I’m writing a review on just the first chapter of this book for right now. Balcony of Fog. I entered a bunch of giveaways on Book Riot, forgetting about it, and this book arriving in the mail sometime later. Hey, free book, sure. I had no idea what This book contained.
The description is “A toiler from post-nuclear America meets a mysterious woman who escapes with him to the cloud realm, where sublimity and nightmare mix to illuminate the tension between the power of love and the love of power.”
All I’ve read so far is chapter one, which is 28 pages long. I’m not sure if I will continue reading or not at this point.
Chapter one opens during a storm and since men are trying to repair a breakage. Arden, our main character, attempts to rescue a man against the orders of his superior. Thus being beaten and left for dead. Arden wakes up some time later alone. He makes his way back to town, but makes a stop at a secret ravine where he has been building a boat. I did not really follow most of that myself to retelling it briefly was difficult. It seemed to be saying a lot of nothing and missing a lot of marks that would have helped. No descriptions of why this guy wants to beat him up beyond disobeying a single order to help a coworker. Lots of explaining about how it’s raining.
A woman appears, naked. Beautiful? Don’t know what color her hair or eyes are or what makes her beautiful. In that case, what about Arden? What does he look like?? She claims to be running from the storm who happens to actually be a person? All we know right now is her name is Estra and that the storm is Ingis and her ex who she is running away from.
Arden sneaks her into town and to his room, which is forbidden. There is some talk about god’s and fear. The society seems very strict and terrible. Arden wants to escape and have a better life, even though it seems weird for him to know to want anything different than he has ever known so far. That’s just my thought at this point. Maybe it explains more later.
Then, they make love. Why? Cause they can! Okay, sure. Why not. They’ve only known each other for maybe two hours at this point. Now they’re in love and it doesn’t seem new in any way. Zero build up of chemistry other than simple physical attraction. They make love twice in fact. And now she’s going to run away with him. Because love.
If that sounds like something you’d like and want to try, go right ahead! I don’t think I’ll be continuing much farther into this book. I might give it another chapter or two just to see. Its also got a ton of similar bad reviews on goodreads. A lot of people got the book free and didn’t want or ask for it. Its just a terrible.
Bon Voyage!
Rachels Books 