On a quiet street in Dublin, a lost bookshop is waiting to be found…
For too long, Opaline, Martha and Henry have been the side characters in their own lives.
But when a vanishing bookshop casts its spell, these three unsuspecting strangers will discover that their own stories are every bit as extraordinary as the ones found in the pages of their beloved books. And by unlocking the secrets of the shelves, they find themselves transported to a world of wonder… where nothing is as it seems.
Comment: This is another buddy read choice and my friend and I have picked this one because it would be about books, of course, and we do like the "books about books" theme.
In this story we follow three main characters as their personal stories connect through the same element, a bookshop in Ireland. In 1920s, Opaline is a daring young woman who doesn't want to conform to the expectations on her role, and she runs from her brother, who aims to marry her off to someone she doesn't know. Her dream is to work with books and she goes to Paris to pursue her dream, which leads her to live through many adventures and worries, as her brother pursues her. In the present, Martha and Henry meet by chance and see themselves in constant contact from then on, for Henry is looking for Opaline's bookshop, which should be next door to the house where Martha works at as a housekeeper, but which doesn't seem to exist. What happened, why is the building simply not where it should? What is Martha hiding? What happened to Opaline?
On paper, this story had everything to make it a great one, secrets and weird things, daring characters and hints at romance, magical realism elements... books and stuff about books, it did seem like this had to be a successful book to me, but the truth is that the writing style didn't win me over.
The story is told alternatively by three characters, Opaline in the 1920s and Martha and Henry in the present. All share their POVs in first person, and sometimes this annoyed me to no end, although this isn't a romance - which is where first person, badly done, really gets on my nerves - because the writing felt very simplistic and without enough depth to sustain the type of plot and what the characters go through. All face some sort of difficulty in their lives, and there are traumatic situations they must deal with as well, which I think weren't really developed and almost glossed over.
Opaline is certainly the most interesting character, she lives at a time women still have no real rights and she dreams of working, of doing something that makes her happy and that is book related. I could empathize with her very easily and root for her being successful, but the way she simply leaves to a foreign place and things work out with only mild worries at first felt very childish written. Surely the author could add more urgency and layers to all this.
Martha and Henry are living in the contemporary years and their meeting is quite simple but apparently develops into seriousness very quickly. However, both have to deal with current relationships (Martha has run from her abusive husband, and Henry has a girlfriend in England) before something happens, but their connection is immediate. I mean, I did struggle with this element because, again, the writing made this seem very juvenile and now the result of thoughtful adult emotions, as I imagined it should, considering their personal stories, which we learn of as the story moves on.
My main issue has to be the fact the voices/personalities of these three all seem the same! The author wrote them in first person but apart from the details related to each, I'd not differentiate them. It's really a pity how such a promising story, with so many elements that could enrich the storytelling felt short if the writing isn't as polished. I mean, nothing is badly done, only not masterful nor smooth. Plus, since most situations are presented in a slightly superficial way, of course the emotional connection failed for me as well.
There are some magical realism elements here and there, sometimes so random that I wonder why bothering with them, and to be honest, some things still don't make sense to me. In the meantime, I have even looked at questions readers asked on GR about the book, I've read some reviews hoping to understand one detail or two but my conclusion is that when it was handy, the magical realism element was there, to add a certain vibe, when it didn't seem important, it wasn't there.
Opaline and Martha have complicated challenges for their role as women when there are men in their lives who seemingly have all the power. I think this theme offered interesting food for thought elements and I did like that they have what we could say were relatively traditional HEAs, but what they go through was only alluded at, not really developed. This is a pity, considering the author decided to include those themes. Perhaps less intense elements would have been a better choice.
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