First off...DISCLAIMER: I requested this title on NetGalley. Thanks to Head of Zeus for providing a temporary ecopy. This didn't influence my review in any way.

I CONTAIN MULTITUDES

Every book whose synopsis promises dead/undead protagonists is guaranteed to have my attention - though I don't necessarily read all of them. But The Book of Love turned out to be much more than the story of three deceased teens who come back to life. For one, it encompasses a number of genres - building on its afterlife premise, it soon turns into a mystery, a supernatural fantasy with a magical-realism feel, and a strong coming-of-age narrative, while even incorporating a tongue-in-cheek, yet fond homage to romance novels. It's both dreamy and brutal, tender and acerbic, with messy characters you can't help but love and who feel like flesh and blood even when they're...something else. It's a love letter to music and writing. It touches upon/explores all kinds to familial bonds/relationships, even the strained ones (divorced/absent parents, sibling rivalries, your friends' friends whom you don't necessarily like). It's got queer and POC rep done right (also, "trans women are women" 👍), and it addresses racism in different forms (I particularly appreciated the discourse about publishing as a Black author in the typically white romance panorama. The book is set in 2014, but I'm afraid part of that still stands). At the end of the day, if this novel does incorporate a few familiar tropes (some of them slightly Buffy-adjacent), it spins them into an imaginative story that's much bigger than the sum of its parts.

CHORUS LINE

Speaking of parts - The Book of Love is a true mosaic work of character voices, where all the components come together beautifully. We have four main points of view: gay Black teen Mo, an orphan who's come back from the dead only to deal with the loss of his grandmother and caretaker; protective older brother Daniel, living in a multi-ethnic family with four younger Black siblings; ambitious musician Laura, whose father left the family a while ago; and Laura's languid younger sister Susannah, lacking a purpose in life and more often than not at odds with her sibling. But there are tons of other perspectives in this book, some of them lasting for just a single chapter, which may alienate some readers. Personally, I found it a rewarding choice, especially given the book's page count (one might argue that TBOL wouldn't be so lengthy without all the added POVs, but even if the majority of them didn't actually forward the plot, the story would be much poorer for that).

IN A DIFFERENT LIGHT

I wish I could tell you so many more things about this book, but the spoiler risk is just around the corner. I will note that, contrary to most supernatural stories - especially the ones where the protagonists end up having to save the world, as it is the case here - The Book of Love has a strong magical-realism flavour, due to the interference of certain characters who, let's say, alter the town's perception of the events. This enhances the magical and surreal aspects of the story, yet it anchors them in reality somehow, which is definitely not the norm with supernatural narratives. Link reins in her monster book by way of compassion and humour, and frankly, the only thing I disliked is her penchant for punctuating her story with brief, but pretty straightforward (crude, even) sex scenes (I mean, I'm on board with characters having sex if needs be, and I found it realistic that 17/18-year-olds would be horny, but I don't need detailed descriptions of...things). In the end though, I was so enamored with the plot, the characters and the atmosphere that I couldn't bring myself to detract half a star because of that. I'm so glad I found this whimsical, enchanting book that surpassed my afterlife-stories-fan expectations, I plan on buying a copy for my shelves (and for reread), and I hope you won't get intimidated by its page count and give it a chance.

Laura, Daniel and Mo disappeared without trace a year ago, presumed dead by their family, friends and community. And apparently they were - but now they're not. The story follows the newly resurrected teen-agers as they try to uncover what exactly happened to them and fight for their chance to remain in the mortal world. It's a fascinating premise and really wanted to love it. Personally though, I struggled to persevere with it.

The book is undoubtedly well-written and Kelly Link is a talented, ambitious author. The prose is wonderful and the characters are so very real - these aren't airbrushed, shiny Hollywood style caricatures of teenagers. These teenagers are messy, emotionally complex and self-obsessed - but I just wanted to shake them. Hello folks, you were dead, now you're not and if you don't want to be dead again, maybe you should stop trying to shag each other in bathrooms and getting distracted by personal dramas and pointless angst so you can actually stay alive? grrrr.

Perhaps I'm just the wrong demographic or perhaps the frequent switching of viewpoints between characters prevented me from ever really being able to empathise any particular one of them, but either way I couldn't quite connect with this book. A wonderfully written and clever premise - but just not for me.

To be honest, I found this a little tricky to stick with. I'm not great with many shifting POVs, which we have here. It meant that at times I really felt I had lost the thread of it. On top of that, it was easily 300 pages longer than it needed to be. I get that the author was really trying to give context to these chararcters but entire chapters felt unnecessary to me. Some people seem to have loved it - might be a case of right book, wrong person.

I read over half of this book but really struggled to keep going due to a lack of connection with the characters and the world.

I want to write something more about this book as it was a novel I had to recheck and I enjoyed it. It's not an easy or linear story. It's part horror, part fantasy and part mystery.
It made me think of a French tv series: The Revenants. The teens are revenants, they're back from death, they're changed but they have to understand what happened and who their mysterious mate is.
It's quite weird and intriguing. I liked the storytelling and loved the story. The characters are fleshed out, alien and relatable at the same time.
Highly recommended.
Many thanks to the publisher for this ARC, all opinions are mine

Book review 📚
The book of love by Kelly Link - 2.5/3 ⭐

I saw it through, as hard as it was I made it to the end. Can I tell you I enjoyed it? No, unfortunately I can't. I spent 98% confused with what was happening, and where we were. It was incredibly hard to get into but I thought okay there's a lot happening it will all make sense at the end. It did not.

It's a shame because Link has an awesome writing style and this could of been something amazing!

Thank you to NetGalley and Head of Zeus for allowing me to read this ARC - this is an HONEST review from my own personal opinion.

I tried to get into this book but found the scene setting quite confusing - I wasn't sure if I was meant to have prior knowledge of certain aspects of it since it was not clear when something was significant or just obscure. I gave it a good go but just read it slower and slower so couldn't finish it. Perhaps I wasn't the target audience since fantasy isn't the main genre that I read!

I was a tad confused looking at some reviews of this book but I think the main ‘problem’ is some people see praise from the likes of Holly Black and assume this will be a romantasy (romance fantasy) and while there is romance in here it is more of a urban fantasy than anything else and has a lot more besides. I think if you go in with certain expectations this could mean you go away not enjoying the book. But as with Link’s short stories I don’t feel we should try and assume we know what Link will give us or what their works will be like. That said I fully enjoyed this one.

The writing has the signature style of Link, a mixture of beautiful and stark prose. The characters are generally well developed but there are a lot of them. Then again this is a lengthy novel so they are given almost enough space to come into their own. The plot and storytelling are, to me, well developed and kept me hooked. I think another thing that might lead to misconceptions is this is ‘The Book of Love’ but in all the sense of that word. There are different types of love and relationships throughout that do get explored.

I think certain authors do have certain styles and while Link’s might not be for everyone if you have read their short stories and enjoy a modern urban fantasy you should enjoy this.

DnF at 1/4 in

The prose was frenetic and hard to follow, it was so hard to get into and then it moved at an absolute glacial place taking the reader "all around the houses" as my gran would say. It just became meandering and nonsensical and the thought of trying to finish the book actually gave me anxiety, especially once I realised how much longer the book had to go.

A real pity because the premise was fascinating.

I requested this one after seeing the author blurbs as they are some of my favourites! I think this one will divide readers and end up a marmite book. It's a dense story that rewards the reader but I can see why others choose not to persevere.

I received this book as an ARC courtesy of NetGalley and the publisher.

Unfortunately, I just couldn't get into this book and had to DNF. I spent the majority of the time confused and bored. I could see the potential and what the book could've been, but I just wasn't able to get there!

Read the first chapter, can’t wait to read the whole book. A fuller review to come. The first chapter that I read was so intriguing and poignant and full of supernatural happenings. Envy of a sister or grief from her death? And what’s with the …. Questions, questions, questions. I really want to know the answers!!

Now finished.
4.5 stars round to 5. My advice don’t read the first chapter, unless you want to be captured. Be warned, read that and the book just won’t let you go! That happened to me. This book is for me two things skilfully combined. A fantasy story, interlaced with so many observations of the human condition. This is a very long book. Which I sampled in small morsels, savouring the presented complexities of life and the story itself. At the beginning, and actually to be truthful in the middle too, I didn’t know exactly what was going on. But once in the flow I didn’t want to stop. Let me encourage you that it does make sense by the end. Thank you to Head of Zeus and NetGalley for the extract ARC. The views expressed are all mine, freely given.

Closer to 3.5 stars.

An enjoyable read which held my attention and got me drawn into the characters story and arc. Not a personal allowance time favourite but a good read nevertheless.

I was really excited about this but it ended up being a battle of wills to not DNF this. Honestly this was a hard-going read and it felt like an uphill struggle to feign any interest towards the end.

I always feel a bit mean giving such a negative review but this just did not do it for me. Like at all.

There absolutely were positives, the prose was at times very beautiful, the plot itself (when there was any) was fairly interesting, and Link absolutely nailed surrealist and fabulist fiction. Unfortunately these were simply not enough to save this from being a tiresome and poorly done read.

To avoid mindless ranting I’ve given my review some structure:

World Building
Well there isn’t any. There’s some cute names for the town, the band, the coffee shop etc. but there’s no world building outside of this. I also don’t appreciate magic that just pops up and is accepted by everyone and never explained. The magic just exists and happens every now and again with no explanation, logic, or reason it seems. I don’t love fantasy where nothing is clear - I find it frustrating rather than intriguing or whimsical. I think you can get away with this whimsy in a short story but if I’m going to sit through 600+ pages I expect some structure to the world otherwise everything becomes a surrealist, murky mess.

Plot
The plot is hard to get to and when you do find a plot point you don’t really care because it’s taken you a year to get there and you’ll have to wait another year for anything else to happen. Looking back over the read I can appreciate that the plot itself is fairly interesting? But it’s not strong enough to pull this all together. I also feel like for such a hefty book there should be something more meaningful being explored here.

Prose
Yes the prose was beautiful, but it felt at times that lyricism was prioritized over everything else.

Characters
None of them were very interesting. There were characters here that I kept feeling as though i SHOULD like them but there was no way to really connect with them. Honestly the majority of them were just mopey teenagers who spent far too much time mulling over the mundane.

Pacing
I do not mind a slow paced book. In fact some of my all time favourite reads are slower paced reads filled with purple prose and introspection. But there just didn’t seem to be any successful pacing here, it just constantly felt like wading through boring prose that, while at times beautiful, was sometimes just plain boring.

Title
I have never added commentary on a book’s title into my reviews, as I’ve never felt the need to. But what is this title?! How does it match the story in any way? I cannot fathom how this was decided upon as the title? Honestly I’m a bit peeved such a good title has been wasted on this book.

Length
It is way too long. Far too long. I think it is unfortunately quite obvious that Link has come from writing short stories and that the approach she uses for her short stories simply does not work for a longer tale. There didn’t seem to be any scaffolding holding this together and it dragged! It is overly long and could have been much stronger (and gotten away with a lot more) if it had been halved.

Overall, I feel awful saying it but this was my most boring read of the year. I am absolutely positive that there will be a small niche of people that will ADORE this book and who cannot get enough of this rambling surrealism - I am not one of them.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for an E-ARC

Kelly Link's debut novel is exquisite, and everything you'd expect based on her short fiction: strange and beautiful, rich and layered and with so much to say. Simply put, it's exquisite. I loved every moment I spent within its pages: I loved her messy, all-too-real characters; I loved her trademark weird and wonderful magical realism; I loved the tenderness with which she handles everything she touches; I loved that in many ways this book is a love letter to love stories. I've already gone and ordered a physical copy because this is a title I want on my shelves forever. I can't stop thinking about it; I can't stop talking about it.

Something important to note however is that this book is NOT a YA title, and I think in some ways the marketing has been pointing it at the wrong audience. I'm fairly certain I found this in the YA category on NetGalley, and while this is a book ABOUT teenagers, it's not a book FOR teenagers; at least not the sort of teenagers who read YA fantasy and come in with expectations of that genre's standards. While I know the blurbing authors are there because they're all (iirc) personal friends with Kelly Link, this is not a book for fans of Leigh Bardugo, Cass Clare and Holly Black, and I think that set of author blurbs can lead readers unfamiliar with Kelly Link to expect something very different of this novel than what it is, and to come away disappointed (which has very much been happening already, going by the early goodreads reviews).

Basically: Don't read this book if you're looking for a pacey YA fantasy. DO read this book if you like off-centre, literary adult fantasy written so cleanly yet gorgeously that it makes you want to weep with joy.

Many thanks to NetGalley and Head of Zeus for the eARC in exchange for my review!

The Book of Love is a strange novel. Laura, Mohammed, and Daniel died a year ago, but they haven't yet gone through the door. Somehow, they have been rebuilt, brought back to their home in Lovesend, and back to their lives, but this is not a gift without caveats. Soon they, and the people around them, including Laura's sister and Daniel's on and off again ex Susannah, will be caught up in a series of challenges and magic, promises and opportunities, death and responsibilities. But what does this all mean? How did they die? And how long will they remain in Lovesend?

The plot of this book I actually really liked and saw a lot of potential in. However, it moved at a snail's pace. I like slow paced books a lot usually, but in this case the pacing was a real issue. The pacing makes it really hard to get fully invested because it is told in this slow and meandering way. When I learned Kelly Link is well known for writing short stories, this explained it somewhat. At times, she was more focused on whimsical vignettes rather than the driving plot, and don't get me wrong, some of these were really lovely, but when you have a novel propelled by a mystery and particularly a set of specific tasks to complete, deviating off courses and taking 200 pages to get to the next day can really make a reader grow apathetic to the overall plot.

The focus of the novel is very much magic, and a kind of unpindownable magic at that. The magic is what it is, rather than there being many rules and lore to learn - though of course it has it's limits. At times, it felt like the magical realism actively hindered any real character growth, development and impact, because Link was more interested in that side of it. Some of it is explored beautifully, such as Mo's grief for his grandmother, who died in the year he was gone, and was his only family left, but so many other parts seem to be included more for quirk and whimsy than emotional exploration. There are some killer lines in here but they tend to be lines without the scenes to go with them.

There is a lot of compelling themes in this novel, but ultimately the pacing makes this really hard to read. Already over 600 pages long, it easily felt much longer than that.

Lord, what fools these mortals be!’ Is a famous quote from A Midsummer Night’s Dream as the fairies in the enchanted wood get bemused by the petty issues of young humans and artisans they come across. It’s a unusual blending of world with these all powerful magical creature who can warp minds and reality and well us - but it’s also a little two faced of Puck as the play shows the various squabbles between Fae royalty kicked the whole play off. Fantasy has been mixing the human and the divine for millennia - Greek Gods, Arthurian myths and more recently even American Gods. As always while who doesn’t enjoy magical shenanigans I think the real point of these tales is to explore humanity itself and now in Kelly Link’s impressive modern fantasy The Book of Love magical bargains, flawed humans and powerful immortals collide in a richly textured story exploring all the bonds of love that connect us.

College students and members of a band Laura, Mo and Daniel find themselves late at night in the classroom of their music teacher Mr Anabin. They find themselves with a mysterious stranger with mismatched eyes who gets named Bowie. The trio also find out they’ve been dead for many months and are now restored in magical bodies having escaped the realm managed by a man (sometimes wolf) named Bogomil. The young people now find themselves entered into a magical contest by Anabin and Bogimil rules are unclear but the penalty for failure is death again. Their little town of Lovesend is being reconfigured the students are now beloved to have just been to Ireland; Bowie is left to their own devices and now more magic than anyone can handle is coming to town as is a certain Goddess of the Moon…and Death.

So plot wise this sounds like the usual magical contest of good and evil but what I loved about this is how everythingisn’t quite what it seems. Anabin and Bogomil we find are less opposing forces and more strangely working together. We don’t have four heroes per se but instead four very flawed humans whose natures may get in their way of saving themselves and most of all this small town is about to find reality is loose and danger is close.

Character wise we have four young people - Laura who wants to succeed; asks all the questions and is incredibly repressed about her sexuality. She also has an older sister Susannah that merely being near will create waves of hostility . Daniel is Susannah’s on/off/on boyfriend who last time he saw her had broken up for good. Daniel doesn’t want to be involved in these magical games and has no desire to use magic apparently even if that means he dies. Mo is one of the few Black students in the town; he’s gay and yet to properly fall in love and he hates to share aspects of his life with anyone. The more mysterious Bowie can do magic easily but is not revealing any of their secrets just yet. There is always someone who think young college students means this must be a YA title but this is very much looking at these characters in the round and for me Link delivers the a very mature exploration of the characters warts and all. We may recognise many aspects of this group - the people we used to be and the many good and bad choices that await them.

Now based on the title is this a kissing book? Most affirmatively yet and indeed goes past kissing stages a few times. But the central themes go beyond just high school romance. Here in our characters’ lives we get to explore love in all its forms - sisterly, family, parental, friendship, workplace, unrequited, toxic, lustful and that first experience of true love to knock you off your feet. The dangers of love leading you to seek revenge or to put people in danger. Intriguingly we find Mo’s grandmother is an acclaimed romance writer which gives us a comparison of earthly love the the kind our imaginations bring to life.

Link has a fantastic approach to telling this complex story each chapter will be called ‘The Book of …’ with a focus on one character at a time. But my goodness each chapter sings with high quality writing, a small tale in miniature with style, humour, pathos and emotion that on its own is like a well crafted song but the mix Link deploys makes this feel more like a well judged album. We get little scenes in. Coffee shops but also magical chases, temples and family squabbles. Characters we may have found annoying become immensely human, we over the course of the book learn how they tick, we understand this town more and more and then of course there is the small matter of magic.

Here the forces of Anabin and Bogomil are soon joined by a more malevolent and chaotic woman named magnificently Malo Mogge all searching for something that may or may not be connected to our characters first set of deaths. Here magic is not simply raising the dead but we get moments of wonder such off floating cars driving off cliffs, clouds of moths taking flight, people changing into animal forms but also more dangerous tricks - forcing someone into another shape, changing their memories and we do find sometimes shockingly people can come to harm if you cross the wrong powerful Immortal. Just when you think this may be a light hearted novel there are darker scenes that make you work out actually no one may be safe here.

Alongside this is the character of Susannah the sister Laura left who is complex, spiky and also not wiling to do what the others tell her. Just as much about saving people’s lives it’s a key plotline that everyone has to work out where they stand with each other and where are they going next? It’s a great tale where we have people we both cheer on and also roll our eyes at when they are following their worst instincts. But it’s also quite clear the magical side of the world is no better. Just like the younger characters their obsessions change them into selfishness and a callousness that may ruin themselves. I suspect few will give these beings a pass.

There is a lot of story in this novel. I really enjoyed the encounters and watching characters and themes grow. There is a sense though of so many plotlines there is no way to nearly wrap everything up but for me that works. The characters left at the end are not always wiser but perhaps at the least learnt something about themselves to set up new paths to follow. A touch of ambiguity if love will end happily ever after feels far more realistic.

The Book of Love is a totally immersive modern fantasy novel exploring us, magic and that many textured emotion we call love. Kelly Link shows again that they are a highly skilled fantasy writer and I can’t wait to see what they have for us next.

Where to start with this audacious, genre-defying, magical book?

From the genius mind of acclaimed short story writer Kelly Link, The Book of Love is a story about three teenagers - ambitious Laura, home-bird Daniel and snarky Mo - who come back from the dead; they don't know how they died or why they're back. Enter the mysterious Mr Anabin, their music teacher (and something much more sinister), who sets them a series of 3 trials - the winners will return to life, the losers to death. Oh, and the trials are magical, so now the trio are going to have to learn magic to take part.

This is not even close to an accurate summary of The Book of Love, which, at 650 pages, encompasses much more than one story.

It definitely is not a book for everyone; it has recieved mixed(ish) reviews on here and further afield. But I ADORED it.

I loved the magic that the town the book is set in, Lovesend, thrummed with, the sense that anything could happen. I loved the multiple POVs across the main characters, but also the smaller windows into the lives of Lovesend's other inhabitants. One chapter, dedicated to Mo's grandmother, the acclaimed Romance author MaryAnne Groch, has the makings of a novel all on its own - it's a wonderful story of how a Black woman became wildly successful in an industry that didn't want her. Link's prowess as a short story writer is on show in these chapters that deviate from the main plot; her character writing is so strong, everyone in the book feels outrageously real. The bulk of the narrative is given over to Laura, Daniel and Mo and they leap off the page - full of jokes and angst and overwhelming complexity, just like real people.

I loved how the novel functions as a love letter (heh) to Romance novels, the fantasy genre, and siblinghood. I loved the deeply weird sense of humour that the novel is infused with; far from a po-faced fantasy novel, The Book of Love is funnier than many comedic books I've read; there's even a joke that borders on "imagine if Ireland was real" that had me actually laughing aloud.

I've seen a good bit of criticism of the pacing of this one; it's very slow, but once I got into the swing of the novel, I was content to luxuriate in the world the author introduced us too - by the end, 650 pages didn't feel like enough. The Guardian mentioned that "The first chapters set the book up as a plot-driven fantasy mystery" and it is categorically not that, so maybe if that's what you expect the slow pace would wreck your head. The fantasy mystery was the least compelling element of this one for me, though;; instead, I just wanted to spend time with these people, in this place, with no concerns about how long it takes for them to solve their problems.

A profoundly beautiful novel that will stay with me for a long time.

This book is one giant fairy tale, extremely well told with good characters and a good plot and excellent stories between the plots.
I have read of her writing style as magic realism. Although this is an oxymoron, I understood what this description means as I read this book.
The book could become a modern classic , it depends upon how readers of the genre accept it.

I don't believe in magic and don't normally read make-believe books, however I enjoyed the book and the writing style.

If I believed in magic the book would have had 5 stars, but I just cannot bring myself to rate any make-believe book 5 stars.

My thanks to the author for the many hours of enjoyment that this book has brought me, I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.

If slow-burning plot, whimsical narration, meandering thoughts, lengthy time to get to know our characters - which include a waiting-for-the-right-time disaster lesbian, a horny gay, an even bigger disaster straight <s>couple</s> situationship, a sparking unicorn, a villainous moon and someone who likes the name Bowie the most - are something that call to you, this is your book. And you are going to love it. This is a quintessential winter book, if you enjoy seasonal reading.

Maybe this is not the best place to start with Link's work, as she shines in short form fiction. I nevertheless did so, based on solely enthusiastic love by two reviewer I trust, and I was charmed. Link's characters are so human, with complex feelings, which are sometimes contradictory, expressed with a wonderful prose that rather makes you feel things than see things (which, as one with aphantasia, I always appreciate). I found myself not wanting to rush through this book, as its excellence shines in the small details.

I hope the book finds its readers, I enjoyed it a lot, but I can definitely see it's not for everyone.