Book 20 of My 2014 Goal

Manroot by A.N. Steinberg
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

What a mysterious cover on the book 'MANROOT' by Anne Steinberg and if that isn't enough to draw you in, the first few chapters will! Although these first couple of chapters are a little slow compared to the rest of the book, they still draw your curiosity about what is going on, not only by the interesting happenings going on but by the sheer talent of the way the author develops the scene and the characters.

The author choose to start the book with what I would consider the 'background' information as it is happening instead of jumping to the main site and circumstances of the story which I found refreshing. By this I mean, (without giving any spoilers) many books start with the main characters already in the setting that the action and the plot starts, any background information you need to know such as where or how they got there is made known by some question being answered by one character. However, in this book what leads up to the main characters being and doing what they are doing is part of the story. The book opens with this happening instead of you just hearing it second hand (so to speak). I'm not saying you are reading everything about the 'background' at the beginning because you don't, you do learn some parts by one character telling another (or some other way) at the appropriate times and places throughout the book but as the story to begin, you already know the background you need to know to make sense of it as it happened.

This is not a simple story with one plot, it's multilayered and it's all done with relevance to the story's progression until the final outcome. All the characters are developed fully and I love the way it shifts, depending where you are in the story, from one set of prominent characters to another. By this I mean, who I thought was the main character in the beginning of the story is barely mentioned in other parts of the story while other characters I thought were just 'there' ended up being the prominent character of those chapters. This shift may sound a little confusing but I assure you that the way it is written it isn't.

It is a fiction but I don't know what sub-genre to put it in since there is so many it can fit into; romance, paranormal, spiritual, magical, horror, fantasy, violence, and there are more. Although the list seems overwhelming the story isn't and will keep you turning page after page from the beginning to the end. Again, I credit it to the fantastic imagination of the author and her writing talent. Speaking of the end, I never saw all of that coming. Wow! I never thought it would end to that degree of surprise. Excellent!

I received a free copy of this book for my honest review and I wouldn't be giving an honest review if I didn't mention I did have a few problems with the book. At the beginning of the book, something seemed a little 'off' in spots. Certain paragraphs just didn't seem to work with the previous ones and totally interrupted the flow of the story for me. The best way I can describe it is that it seemed like the author had written a few paragraphs and later decided to change them but 'forgot' to change one line or paragraph in there to the new edited version. I found this near the beginning of the book and it was only a few paragraphs (and it could only be "me" and the way I read it) however the formatting/editing/proofreading errors were throughout. Many were simple mistakes but because of the numerous amount of them, it did take away from this fantastic story. There are way too many to mention them all but some examples are; "rub" instead of tub, "goig" instead of going, "bene" instead of been, even Tom (one of the characters) became "Tome." These were things simple proofreading would have corrected and a total shame this brilliant story is marred by such basic errors resulting in me having to drop my
rating of this book a star. Despite this, I still recommend this book to adults because it is a fantastic story that will have you turning page after page!

*I received a free copy of this book for my honest review.

Update on 5/14/14: I have been notified by the author that the obvious errors were fixed (kindle edition) so I am changing my review to the 5 stars this fantastic story deserves!

View all my reviews