Title: Bohemian Gospel Series: Bohemian Trilogy #1
Author: Dana Chamblee Carpenter
Published: November 15, 2015
Genre(s): Paranormal
Page Count: 400
Rating:
Summary from Goodreads:Thirteenth-century Bohemia is a dangerous place for a girl, especially one as odd as Mouse, born with unnatural senses and an uncanny intellect. Some call her a witch. Others call her an angel. Even Mouse doesn’t know who—or what—she is. But she means to find out.
When young King Ottakar shows up at the Abbey wounded by a traitor's arrow, Mouse breaks church law to save him and then agrees to accompany him back to Prague as his personal healer. Caught in the undertow of court politics at the castle, Ottakar and Mouse find themselves drawn to each other as they work to uncover the threat against him and to unravel the mystery of her past. But when Mouse's unusual gifts give rise to a violence and strength that surprise everyone—especially herself—she is forced to ask herself: Will she be prepared for the future that awaits her?
I don’t understand. Like, obviously it’s not the book’s fault it was marketed badly, but what on earth. This is not historical fiction by any stretch of the imagination. It’s a horror/paranormal set in a kingdom that nominally sounds like 12th century Bohemia but…isn’t.
Sorry not sorry for spoilers, but this is literally a book about a girl with satanic powers. And it’s not well done, honestly speaking.
The big problem with Bohemian Gospel is that it has no central plot. Certain threads are introduced in the first half, but the second half is an incomprehensible mess that goes off the rails quickly and makes no attempts at resuming course. It’s a messy, messy plot.
I just don’t know what to say. It’s so bad. So, so bad. And the epilogue? No.
So, first we start with Mouse the orphan with mysterious powers. She’s plagued at night by little shadow children/demons. For the entire first half, she tries to find a way to banish the shadow children, and finally she does so! Yay, hooray. But at this point we’re still only halfway into the book, and the looming issue of Mouse’s parentage is still hanging over the plot. Not to worry, the author intends to resolve it! But first: a super gory description of medieval torture. Like…what. Did I, as a reader, need to read entirely gratuitous scenes about thumb screws, tiny metal boxes, water torture, etc. NO! There was no point to this at all!
Next, the author screws around for several chapters, giving Mouse a sort of love story, only to yank it away and send her somewhere else. Whatever. Stuff happens. Then in a completely random letter, she learns of her parentage. She’s Satan’s daughter. No, this is not explained at all, don’t ask questions.
And then there’s an awkward time-jump to 15 years later where we find out that Mouse has been living as a hermit in the woods with her pet wolf. Then the wolf dies, tortured by demons. Then Mouse accidentally kills 10,000 people. The end. (Except for the epilogue.)
What is this? Honestly. What am I supposed to take away from Bohemian Gospel? The plot is a complete mess, there’s no grounding in actual historical events, and the “progeny of Satan” angle is completely underdeveloped.
Also, yeah. Trigger warnings for torture of humans and animals.
I just can’t.
