Review

I was actually unable to finish reading this book. The writing was very uneven, with pointlessly lyrical passages interspersed with flat narrative prose; a jumpy timeline; and characters that I did not find appealing.

There were some small problems that I found very offputting. At one point she claims that rocks from the Triassic period are red because the Triassic was oxygen-rich, and that that was caused by a lack of surface plant life. First, at both the beginning and end of the triassic period, oxygen levels were at about half of today’s level. And second, an absence of surface plant life would not contribute to high oxygen levels.

At another point in the story, while on a train journey from St. Paul to Tacoma, she says that they must be outside the states, in the territories, headed towards Fargo. In the 1880s. It was not possible to be headed west towards Fargo and be outside the states at the same time. The train in fact had to be in the state of Minnesota. OK - not a big deal, but distracting, and why on earth wouldn’t her editor have caught something like this?

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