A Shadow Melody by Brian KaufmanMy rating: 3 of 5 stars
This is a short novel that feels like a novella. It's written like a short story, with the kind of ending a short story often has, but it's really a novel that hasn't been given enough room to breathe.
Nothing is developed as much as I felt it needed to be. The romance felt cursory. The dark-fantasy element (I'd consider communicating with the dead dark fantasy, though it's presented in a context which otherwise suggests science fiction) felt inadequately led up to and not motivated enough by the prior parts of the story, which also felt disjointed, as if the child Harry we met at the beginning didn't have much continuity with the adult Harry. I think this is because while some of his abilities were the same, there didn't seem to be a clear emotional throughline from beginning to end. The twist also felt abrupt (and broke my suspension of disbelief: (view spoiler)).
I think it's the emotional throughline that I was really missing. I've reviewed a few books this year that I've put on my Best of the Year list despite significant mechanical issues, because they showed good storytelling ability and took me on an emotional journey that worked. This one is the opposite; there are relatively few and minor prose errors, but it's all chops and no gravy.
There are some missed opportunities, too, that could have created such a throughline. For example, while in college, Harry secretly admires his best friend's girlfriend; but after the two friends are both in World War I, she disappears from the story completely, even though she could easily have filled the exact role that is instead filled by the randomly-appearing and previously-unheralded Elizabeth. It's as if, with each time skip (child to college age, college to the war, war to several years post-war) there's a reset, and what Harry cares about, and the cast of secondary characters, are completely replaced. I think that's what makes it feel underdeveloped and too short; none of the sections is complete in itself, and there's not enough connection between them.
For me, this had potential, but needed more work to be satisfying.
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