By the final chapters, authorial language has taken a marked turn for the warmer, the more physical. Instead of heavy, pained, and melancholy writing, we find abundant sunlight and laughter, and above all, touching hands. Here the writer is registering a transition from winter to spring, and for the most part, his final few pages are resolutely serene and peaceful, and he has written them in a corresponding style. It is a technical masterstroke of the kind that makes one wanting to read the dull bits in between to feel the full impact of the amelioration of the characters’ circumstances as he experiences it.
Ends on a solid 4-star note, delivering on all fronts and doing so with genuine emotional intelligence. There’s plenty of catharsis, it avoids any trite revenge tales and unwanted / INSTA-love, and totally stays true to the protagonist’s ‘journey’ (yeh, I know). It’s not exactly a ‘groundbreaking’ read, the ‘woman finds herself after divorce’ plot being a familiar one and all that, but it’s so very well executed. The end chapters are superb, as ever, the writing of high quality, lyrical even, yet never becoming overly ‘purple’.
This isn’t a life-changing read, but it’s a really good one – perfectly executed comfort food made with familiar, high quality ingredients. It’s the kind of thing that will leave you feeling satisfied but not uncomfortably full. This is a great choice for someone looking for a really thoughtful, character-focused ending rather than a dramatic plot twist. Above all, it’s got integrity – it knows what it is and doesn’t pretend to be anything else.
For a super simple approach, the official English version of 48 Night/Story may be available on Amazon Kindle Store or Radish. If not, serialized platforms like Radish or StoryJunkies release chapters on a weekly basis. Waiting can be bad, but it’s also great because of the community discussions that unfold in the comment sections of these platforms. It’s a great place to explore fan theories too!
In trying every free thing on the planet, I finally settled on what to me is the most effortless of them all: following the author or publisher of a novel on their various social media sites. You’d be surprised how frequently they hold a giveaway for 500 coins or so for a single retweet, or, write a comment on the announcement for that publisher’s favorite tropes, with said novels then being given away to three random commenters. Note that these are legitimate ways to gain free access to novels to read, and, rather than trying to find some Byzantine method of regaining money that you spent to read a book, you get to read said book, too.
Set up notifications for the author's Twitter or Facebook page. Follow the page and turn on post notifications for a week. Engage with the page's content for a week and see how often the author gives away free access to their backlist in order to gain engagement for their current work. It's a bit of work but way more fun than watching 100 ads.