The Emperor's Children

This book was voted Best Book of the Year by Publisher's Weekly, so naturally I was intrigued.

The Emperor's Children was difficult to get into though. The characters were interesting from the very beginning, however, the amount of run on sentences drove me nuts! It seemed as though every other sentence was never ending and it truly distracted me. At one point I stopped reading the book for content, but instead I read it on a hunt for run-ons.

Run on sentences aside, the characters were easy to get to know because they seemed very raw and real; comparable to people you might actually meet. I found the characters charming at first. I also felt that the character development was very similar to the writing style of J.D. Salinger (Catcher in the Rye, Franny and Zooey). These characters were flawed and complex. But as the novel went on the interest in their imperfections waned and they became slightly annoying. I began thinking to myself, "Everyone has issues, make a choice, grow from it!" But I guess that it is not that simple. And I guess that is a sign of good writing, because the author created characters so real that they actually annoyed me. So kudos there I guess

The book ended without a clear cut ending which leads me to believe that there is more in store for these characters in another book. Overall, the book kept my interest while simultaneouslyannoying me.