Great Circle

This book was good and I enjoyed it, but it also wasn't quite what I was expecting. I went into it expecting a lot of adventure, and the adventure was more in bits and pieces in between more family/friend/relationship content. I also had no idea that there would be so much sex and lust in this book! I don't have a problem with sex and lust, but I just didn't expect it. Lust, though, becomes a theme throughout the entire book: lust both for other humans and for what you really want in life.

Marian's story was very well done. I felt like a really knew her as a character, understood her motives, and rooted for her throughout the book. Her life story was super interesting and fun to read.

Hadley, on the other hand...wasn't my favorite. I've read some other reviews of this book and have seen that there are quite a few others who feel the same. I just didn't think this book needed her side of things to be great. Marian's story was so compelling, so unique, and so exciting, and Hadley's was just not. I mean, it was okay, but it just felt unnecessary. In fact, the further on I got in the book, I felt like I was racing through Hadley's parts to get back to Marian's. At 600+ pages, I think Hadley's part of the story just didn't need to be there.

I also enjoyed the mystery portion of this book. You kind of know how it's going to end, but you're not exactly sure, and then as the book goes on, you get these clues that the end you thought was coming might actually not be coming. I loved the way Shipstead weaved that in there!

Read my full review: https://literaryquicksand.com/2021/11/review-great-circle-by-maggie-shipstead/