"Brida" by Paolo Coelho || Book Review

Going into this book I suspected I probably wouldn't like it, since it's not my usual type of book, but I still read it. Finally it's over! Now, why did I keep reading even though I disliked it from the first paragraphs? I honestly have no idea, maybe it's because I wanted to torture myself, maybe I felt guilty of DNFing a book, whatever it was I just felt I had to go through with it once I started.

And the conclusion is... I didn't like it! It gave me a hard time, I didn't enjoy it and I had to speed-read it at multiple occasions, because I desperately needed it to be over. It was mind-numbingly boring, repetitive, predictable and generally disappointing. But thankfully it's finally over and I can move on... Before I move on however, here are some of my thoughts on it...

First of all, the book is too big for its story! It needed far fewer pages to make sense, about half of it was generic and pointless rumbling that should have been cut out and leave the actual important parts do their work.

This book is the proof that a collection of beautiful and meaningful quotes - which is the only nice thing I thought this book had and that I actually enjoyed - are not enough to make a book good. The meaning of any book cannot get through to the reader simply by inspirational quotes, the story and characters have to carry it forward as well. I understand that this is not supposed to be your typical novel, but it still needs some basic elements of storytelling to work. 

Moving on, what was all this rumbling about God, why all the prayers, all the talking about Adam and Eve and what on earth where they doing in a story about witches, rituals, magical visions, reincarnation and pagan rituals??? Do they believe in a deity and which one? Does it have anything to do with their "Gifts"? Is this supposed to be the writer's attempt to say that there is only one universal higher power for everyone despite how each culture interprets it depending on their civilization and traditions? Maybe.... I cannot really tell... It tries to discuss certain philosophical matters, but I don't think it does it successfully. On the contrary, it kind of leaves you with several wtf's hanging over you...

I found myself wondering would this book even be published if it wasn't Coelho's? I doubt it. It's weak and pointless. I feel I didn't gain anything out of it and I wouldn't have missed anything if I had never read it. If anything I felt relief to finally be over with it. For all the reasons I mentioned I cannot give this book more than 1* and if I want to be honest even that feels a bit much - I would give it half a star if that was possible. 

Thanks for reading!