being firmly rooted here too.

I enjoyed this book but was confused by quite a lot of went on that wasn't directly involved with the plot. This is only because it wasn't really explained throughout the book and we just sort of had to learn about it and guess as it went along.

The characters were very interesting and I liked watching how they all interacted and changed over the course of the book. Taryn as a protagonist was intricate and initially, I didn't really like her but she grew on me as we watched her suffer from her past and come to terms with her future and interact with Shift, Jacob and the Muleskinner (who was very creepy and evil and I kind of liked how he just turned up out of the blue at certain points). Of course, to the human characters of the book, we must add the more supernatural/mythological characters of the story who, as I said initially had me confused but I think that by the end of the book I pretty much had a grasp on how they all worked lol. But, I did really enjoy the main group that developed and I even really liked Taryn at the end!

The plot, as I said did have me slightly confused but I really enjoyed how it concentrated on books and libraries because I am a massive nerd and love books (of course). It was very cool how it switched between the real world and the fictional world that could be reached through magical gates around the globe. The ending did feel a tad rushed given the length of the book and the epilogue seemed necessary but also unnecessary all at the same time lol. However, I did like that everything was resolved by the end of the book and you could see how that happened in the epilogue, plus it seems that the characters found a solution for global warming and other environmental problems at the same time which was nice.

The writing was great, it was really interesting to read and made sure that I was engaged through all 600+ pages of this book which is no mean feat especially because for quite a lot of it I was considerably confused by what was going on. If Elizabeth Knox has written or write any shorter books I will definitely be checking them out!

The Absolute Book is a bewitching epic fantasy about a revenge killing, a mysterious scroll box that has survived centuries of fires, the book that changed everything and the power of stories and storytelling to make gods and heroes out of mere mortals. Taryn Cornick, the youngest daughter of an upper-middle-class English family, believes she has put her sister Beatrice's violent death, and her own complicity in an act of retribution behind her. Taryn was only 19 years old when her sister was killed in a seemingly random, senseless attack while out jogging. As she was running down a remote country lane a man in a vehicle struck her and knocked her over intending to leap out and rape her while she was incapacitated but he drove at her too hard and killed her instantly in such a brutal manner. Taryn is torn between grief and a desperate desire for revenge. In the years that follow she drops out of school, becomes reclusive and marries a wealthy businessman who she has never loved. Together they travel the world on luxury trips. On a hunting trip in the Canadian Rockies, she meets a hunting guide known as ”The Muleskinner” and relays her story, and what happened to Beatrice, to him. As the perpetrator is due to be released from prison soon he understands how unhappy Taryn really is about it all. Meanwhile, Taryn’s successful book of "musing nonfiction" about the perils that threaten libraries: insects, damp, light, fire, carelessness and uncaring mentions an ancient scroll box--called the Firestarter--that has inexplicably survived numerous fires, including one at her own grandparents' estate, and now powers in both this world and beyond are looking for her. Then a few months after the hunting vacation The Muleskinner visits Taryn at home out of the blue.

He tells her that he would be happy to do her a service if it would help her to feel less aggrieved. He is willing to kill the perpetrator as soon as he is released. The murderer is found dead a short time later and most of the police force write it off as a random attack but DI Jacob Berger believes Taryn is somehow involved. Berger has questions about Taryn's past and his dogged interest means they both suddenly find themselves in a mysterious land of peace and plenty, carried there by a shadowy young man named Shift. The land, home to a beautiful people who long ago bargained a terrible price for their idyllic existence, is now threatened from the precincts of Hell itself, and Taryn is of great interest to the rebels. But Shift is key to both the unimaginably precious scroll inside the Firestarter and to the outcome of the threatened war, and he has an ambitious plan of his own. This is a captivating and compelling epic fantasy that moves seamlessly between several different worlds: contemporary England, magic fairyland, purgatory and Auckland in New Zealand all feature throughout the plot. It's both a genre and mind-bending story that marries myths and lore from Celtic, Norse, and Judeo-Christian traditions with lyrical storytelling and sprawling worlds; I was swept away in the intrigue from the very first page. Exhilaratingly Knox intimately weaves together the stories of vivid characters who face a reckoning that could change the future of all of these worlds. There are twists and surprises throughout this complex, multilayered tale and at 653 pages it's a lengthy time, but Knox doesn't waste a single word. An intelligent, moving and scintillating story complete with beautifully flawed characters and richly-detailed worldbuilding. Highly recommended.

The Absolute Book was a brilliant but infuriating book but don’t let that put you off. There were times when I felt like my understanding of the book was only hanging on by a miniscule thread. Having said this, it was a wonderous book and I will definitely buy it.

The style of writing means it is not the easiest book to read, the narrative jumps all over but the plot is so good that I didn’t really care.

I enjoyed both the thriller and the fantasy elements of The Absolute Book. The two shouldn’t really work well together but because it is such a large book, they manage to be quite cohesive.

The single most important event of Taryn’s life so far is the murder of her sister Bea. Taryn believes that she was deliberately killed and that the man who did it got off too lightly. She believes it so strongly that she convinces a man named The Muleskinner to kill him. This is a tale of vengeance in the first instance, but it is a whole lot more than that.

Taryn’s actions cause her to become a suspect in a murder case but also have far-reaching consequences in other realms.

“Taryn couldn’t separate her sister from her death, from the mark on the oak at the fringe of the forest. In Taryn’s memory, her sister was a tender wound, Beatrice’s whole life stained with blood she had shed inside her own head. “

I can’t talk about too many elements of the book without spoiling the plot but if you like books that passionately argue the case for the continued existence of libraries, that contain Demons, Fairy-like characters, talking birds and Gods then this is the book for you.

I am not one for rereading a book immediately after finishing it but I think I would do so with this one if I had more time and I am confident I would like it even more on a second read.

The Absolute Book by Elizabeth Knox is a difficult one to summarise. I’ve seen it described as a mix between Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell and American Gods, and I think that kind of hits upon it. It’s a contemporary fantasy novel that straddles several genres.

Taryn Cornick, grieving over the death of her sister, arranges to wreak revenge on the man who killed her. While the police have their suspicions and are keeping an eye on her, Taryn is also being watched by some other-worldly folk, who are interested in something that has previously been hiding in Taryn’s family library - something that can release them from a binding agreement that they made with Hell. Are you still with me? There’s a LOT going on in these 600+ pages - fairyfolk, shapeshifting, Heaven, Hell, Purgatory, portals into other worlds, but there is also a story working alongside all this which is very much based in the real world.

So what did I think? There were definitely parts that had me completely gripped and read like a thriller. There were stories within the book that were based in traditional folklore and reminded me of the Irish fairytales that I was obsessed with growing up and which I’m now keen to revisit as an adult. But as always with a book this size there are also lulls in the narrative, often given over to long descriptive passages which didn’t always capture me. But like my buddyread pal said, these felt like moments to take a breath and join up the dots, much like Taryn has to do in the story.

So a difficult one to review. It’s long, complicated and often confusing. The parts of it I loved I REALLY loved, but as a novice to fantasy I perhaps am not its ideal reader, and that is no fault of the book.

Thanks to Penguin Michael Joseph UK for a review copy.

I was very taken with the idea of this novel and felt that it would be an enjoyable and exciting read yet sadly I found it a struggle almost right to the end.

The novel, written in the third person, past tense, concerns Taryn, a woman whose older sister has been killed some years before and who cannot come to terms with her loss. Her father is a famous actor, and, as the book opens she is just about to set forth on a book tour to promote her popular history of fires in libraries. She soon finds that her book, with its description of a mysterious box, ‘The Firestarter’, that has miraculously come through five major library fires unscathed has attracted some unwanted attention, from beings in our own world and others.

As the story moves on Taryn must learn to come to terms with her grief and move forward in her life if she is to learn the truth about ‘The Firestarter’. The book seeks to augment an exciting story with Taryn’s own emotional journey from a damaged divorcee who cannot move on from her sister’s death even after she has been avenged. This is a difficult trick to pull off in an adventure story and was, in my opinion, only partially successful.

On the positive side the idea of the book is excellent and should have made for a stunning read but somehow it seemed to get very bogged down in its execution. The plot itself is interesting, exciting and original and didn’t feel like a reskin of either the fantasy or thriller tropes that it seeks to combine. The problem seemed, to me at least, that it tried to do too much which ended up detracting from the main thrust of the story. Frequent changes of emphasis in the writing lead to an often confusing mix of linguistic styles that broke the flow of reading. I also felt that there were more characters and sub plots than were necessary to convey the narrative and emotional beats needed to invoke excitement and sympathy from the reader.

The print version of this book is 640 pages long and I think that it would have benefitted from a serious edit. Personally I think that Jacob was a vastly overdeveloped character who could probably have been cut entirely and the Muleskinner sub plot, whilst important in understanding Taryn’s ongoing guilt was far longer than in needed to be. Had these elements been cut I think the ensuing faster pace would have served the story better.
On an editing note I also found the occasional ‘Americanisms’ dropped in to a book set in rural England to be very jarring. We would not wait in for a ‘realtor,’ really we wouldn’t and pants over here are not the same as trousers. I know that these are minor things but they jolt the reader out of the story.

The pace of the novel increased towards the end, in fact some of the ending even seemed rushed in comparison to the leisurely style adopted in some of the earlier sections. It was as if Taryn’s emotional development had held back the speed of the narrative and as the former became less of a focus so the story went faster. The dénouement was charming and I felt myself wishing that part of the book could come true but it was a long and sometimes difficult journey for me, as a reader, to get there.

I loved the lands and races that the author developed, each just as imperfect in their own way as our own. Discovering the secrets of the Sidhe was a pleasure. The idea of ‘The Firestarter’ and why it is being sought was also wholly original and the moment when that part of the plot fell into place was jaw dropping. I would imagine that there is scope for another whole novel following that thread if the author wanted to revisit the worlds that she has so painstakingly created. So there is a lot to enjoy here but sifting it out from the extraneous noise sadly made this book hard work to read and one to which I am unlikely to return.

An unusual story which I did find difficult to follow, a complex plot and concept. Sadly I didn’t finish the book although I might try again later, I really could not maintain an interest. However very well written and may be just what someone else is waiting for! Thank you Netgalley for the opportunity to try genres I would not ordinarily choose in exchange for an honest review.

Disappointing fantasy novel - too long and too pretentious.

This novel concerns Taryn, an author who gets involved in all sorts of adventures, including revenge, murder, journeys into a mystical world and meeting an interesting batch of characters from both our environment and the magical one. The book is very long and full of unnecessary descriptions which slow down the already slow-moving plot. Every scene is described, including places which are rarely mentioned or hardly visited. The style is verging on "literary" with some baffling use of language: "Now partook of forever." There's some good ideas floating around in this book but it isn't enough for this avid fantasy reader. I was tempted to abandon the book but I wanted to know how the plot progressed. I was given a copy of the novel in exchange for an honest review.

Took myself out of my comfort zone to read this fantasy book.

It was an enjoyable read with good mystery elements that kept me turning the page.

Book is well written with lovely details.

‘The Absolute Book’ is full of all the things I love in a fantasy - folklore, Norse mythology, angels and demons and a journey to purgatory! I could have really loved it if all these elements were fully fleshed out and well connected. Unfortunately, this wasn’t the case and the plot felt very disjointed, to the point where I became frustrated following along. The core plot is really very simple, the familiar tale of humans finding themselves in a fantasy world and going on a quest to find a magical item, but along the way the plot becomes incredibly convoluted. There are odd time jumps, motives without explanation, odd leaps in rationale and underdeveloped characters. I suspect some of these were implemented purposefully by the author, and I did enjoy some of the initial misdirection, but this book is long and it soon became quite tiresome. I normally love a long, fantasy epic but I never felt truly drawn into this one.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publishers for a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

A marriage of myth and reality, this story did not live up to its promise for me, sadly. It began well, with a young woman cruelly killed and her sister exacting revenge on her killer Timothy Webber. The sister, Taryn, heroine of the book, is then investigated in turn for Webber's death, by detective Jacob Berger. So far, so good - but then we are drawn into a parralel world of demons and Sidhs, talking ravens and gateways to Hell, as Taryn, Jacob and an eigmatic being called Shift strive to save the Firestarter - a book that has been hidden from the dawn of time, most recently, it seems, in the grounds of Prince's Gate, Taryn's family home. I normally enjoy fantasies, but though the premise of this book follows those of Neil Gaiman's where mortals get caught up in fantasy worlds and help to resolve the issues, I felt it lacked the humour, kindness and charm needed to make it a page-turning read. The prose is beautiful - the author employs language to very good effect - but the plot, even allowing for a suspension of belief - is not easy to follow, and I felt no warmth for the characters. Not one for me, but avid fans of the fantasy-meets-reality-genre may enjoy this.

I was really really excited for this book but it was such a let down. I didn’t get it...for me it was disjointed, random, the characters just didn’t seem to gel with each other, the story bounced all over the place. It’s a huge book and it was a trial to get through....

Incoherent and in need of disciplined editing

So…..if those publicity puffs had only been true ‘A spellbinding mix of Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell, American Gods and His Dark Materials’ I should have loved this. I can see why the subject matter might have led a publicist to make comparisons, but, as so often, they end up damaging the lesser known book. However complex the ideas, plot, and teeming hordes of character those other books are blessed with, there is discipline, depth and complexity of character and a knowledge that the authors have clarity of where detail is needed and where it is extraneous.

The Absolute Book, a mix of a psychological thriller, a meta thriller around books themselves, a fabulation of conspiracy theories, and a sci fi/fantasy sews all its elements together with regrettable lumpiness, and with a level of characterisation lacking, so that the necessary connection to take the reader along with the journey, does not happen

The central character, Taryn, lost her sibling in a mysterious deliberate hit and run. Understandably, this has scarred her, and she wants some kind of justice done, beyond mere custodial sentencing. Various events lead to her being investigated by the police, and somehow there is an involvement by the intelligence services. Most of this is in the very early part of the book, so no spoilers. Later, she has become a writer who has written a book about books and the buildings which house them which have been forbidden, destroyed or censored, However……without much, if any warning, inexplicably we enter a completely different territory and find ourselves in a world of portals faerie and demonic possession and (probably) grand themes of absolute good and evil, plus more realistic explorations of destroyed historical libraries with potent secret texts. Publicity missed the throw in of The Historian as a comparison as well.

This never really got off the ground for me, it felt like a collection of ‘abouts’ and creative writing assignments ‘create a fantasy world’ ‘write a thriller with police or secret service involvement’ ‘create a literary mystery’

I absolutely surrender to complex, playful, gorgeous literary feats of imagination such as are evident in those comparison texts, but in this, reach exceeds grasp by miles. I struggled grimly on beyond any hope of finding redemption, and gave up frustrated with an overindulgence of detail going nowhere.

Thank you to NetGalley for allowing me this as an ARC, and I am sorry that my experience lacks positive feedback.

I wanted to love this - as it was I admired it hugely and felt it was ultimately slightly less than the sum of its (often very clever and very charming, but also very many) parts.

An amazing fantasy romp through worlds and time with Taryn who meets up with some strange beings, including Shift who appears to do just what his name suggests! The Gates they go through by means of a magic glove, take Taryn and her companions to different worlds and adventures where we’ll find things like the Gates of Hell with Taryn outside using Google! All because some strange beings want the artefact which Taryn’s family have hidden in their Library.
This is truly a very different but quite epic fantasy novel.

The Absolute Book’ is a contemporary portal fantasy novel of epic scope, drawing in influences from Norse mythology, the Fae, and tales of forbidden books and burning libraries. However, it’s also very much literary fiction, written in a style reminiscent of Dickens and other classics. The combination will work for some readers, but unfortunately I found the fantasy elements unoriginal and the literary elements tedious, labouring too much on tangents and unnecessary description and never allowing the reader to connect to the characters. I suspect this is a book for literary fiction readers who wish to dabble in fantasy rather than established fans of the fantasy genre.

Seeking revenge for her sister’s death, Taryn Cornick – the spoilt daughter of a well-known actor and pampered wife of a wealthy husband – allows a man called the Muleskinner to murder the supposed killer. Her actions draw the attention of DI Jacob Berger – but they also come to the attention of those far more otherwordly. For her family’s library has been hiding a secret, and those in a realm very far away now see Taryn as key to finding it. Thus begins a quest that will span the breadth of the Earth, and several other words as well, to find the secret – and perhaps save all the realms in the process.

There’s very little to say about either Taryn or Jacob, despite them being the protagonists. Knox doesn’t focus on her characters as more than plot devices. Taryn is a spoilt, wealthy woman who’s experienced a great deal of grief – the loss of her beloved sister, and the subsequent decline and loss of her mother. However, it’s hard to feel sorry for her given how insubstantial and selfish she is. She has no clear motivations or drive, no wishes in life. She publishes a book, and seems to have knowledge and passion on the subject, yet has little to no interest in her own life. It’s possible she’s intended to portray someone with severe depression, but she’s so underdeveloped as a character it becomes almost impossible to tell.

Jacob, a police detective who becomes unhealthily invested in both the case against Taryn and Taryn herself, is equally insubstantial. His life before Taryn is never shown – he simply appears, and his life becomes her bizarre story. Once again, he has no motivations – he claims he wants to solve the case, yet shows little interest in pursuing it once the answers become apparent. Almost nothing about the plot would change if he wasn’t in the book at all, which shows how flimsy he is as a character.

The plot is very standard fantasy quest fare – a missing, very powerful, world-changing object must be found to save the worlds. Similarly,world-hopping, with secret passages to worlds beyond Earth, is well-trodden ground in fantasy because it’s a device with huge creative potential. The world Knox creates is intriguing – the inhabitants have very different morals and politics to humans, with the ethics of how they dip in and out of human lives and history mused on in an engaging way – but overall it’s underutilised. Powers are introduced only to be very mentioned again, and ethical dilemmas discussed only to be summarily brushed over and never dealt with again. There are glimmers of brilliance, but none of them come to fruition.

My biggest issue, however, is with the writing. Knox favours writing filled with lavish descriptions and constant tangents, almost like a stream of consciousness. Passages which start as serious conversations meander off into observations on the weather, characters outfits, memories of the past, random and entirely unrelated facts. It’s difficult to keep track of what’s actually happening as there are constant diversions, most of which are entirely irrelevant. The novel could tell the same story with a fifth of the words, leaving some room for developing characterisation and narrative tension. Some people will likely appreciate the wealth of descriptions, but whilst I enjoy descriptions that create atmosphere, I’m less fond of unneccessarily long novels that lack purpose.

My other issue is the sexual undertones that several passages have. There are frequent references to Taryn’s breasts in strange moments, and several times when it is explicitly mentioned a character is getting an erection in an otherwise non-sexual moment. Each of these moments jarred me, throwing me out of the story. This isn’t a sexual story – it doesn’t even have a romantic sub-plot – and whilst streams of consciousness may, naturally, contain the odd sexual reference, none of these felt like they belonged.

Overall, ‘The Absolute Book’ is definitely a literary fiction novel that happens to contain fantasy elements rather than a typical fantasy novel. For those fond of complex descriptions, unreliable narrators, and books inspired by Norse mythology it may hold some appeal – but for those looking for a character-driven novel, or even a novel primarily driven by plot, this may not be the book for you.

In this story what could be a “simple” murder gradually evolves into a multi-layered fantasy novel. Taryn’s older sister Beatrice is hit by a car while out running, abducted and dumped when she dies. The perpetrator will be found guilty, but as “intent” could not be proved he will serve a short sentence and be released. Taryn and Beatrice had spent long stretches of their childhood at their grandfather’s family home on the Welsh/English border and were particularly enamoured of the library – Taryn’s interest in books will follow her through her life. But when her grandfather dies the house is sold and the library dispersed. Increasingly un-tethered to others Taryn marries early. When living in the USA, she will tell the tale of her sister’s death and a man who hears her offers to kill the killer when he is released – and with no further contact.
Years later Taryn’s research will lead to a book on an enigmatic antiquity known as the Firestarter. Reported through centuries, it is believed to hold a secret treasure. But there was a series of fires in the places it was held, albeit it survived them and moved on. Taryn suspects that it was in her Grandfather’s library and tries to track where it went. But she has problems – somebody is stalking her with messages – it seems that her former “helper” is out for revenge. It will be suggested that his dreadful act has allowed his soul to be taken over by a Demon.
When Taryn travels to her old home area she then meets another strange person called Shifter. It is said that the garden of the house once was the site of a “gate” where the Sidhe could cross over from the “other side”. Sifter will take her across. In the nation of the Sidhe she will see another seemingly perfect place that is being carefully managed. A place where illness, damage, environmental pollution and it’s like can be reversed with time. But she then comes to realise that the human population there, though happy, have been gathered by the Sidhe with an ulterior purpose. They have little interest in the welfare of humans. Their land has been seized from the Demons and peace and has been negotiated through the establishment of a treaty – specifically Sidhe can retain their conquered land in exchange for a regular tariff of human souls to the Demons. The Demons are usually weaker than the Sidhe, but they are “controlled” by Fallen Angels who are infinitely stronger.
It seems that Shifter, who is not fully Sidhe, has a limited life. One where at regular intervals he loses memory of his previous years, friendships and loves. He may have some of their powers, but has different ideas of right and wrong and how things should be. He will cross over to human time and lands in search of Firestarter so he can offer it to the Demons to allow the human tariff to be abolished. Taryn will cross back to help him with his search. Once she does cross back she faces two risks – one that a police officer is searching for her believing that she was involved in the murder of her sister’s killer. But additionally the murderer, under increasingly demonic control is trying to trace her and seek his revenge.
Through this novel all these themes will play themselves out in great detail. The lands, habits, histories and beliefs, of all the different life (and death?) forms will be developed for the reader. Taryn has one recognisable human life cycle; the lives of others are much longer and more complex. There is a constant interplay of rivalries, demands, and expectations between the various groups. Taryn will try and wend her way through these to her own ends, building friendships or allies on her way.
So expect a busy and complex book. There will be references to old mythologies and ideas that you will have heard of and others perhaps more obscure, interleaved with the (joking?) asides to places of more modern literary fantasy. Sidhe may be largely unknown to you; but British locations – that might here be endowed with a “gate” to the other side – are recognisable and carry their own mythologies of place. It would be unkind to “spoil” the story with more details, or results. So this is a book that you need to read yourself to see whether you find it possible, believable, entertaining or an overwhelming mish-mash of just too much. As somebody who is not particularly drawn to “fantasy” of this type, I did follow it through to the end. An end where there was a hint not just of eventual “justice”, but that another volume might be in the offing.

I love a good fantasy story and so I was excited to get the ARC of The Absolute Book although I was a little apprehensive as at 650 pages it is a beast. I was therefore really disappointed to have it be my first DNF for NetGalley at 36%.

The story starts out well, there’s a dead sister and a hitman and a family history in a library. Then I’m afraid it all got very confusing for me! The author seemed to be in a bad habit of describing a lot of things in detail but then skipping over something very important that made you feel like you were constantly playing catch up! One example of this is our main character is making food for everyone one night as they lay out their plans and then all of a sudden she is possessed by a demon again in a car going somewhere with no explanation. There’s also theatrical snow in a server farm in a desert somewhere which I did not understand the relevance of. It was disjointed, confusing and I didn’t understand what was going on most of the time. I didn’t really feel anything for any of the characters and felt like I was just skipping through to finish it rather than enjoying it. If the book had been 300 pages or so I would have ploughed through but only having made it a third of the way at page 200 I realised I wasn’t interested where it was going. Judging by other reviews it seems to be a bit like marmite – you either give it 5 stars or abandon it halfway through and I’m afraid I am in the latter camp with this book.

Overall, The Absolute Book is a bit of a mess – confusing and disjointed and not recommended. Thank you to NetGalley & Penguin UK – Michael Joseph for the chance to read the ARC in exchange for a (very) honest review.