22. Burning Bright (Tracy Chevalier)

I've read all of Chevalier's past books (including Girl With a Pearl Earring, which she is most famous for) and enjoyed them, so I didn't even bother to read the jacket description when I picked this up. Since I liked all of her previous books, I assumed this one would be good as well.

Wrong. It took me a long time to get through this, mostly because the book had no plot. It's marketed as a book about William Blake, set in the late 18th C. in London. Blake is actually a very minor character. The book is centered on a country family who moves to London, and the city is shown through the eyes of their children, around 13-15 years old.

Basically the children just go around the city, having various experiences, but there really is no overlying plot. Usually I want to finish a book to find out what happens in the end, but in this case I didn't have any motivation do to that - because nothing happens. Chevalier's character's didn't seem interesting in themselves, either. They were basically stock - the street girl, the country boy in the big city, the innocent girl who gets taken advantage of.

I didn't hate this enough to not finish it, but I didn't really care for it at all.

Rating: 2 of 6