Rembrandt’s Mirror immediately drew my attention, with the beautiful bright blue cover, gold detail and gold dusted edges.
I was excited and made sure to have it on my list of must reads for this COVID-19 business.
I started it with gusto, diving right in…and then very quickly lost all motivation for it.
It was a terribly disappointing read.
It seemed like the writer tried to lay the facts in a fictional type setting, peppering the pages with pretty prose in small increments, but lacking in the overall element of wonderful story telling – which is flow.
The book hops from one thought to the next without so much as a by-your-leave. The author seems to jump from one scene to the next, often leaving out vital characters, explanations and reason.
There were several times throughout the book that I became hopeful. The paragraph would start off beautifully, painting a wonderful scene, and then all of a sudden the author seemed to rush through the next few sentences, delivering a fact here and there, then jumping to the next scene again leaving the reader confused and dissapointed.
By page 200, I was constantly taking breaks simply to let The Boyfriend know how much I was HATING this book, and that’s truly hard for me to say, but it’s true.
The story had such potential.
Rembrandt, a real life famous artist, a wonderfully complex man with a wonderfully complex life, had a wonderful story to be told ad unfortunately the book was written by a hand that lacked the finesse and art the painter himself possessed.
The story itself is captivating, it’s unconventional and delves into the mind of a man with extraordinary talents, if available, I would find another book based on his life and work and read that instead, and hope for a better outcome.
My overall opinion is that the book seemed like a first draft that was skimmed over and put into print.
Kim Devereux has talent, but this book did not show the full extent of that talent.
The upside is that it looks might pretty on shelf.
Momo The Book Thief 