Weekly Review: The Plain of Bitter Honey by Alan Chin

The Plain of Bitter Honey by Alan Chin
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This story was full; full of danger and peace, hatred and love, bravery and fear. I want to go on and on about the story, but I absolutely refuse to post any type of a spoiler at all. To be honest, this book sat on my to read shelf for a while because I expected there to be a lot of philosophical treatise and political ranting.

What I found was an emotional tale with intriguing characters ... mixed with some philosophical and political ranting. However, it only came in when it was relevant to the story and to the character's motivations and personalities. I never felt lectured, I felt enlightened. The romance wasn't very prominent, but I found I didn't really need it.

That isn't to say that this wasn't a great, entertaining story just to read for fun. If you're fond of dystopian style plots, you'll love this. It doesn't have anything really 'new' but what the author chose to include in the story was very real. There was a great action theme and some serious suspense. With so many elements to include, the weaving along the plot arc could have become muddled, but I felt that it was seamless.

Now, before this appears to be all vague and general praise ... there were a few flaws. I found the minor protagonist's journey�of self to have taken too abrupt of a U-turn. I also would have liked to have seen the ending�of the story a bit more drawn out. It felt like the climax wasn't quite ... climactic. Still, I enjoyed this story immensely. I've already recommended it to several friends who have placed it on their to buy shelves.

A solid 4.5 rating from me, and I've definitely found an author I wasn't sure of to add to my buy list myself.


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