Helpful Score: 9
I received an advance copy of this book thru Early Reviewers. I'm sorry to say I really disliked it. The first page or two held my attention as it was written in the first person and strongly conveyed that the narrator was intelligent, educated, cultured, and possibly wealthy. This impression came from the flawless English, complex sentences, and lack of slang or dialect. Imagine my surprise when I found out the narrator was the prostitute, supposedly very young, uneducated, and low class. And then came the torrent of vulgarities and constant references to lewd acts performed by said prostitute. I'm no prude, but found myself disgusted by far too much of this and by page 11 I was ready to toss it in the trash. Based on this alone, I would not recommend this book to a friend or family member out of sheer embarrassment. This is one of those books that a 13-yr-old boy would sneak out of his mother's bookcase to read the good parts under the covers.
Forcing myself to continue a bit further, since I did choose it for an Early Reviewer read, I then found myself much annoyed by the narrator's constant recital of her "3 facts" which she had for some person or some place or thing introduced into the story. Once or twice I wouldn't have minded, but every few pages of this had me wishing the narrator were real so I could slap her silly. Between this and the vulgarity, I gave up reading by chapter 8 and just lightly skimmed the rest of the novel.
The vulgarity so strongly presented in the beginning did seem to ease up quite a bit after chapter 8 but I noted that just when I thought perhaps it had stopped completely, something would be said out of the blue in a moment where it was not really necessary. It all seemed immature and gratuitious to me and while realistically I would expect this sort of language and behavior from a low class, 15th century Italian prostitute, it seemed far more annoying, offensive, and out of place due to the aforementioned perfect English. Had such vulgarities been written in some sort of dialect to indicate and match with the prostitute's station in life, I would have been far less annoyed and more convinced it was the prostitute speaking instead of the author writing. Usually dialect is distracting and difficult for me, but I would have welcomed it in this case. I kept thinking perhaps the prostitute was telling the tale in hindsight after she was reformed and educated or else that she wasn't really a prostitute but was working as one as part of the "secret". Very confusing.
As far as plot I have to say there wasn't really anything new here. It is very much in the Dan Brown vein. It's a mystery novel with a strong historical bent to it. Been there, done that. I also wasn't surprised at all by the ending - I could see that coming by page 11.
So, all-in-all, my "3 facts" about this book are: it's vulgar, it's annoying, and it's nothing remarkable. I would like to do with this book what the prostitute did with the monk's pamphlet when they first met. :)
Forcing myself to continue a bit further, since I did choose it for an Early Reviewer read, I then found myself much annoyed by the narrator's constant recital of her "3 facts" which she had for some person or some place or thing introduced into the story. Once or twice I wouldn't have minded, but every few pages of this had me wishing the narrator were real so I could slap her silly. Between this and the vulgarity, I gave up reading by chapter 8 and just lightly skimmed the rest of the novel.
The vulgarity so strongly presented in the beginning did seem to ease up quite a bit after chapter 8 but I noted that just when I thought perhaps it had stopped completely, something would be said out of the blue in a moment where it was not really necessary. It all seemed immature and gratuitious to me and while realistically I would expect this sort of language and behavior from a low class, 15th century Italian prostitute, it seemed far more annoying, offensive, and out of place due to the aforementioned perfect English. Had such vulgarities been written in some sort of dialect to indicate and match with the prostitute's station in life, I would have been far less annoyed and more convinced it was the prostitute speaking instead of the author writing. Usually dialect is distracting and difficult for me, but I would have welcomed it in this case. I kept thinking perhaps the prostitute was telling the tale in hindsight after she was reformed and educated or else that she wasn't really a prostitute but was working as one as part of the "secret". Very confusing.
As far as plot I have to say there wasn't really anything new here. It is very much in the Dan Brown vein. It's a mystery novel with a strong historical bent to it. Been there, done that. I also wasn't surprised at all by the ending - I could see that coming by page 11.
So, all-in-all, my "3 facts" about this book are: it's vulgar, it's annoying, and it's nothing remarkable. I would like to do with this book what the prostitute did with the monk's pamphlet when they first met. :)
