✨ Anna ✨ | ReadAllNight's Reviews > Manhattan Beach

** spoiler alert ** This review has not yet been edited.

Missed opportunity here. Had a lot of qualities that could have made a compelling story, but it is just a long drawn-out tome showcasing that Egan did a lot of research and decided to put a metaphor in almost every sentence, sometimes a thing gets more than one! And there are two that use apples! I don’t remember for what but I remember how silly the description of an apple blah, blah, was. And later another apple metaphor. Please, bring editors with compunction back. Do writers today get paid by the word? Because the language usage here was ridiculous and in need of a serious editor right up to the last sentence. It was inconsistent—using highly developed vocabulary to describe Anna’s inner thoughts—words she would never know or hear in her lifetime. But then her father calls her “toots.” Is that a joke or adding “flavor” from the period (unintentionally hilarious). I was cringing constantly and only finished it to finish it.

Also confused: has the definition of historical fiction changed? Because this is just a novel set in the past. Is Gone with the Wind historical fiction? Is The Help historical fiction? Is No Country for Old Men? No. Books like Z A Novel, The Paris Wife, The Aviator’s Wife, etc. are “historical fiction.” Such a rush to create more genres to fill with more bad books. Faulkner would have a fit.