Book Review: The Book of Love (Or Is It?)

One of the first books I read this year is The Book of Love by Kelly Link. This is the first book or work by Kelly Link that I am ever reading, She is predominantly a short story writer focusing on the magical realism, fantasy, and horror. Outside of horror all of this was exactly the type of genres I tend to enjoy reading and gravitate towards. The Book of Love follows Laura, Daniel, and Mo after they have discovered that somehow they have come back from the dead. They are joined by a seemingly unsuspecting music teacher who has brought them back and sets them on a task that would result in two of them being able to be among the living again. But of course things aren’t always as it seems, their return triggered the resurrection of other magical creatures but they soon realize that ultimately they have the same goal.

I loved the magical realism aspect of the story. The way she was able to blend the mundane normal parts of life and add an additional magical twist to make the story interesting is impressive and I think out of other authors I have read who attempted this genre, she is one of the best and executes better than normal. Kelly Link’s creativity really shows in this book but it never felt too overwhelming, everything about the story was cohesive and left me wanting to explore more about the magical aspects of this universe. 

I will admit there were points of the story that made it difficult for me to go on and continue. The initial premise was gripping which is why I picked it up but the story took a while to develop. For reference the book is about 600 pages long but in my experience things didn’t start to get interesting or make sense until page 250-300. I feel Kelly Link might have focused a little more on details that weren’t necessary to advance the plot. There were new characters introduced but the “so what” of them was not made obvious in a timely manner. 

At times also I was reminded that I was reading books that are from the perspective of teenagers. There was a lot of angst, a lot of hiding of animosity that could have been solved with proper communication. This wasn’t necessarily a problem but it was just a painful reminder of the headspace of the main characters.

My last critique of the book is the title. I’m just being petty at this point but there wasn’t anything profound in the story to indicate towards this being a book of love. There were aspects of love and pretty much all the characters had a love interest but the depth was missing for me. I think the non platonic shows of love were more profound especially that between Mo and his mother and grandmother but the depth was missing for me. I think Kelly Link tried to showcase the intricacies of love and how it manifests itself in different relationships but the delivery was lacking.

I would only recommend this book for fellow magical realism lovers who don’t mind reading a long book. The world that Kelly built is mesmerizing and all the twists were worth it to continue reading the book.

Final Rating: 2.5/5