The Ministry Of Time - Kaliane Bradley
My enjoyment of this book decreased the more time that I spent with it, and that's a shame because it starts very strongly.
It's written brilliantly, in a way that feels completely effortless but must have taken a lot of work to get right. The prose is light and a joy to read, and it's often surprising and laugh-out-loud funny. The relationship between the narrator and her Victorian ex-pat is wonderful, and the way it develops feels very real.
The main problem here is that I never got a sense that the book knew where it was going. Somewhere around the 60% point I began to feel like it was really dragging, spinning its wheels and trying to cover for a lack of engaging plot with sparkling prose. When the finale comes it's rushed and lacklustre, spoiling what could otherwise have been a great book. The explanation of what's actually going on here felt very underwhelming and half-formed, and although the final scene is clearly crafted to hit exactly the right emotional notes I felt like it didn't quite ring true.
I enjoyed most of my time with this and it's definitely worth reading, but I wouldn't go into it expecting a masterpiece.