So conflicted

The City of Dreaming Books - Walter Moers, John Brownjohn

I had a true love/hate experience reading this book. Full disclosure, I have not read the other books in this series, and I probably won't. I read this for a book club with the understanding that the book could stand alone, and I suppose it did.

 

There were numerous times I almost quit. The first of them was when I realized the main character was an anthropomorphic dinosaur. I read fantasy; I love dragons and elves and wizards, but a dinosaur crossed a weirdness threshold for me. Still, I found some of the concepts within it clever enough to keep going.

 

I hit a wall with a great deal of exposition. The infodumping is strong in this book. I hate infordumping. I would start to find myself interested and motivated to read. Something entertaining or curious would be happening. Some piece of action or foreshadowing would grab my attention. And then, inevitably, more infodumping. Every time it happened, I almost quit.

 

The story in between all the exposition was good, though. It was very clever, and very different. I loved the booklings, and the catacombs. I loved the story about the Shadow King, and I loved the ending. I even teared up a little over it.

 

Ultimately I can't decide if I loved this book or hated it. I guess it was a little bit of both. 

 

That said, I will not be reading anything else by this author. His style is not for me.