The Children by Melissa Albert

The quick cut: A woman using her mother's name to coast by finds that she needs to go back to her childhood with her brother to understand the present. 

A real review: 

Thank you to William Morrow for providing the arc for an honest review.

 Our childhoods very much can shape the person that we become as an adult. Are we successful and happy? Are we sad and a mess? Do we have a sense of direction in what we want? For Guinevere, this is a question when she finds out that her brother Ennis is releasing a new art installation named "Mother". 

 Guinevere is making her way through life by using her mother's name. Her mother was a famous author who wrote a series of books. It is well known that she was inspired by her own children in their creation. In reality, she and her brother grew up in the rural wild, in a childhood that was far from idyllic. The series was a huge hit until it all went up in flames, leaving the final book unfinished and incomplete. Now the kids are all grown up and she is estranged from her brother. Its separate lives that have continued for years until Guinevere is told of her brother's upcoming installment, named "Mother". Is he truly going to finally talk about their childhood? or is it a message for Guinevere? 

 This book is very dark and for me, confusing. There are multiple time jumps and a lot of the writing goes back and forth between the kids' childhood and adult lives right before "Mother" is released. I didn't really connect with the characters and I can't say I did a good job of keeping track of what happened when. 

 The one I can say is that the writing is very atmospheric and lets you know exactly what type of story this is. One of the issues I had is that the writing gets so eloquent that you end up losing the reader in all the flowery language. I enjoy a well written novel just as much as any other avid reader, but if you use all flowery language - you go from being eloquent to unnecessary. At 400+ pages? This book goes far too deep into overly difficult language. 

 The ending didn't sit well with me. Probably because it isn't something I could imagine myself doing. 

 An interesting story that blends fantasy, reality, and the power of memory. 

My rating: 3 out of 5