100 Books in 2018

25/ five rivers met on a wooded plain by barney norris

read: 04.04.18 - 08.04.18

book: Five Rivers Met On A Wooded Plain

author: Barney Norris

blurb: One quiet evening in Salisbury, the peace is shattered by a serious car crash. At that moment, five lives collide – a flower seller, a schoolboy, an army wife, a security guard, a widower – all facing their own personal disasters.

review: I wasn't the target audience for this book. I just wasn't. It required the reader to have some sense of the world, to understand the feelings of adulthood and unfulfillment, and for me I just couldn't relate. I found the premise highly boring and forced, I didn't like any of the characters, and thought the actual writing was pretentious in places.

It felt like the writer had wanted to write a story about five characters and so used a car crash to link them all together, but instead of being a seamless plot device it just felt out of place and random. I just really didn't like the way the book progressed as just a series of thoughts which occasionally linked back to the car crash, and that nothing actually happened.

I just couldn't relate, and that's what this book hinges on.

rating: 4/10