Tag: immortality fiction

Or What You Will by Jo Walton

Or What You Will by Jo Walton

Or What You Will is a unique fantasy novel about a writer, one of her fictional characters, her real life, a final story she is writing, and her love affair with the city of Florence.

“I have been a character, and I have been a narrator, but now I don’t know what I am.” pg 8, ebook.

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Told from the point of view of a character inside another character’s mind and between flashbacks to real life and an on-going fictional story-within-the-story, Or What You Will sounds quite complex. But once I got into the flow of it, I enjoyed this quirky tale quite a lot.

“Readers remember you. So you’ll live on in the books. It’s the only form of immortality the real world has.” pg 53, ebook.

I loved learning about Sylvia (the fictional writer’s) life, loves, and writing process. Part of its charm is that this is a meta-filled book for readers who love the process of writing and the development of characters. It is also filled with surprising and entertaining tidbits of real history about Florence which appealed to the amateur historian in me.

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There was plenty to enjoy in Or What You Will. My quibble with the book has to do with its ending.

After meticulously building an immersive world, or two, the author unceremoniously ends the story in a few paragraphs.

It was incredibly disappointing, especially when you consider the book is only 226 pages long (ebook). She had room to do more. In fact, I could have stayed in the world she created for twice as many pages.

That being said, the last few pages of the book made me cry. So, perhaps it was a satisfying ending in its way. I just wish it had been developed more fully.

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Other than the ending, this is a brilliant and totally unique story, unlike anything I’ve ever read. If you like Jo Walton’s other fantasies, you may want to give it a try.