I was doing so good in the first of January at being on top of my reviews, and then I hit this book, and the mehness of it has caused a back-up that I’m trying to get back under control before February hits. Anyway, I was really excited about this book, but it didn’t quite do it for me. It was perfectly fine! But I will never read it again (a litmus test I have been using more and more when deciding if I want to round up or down on half-star ratings).
The plot of this one is pretty complicated (one of my complaints), but the basic premise is that there is a children’s book (based on a real book the author loves as a child) that left clues for readers to find treasure in real life (in this case a tiny golden skeleton split up into sections), and people became obsessed with it, making its author and illustrator a very rich man. It also painted a target on his daughter, who he named after the character in the book whose skeleton all the treasure hunters were looking to find. A large part of this book is Eleanor (who goes by Nell) dealing with the fallout from obsessive unhealthy fandom.
Anyway, all this has started up again as they’ve decided to make an app and create another treasure hunt, but on the date of the release, a real bone is found in the place that they’ve hidden the last golden bone from the previous skeleton (a pelvis). This digs up the past for Nell in a very unpleasant way, which also happens to threaten the safety of her foster child. Also complicating things are the many, many characters in Nell’s family, all of whom cause a lot of drama, especially her parents and their “best friends” who live next door to them. Her parents’ past histories and all of their drama is a significant part of the story.
Anyway, this was a five hundred page mystery book, and it was too much. It was too long, and there was just TOO MUCH. I was compelled at first but then things just seemed to get bogged down and I lost interest quite a bit. Not even the pretty clever ending could bring it back all the way. I just think this needed some trimming, either of characters or subplots, or page length. My circuits were overloaded and shut down.
Still, not mad I read it.
[3.5 stars]
