Lydia's Page

I put off reading this given the majority mediocre reviews... and I'm sad to say that, so far, I fully understand the disappointment. I love JKR. This one's missing the mark for me, but I love JKR.

I'm really struggling to keep all the characters straight. I've had to refer to a character chart to sort them out a few times. I thought this might be because I'm listening to an audiobook version, but the general consensus online seems to be a lot of muddled confusion.

The story and the characters seem flat and dry. This is a morality tale that would probably work better if it weren't shoddily masked by the overwrought characters. I'd prefer a direct lesson over the messy metaphor in this case.

The narrator of the audiobook is also quite flat and dry. The best/worst bit has been his repeated attempts to perform both Jay-Z's and Rihanna's parts in Umbrella. Painfully funny. 

I'm going to finish this one, but I have to say it's felt more like a chore than an enjoyable read. I am looking forward to the next Robert Galbraith tome, because The Cuckoo's Calling (while imperfect) was much better than this.