The Kingdom of Back by Marie Lu
Good start to the week Books Lovers,
How are you? Do you realize that we are already in February? It seems like New Year’s Eve was only yesterday and instead more than a month has already passed and with it a lot of interesting books have already come out. Among the new releases last week was also Marie Lu’s The Kingdom of Back.
I’ve always had a love-hate relationship with Marie Lu, every time I read one of her books I feel like I’m playing Russian roulette, and if I’m lucky with the book, I like it, if I not I don’t even finish it. The first book I tried to read by this author was The young elite, I always ignored the legend trilogy, but the young elite for me was a total flop, I guess I didn’t even get to 50 pages. Recently, however, I read Skuhunter her new high fantasy book and from the first pages it took me, I also reviewed the first 50 pages that were given to me via netgalley, I wanted to read it all and I liked it a lot .
But now I’ve read The Kingdom of Back and yes I’ve read it all, but I can’t say it loved it. It almost seems like Lu’s style changes every time and although the textures have a lot of potential for it, her writing style isn’t quite as attractive.
The plot is actually very interesting as I said. The protagonist is none other than the sister of the great Mozart, the one who according to the book is the true author of all his works that have become famous thanks to her brother. Her father considered her a true prodigy, obviously until her brother touched the keys of the harpsichord for the first time, a great prodigy too as we know today. The real beauty of this story is that it is reality intertwined with fantasy, because Maria Anna really existed, and many other anecdotes were real.
But the focus of the story is when the two siblings first meet Hyacinthus, when he steals Nannerl’s music notebook and forces them to go to a shop where they will discover The Kingdom of Back, a place where everything is backwards, a place strange and fantastic. And it could be said that it is from this moment that their adventure begins.
Soon after, they embark on a trip to Vienna because the word of his brothers’ musical abilities has spread and they have been summoned to play at the King’s court. But what everyone really wants to see is the prodigious Wolgang who despite his young age, and having never studied or played before, is already able to memorize music and reproduce it. Nannerl has always been esteemed but soon she will be overshadowed by her brother when all she ever wanted was to be remembered, thus ending up making a deal with Hyacinthus, but as we know this kind of deal never ends in the best way and this case is not an exception.
The story will develop, we will explore more of the world upside down, but unfortunately for me the storytelling was not the best and sometimes even the story itself had some confusing and unclear points. If you have read the book and enjoyed it, let me know, I am always happy to hear different opinions from mine 🙂
