BOOK REVIEW: All The Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr

***please note, any spoilers will be in a different colour to my usual black text, and unless there is a block of spoilers, may occur without warning. I apologise in advance if this review spoils the book for you in any way, although you have been warned! ;)***


I HAVE FINALLY FINISHED THIS BOOK.

Anyone who follows me on Instagram or Twitter (linked at the bottom of this post), will know how long it has taken me to get through this book.
7 months,

SEVEN LONG MONTHS.

Saying that, the book isn't all that bad.

It's a historical war fiction novel, set in WW2, and follows the stories of two characters who are actually destined to cross paths at somepoint, we just don't know when until it actually happens (but when it happened, all I could say was IT'S ABOUT BLOODY TIME, followed by IS THAT IT?!). The two main characters, Marie-Laure and Werner, could not be more different if they tried. One is a blind girl living with her father in Paris, the other a German orphan living with his sister under the care of the orphanage, until one day, he is enlisted in the army.

Werner likes radios. A lot. He enjoys watching how they work, and pulling them apart to fix them back up again. This is a skill that comes in handy throughout this book, as he becomes one of the only people who has the ability to receive radio transmissions unbeknown to the original transmitter.

Marie-Laure is blind, lives with her father in Paris, and has a miniature of the city in her room. Her father created this miniature of the city for her, so she is able to get her bearings of the city before being allowed to go out alone. In the throes of war, they are made to leave Paris, thus leaving the familiarity behind, rendering Marie-Laure helpless. Until they arrive at her Great-Uncle Etienne's home, where she is then cared for by her father, as well as her Great-Uncle and Madame Manec, her great-uncles help.

From then on, chaos ensues, for both Marie-Laure and Werner. Their paths do cross eventually, but it does take a while.

***

I struggled to complete this. In all honesty, it was a very well written piece, although lengthly, and in my opinion, often unnecessary. Why? This is because I picked it up and put it down again several times over the 7 months, as I found it difficult to read in big spurts. Some of the scenes for me, were unnecessary, as they focused on a lot of side characters, although personally, I believe they were the wrong side characters. I would have liked to have heard more not just about Jutta (Werners sister), but also Marie-Laure's father.


Overall, I gave this book 4 stars on goodreads, but it falls closer to 3.5 stars for me. I will be posting a full review on Youtube, and you can find the link to my channel on the blog home page.

Thanks for reading, and hopefully see you soon with another review!



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