A Non-Review of A God In Ruins

I have thought a while about writing this blog post. Now, normally, I don't write reviews for books I don't finish. I feel uncomfortable about doing it - how can I give an honest review on something I haven't finished?

But with A God In Ruins by Kate Atkinson, I am going to make an exception. This is a once in a blogtime thing so don't get too excited, book peeps. I feel that I should talk about the book, my thoughts on the pages I have read and explained why I've decided to stop reading this.

So, for those of you who don't know A God In Ruins, this is a companion novel to Kate Atkinson's previous novel, Life After Life. In this, we follow Teddy throughout his life. Growing up from son and brother to would-be poet and World War Two pilot to husband, father and grandfather. As he grows through the 21st century, he will soon face a challenge in a future he never expected to have.

So, let me talk about the positives of this book (from what I have read). The writing is very subtle and it flows beautifully. Plus, this is also a non-linear book (it jumps back and forward throughout Todd's life) and it didn't feel confusing. It made sense and, for me, it's rare for a book to write in this style and it to make sense to its readers.

But, from what I read, I can very easily see readers not feeling connected the characters and might find this book a bit slow-paced (I said it was subtle, remember?) and I think some of you guys might want to read Life After Life before you read this as you "get" it.

So... why am I stopping reading this? It's a "It's not you, it's me" situation. I do want to read this! I do! But at the same time I started reading this, I got my little Bagheera (not sure who Bagheera is? Read my blog post here and, be warned, there are cat gifs. A lot of them!) and kittens are very high maintenance. And this book needs time - it's like a bottle of red wine. It needs time to breathe and I can't give this book the time it deserves at the moment when I have a kitten clawing its way up my jeans (or trying to attack the bookmark ribbon. Or sit on the book. Or try and eat a corner).

Plus, I have been trying to read this for nearly a fortnight and I have only got 100 pages in. At this rate, I will finish this in 6 weeks time. That's two months. And I can very easily see myself hating the book. And I don't want that. I want to read this book and I want to have time to read it, without panicking about my emotions changing because it's taking me longer to read than normal.

So, this isn't a review. This is me saying what I think of the first 100 pages and, hopefully, in the future, I shall read the book completely and give you guys a full review.