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Summary
Fiona Davis, author of The Dollhouse, returns with a compelling novel about the thin lines between love and loss, success and ruin, passion and madness, all hidden behind the walls of The Dakota-New York City's most famous residence.
The narration in 'The Address: A Novel' had such a novice quality to it when attempting different character voices that it completely detracted from the story, becoming incredibly distracting.
Spending time in both the 1880s and the 1980s was an absolute blast! The plot was full of suspense, with characters that felt so authentic. And let me just say, Saskia Maarleveld and Brittany Pressley did an amazing job with their performances - they were truly marvelous!
The story kicks off with an intriguing conflict right from the start. However, as the book progresses, the characters and plot take a nosedive into an overly dramatic Victorian style.
Personally, I enjoy when authors choose pre-tech eras as the backdrop for their stories. It eliminates the reliance on gadgets to move the plot forward, and forces the characters to rely on their own wits and resourcefulness. With this in mind, I had high expectations for a historically fictionalized tale filled with human conflict, well-developed characters, and good old-fashioned resolutions.
Unfortunately, Ms. Davis took a different route and delved into a Dickensian style of storytelling. Some of the plot twists seemed overly melodramatic, featuring an Evil Asylum Nurse who antagonizes the unfortunate heroine simply because, well... she's an Evil Asylum Nurse. There was little character development beyond the cliché trope of portraying institutionalized settings with mandatory villainous nurses akin to Nurse Ratchet.
Perhaps some readers may enjoy this lukewarm tea, but for me, it became tiresome to see the author resort to the stereotypical portrayal of the Evil Institutional Nurse making the protagonist re-clean the floor after she had accidentally dirtied it with her muddy shoes.
There simply wasn't enough substance in the characters to make me care about them, so I decided to stop reading halfway through.
As I've mentioned in the past, I used to finish every book, hoping for a redeeming conclusion. However, I've come to realize that there are far too many good books out there to waste my time on a disappointing one.
With that in mind, I'll move on to my next read.
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