Akin book review

Akin by Emma Donoghue
on September 3, 2019
Goodreads

A new novel from the “literary prowess” (Quill & Quire) of Emma Donoghue, the bestselling and critically acclaimed author of The Wonder and Room.
Noah is a retired New Yorker, who takes his 11-year-old great-nephew, Michael, on a trip to the stunning seaside and cosmopolitan city of Nice, France. The two have almost nothing in common, apart from Noah being widowed and Michael effectively an orphan. The clashes between old age and youth, antiquity and modernity are striking, even over what they do and what they eat. Michael speaks with the street-smart language of his age while Noah talks like a professor of chemistry, and they often can’t understand each other.

Akin is written by Emma Donoghue, who wrote Room which was one of my favourite books. I loved the insight you got all the way through that book and I was desperate to try Akin to see if I would connect the same with the characters and the story. I was blown away by how much I loved this book and the characters. This one for me was definitely character-driven and I felt like the plot let it down in some places. I will say that this book stayed with me for a long time after I put it down so will definitely be remaining a favourite.

The characters are what makes Akin a 4 star read for me. I loved reading about them and learning about their different quirks. The characters in this book were well-formed and well developed. You very quickly fall in love with them and start rooting for them both. Even after finishing this and putting it down, I still felt connected to them and wondered what was happening after the fact. It was an odd sensation to feel so connected to fictional characters!

I have to say the best bit of this book would have to be the relationships that are formed in Akin. I definitely think that the way that they are described and the conversations they have are the reason why I loved this book despite my issues with the story. I thought the dynamic and the fact that the story took them outside of normal life was really well done, I loved seeing them grow in a foreign country and how that would work when they started to work each other out. This book was a mastermind when dealing with characters and relationship building.

I think the worst bit of Akin for me would have to be how slow the story ended up being in some parts. I felt as though and this might be my issue rather than the book’s but I was waiting for something to happen. I thought the “mystery” in this one was poorly done, I just thought everything was conveniently put together and it irritated me how easy it was for him to work out exactly what had happened. I do think that the whole plot was a little predictable, that didn’t affect how much I loved the story and the book but I did see the ending a hundred pages from the ending, so if that annoys you this one might not be the one for you.

I would recommend Akin in a heartbeat. It is definitely one of my favourite character reads of the year and the book blew me away. I did have a few issues but I think the characters managed to claw that back, for me, they were some of my favourites and I still wonder where they are and what they’re doing. Brilliant book and you should definitely check it out!

Have you ever connected with characters and then continued to think about them? Or is it just me? Let me know in the comments!