Melmoth

Melmoth

By Sarah Perry
Published: Custom House, 2018
Pages: 288
Genre: Gothic Fiction
Amazon, Goodreads

But what you must remember is this: that she is lonely, with an eternal loneliness which will end only when our world ends, and she receives her pardon. So she comes to those at the lowest ebb of life, and those she chooses feel her eyes on them. Then they look up - they see her watching - and she holds out her arms and says: Take my hand! I've been so lonely!

The story behind Melmoth is what drew me to the novel: an immortal, restless creature that suffers from eternal loneliness and hunts for victims who are suffering torment from the evil of their own actions. However interesting the storyline of Melmoth is, though, the writing falls flat.

Likes: The beginning of the story really drew me in; I loved the dark, gothic atmosphere Perry created. Most of the characters were well-written, and I liked that Prague was the setting of the novel.

Dislikes: Some of the characters seemed like overkill, such as Arnel. I don't want to put spoilers, so I will just say that he appears in the book at an unexpected moment and it's unbelievable that he would return as the exact same person he was before. I felt like Melmoth had a lot of potential but was poorly executed. Towards the middle and at the end, the other documents Helen uncovers appears in the story at seemingly random times; I felt like the timing was off.

Melmoth just wasn't for me.

RATING (out of five puppies):