The Binding

I’m one of the readers who grabbed this book for the concept of bookbinding – taking fears, memories, secrets and shames and locking them away inside the binding of a book – to be shelved and tucked aside as you continue your life. Far from an easy or even pat solution, just in the premise you can imagine the myriad of ways this can go pear-shaped: from intentionally disguising / forgetting memories of events that could shape you as a person to removing you from your life (think It’s a Wonderful Life and George Bailey’s wish), so I was anxious to dive in. And, the book is quite clearly divided into three sections – the first consumed with everyone BUT the characters understanding their place and purpose – while others know but can’t tell them. Oh it was painful and very slow – with these hints that weren’t and a sense that bleak and ‘never to see the sunshine again in a happy way’ were prevalent. Surprisingly, as much as I despise the “smugness’ of the trope where mostly I have a little kid sing-songing I know something you don’t know running through my head, Collins prose is lovely and imaginative, descriptive and quite easy to visualize scenes and moments even through the gloom. The second part of the book brings in some lightness and answers – as well as a twist that I don’t think it was possible to anticipate. The flashback contained here really had possibly the lightest moments of the book, and it seemed to keep the unpleasant characters (of which there were many) confined to the edges and outside – allowing Emmett to give us some hope for him (and readers) to find some happiness in what has, to this point, been a fairly bleak rendition of the world. People aren’t nice and wanting to see the best in others here – they are horrible and often driven by their worst impulses (perhaps spurring the need for binders) and the concept of ‘guilt’ and ‘remorse are lost. But with the twists and a few other surprises here – the story moves forward and my hopes for a happier resolution (this isn’t an HEA sort of book) were fading. The final ‘section’ of this book -and mind, they are sections simply in focus and feeling drew us to the end with more bleakness and unpleasantness with a new perspective that, in my opinion, was bringing coals to Newcastle. It was far more stark than I expected, and while my hopes for an HEA were small and near-silent with the tone, the settling into the relationship (and a queer one at that) was a nice twist that I didn’t expect to find. I think that throughout my read I wanted more of the book binding and the lore surrounding it -how choices were made and perhaps more of the fantastical and magical elements that I had thought would be contained within the pages. But, the writing and the concept while bleak and far darker than I had expected (or would hope) added to what felt very ‘uneven’ in pacing and revelations and made this an OK read – not great, not horrible, but far less enjoyable than the buzz led me to believe. And there is MY lesson – buzz about titles for me rarely translates into a title I can’t live without. I received an eArc copy of the title from the publisher via Edelweiss for purpose of honest review. I was not compensated for this review: all conclusions are my own responsibility.