The Binding

The idea and world building of this book was great, but I feel like barely anything happens? Like a third of the book is Emmett remembering his binding... and then like, hardly anything happens? There is no punishment for the truly vile man that Lucian's father is, and zero character development? Idk, I feel like this could have been a duology or a trilogy where emmet learns to use his binding for good and abolish the disgusting use of it by the upper class while taking down Lucian's awful father. 3 stars for a super cool concept and decent writing but the plot is honestly more like 2

edit: jk I dropped it down to a two bc in retrospect it was just a complete mess

“It's a sacred calling Emmett. To have another person's memory entrusted to you...To take the deepest, darkest part away from them and keep it safe forever. To honour it, to make it beautiful, even though nobody else will see it.”

Firstly, let's get the doubts out of the way. I read a lot of reviews where people had DNF'ed this book in the first part, and a lot of people were praising it for the good story later on. So yes, part one is extremely slow. It builds up enough mysteries and momentum in part one, then throws you into slow chaos in part two, and fully blown-out chaos in part three. And at the end you come out saying, “Wow! What a roller-coaster!”

I not only enjoyed, but also adored this book. I enjoyed part one with all the book binding terminology and the pace at which the author described Emmett's mundane activities slowly, but also peacefully. In the beginning, Emmett feels lost and alone. He feels like he's missing something because he has no memory of the year from when he was sick. To make matters worse, his family feels distant from him and they send him off to become a binder, a trade people think to be witchcraft. And to make matters even worse, nobody seems to be explaining anything to him. Neither his parents nor his master from whom he's learning the trade of binding.

Another thing I appreciated was how Seredith revered books as they were people's memories and essentially a part of them. But there were other binders who sold them as stories. This comparison was described in very rich tones.

So keeping this as spoiler-free as possible - part two is also from Emmett's POV but part three is not him. Having a different POV for part three was, in my opinion, a very good move. Not only does Emmett end up taking a back-seat, we get to see how the story intertwines for our characters. I was rooting so hard for these guys by the end and the ending did not disappoint :D

Pros:
- Different type of setting
- Books
- People cherishing books (well, one of them at least)
- Emmett and Lucian were so much fun to read
- Strong-willed characters

Cons:
- Worst father in literature
- Bad families all around
- Homophobiaaa!! (See above 2 points) The earth should swallow you guys wholeee!

Beware:
- Books with your names on them
- Families who don't care about your happiness.
P.S. The hardcover is mesmerizing!

Wow... the marketing/PR team for this book all need raises and promotions because they TRICKED THE SHIT out of so many people (myself included, of course) with what this story was going to be... The person who wrote the book description is a master of deception. I would take off a glove and give that person a slap with it to signal my desire for a duel, but I also want to hire the person for being good enough to deceive the crap out of those of us who wanted a historical-fantasy-magical-realism kind of story but instead got this fucking drivel.