I not so secretly enjoyed the heck out of Jericho, Ann McMan's previous book. It's a really well-written Xena-uber that follows the blossoming relationship between a small-town doctor and the town's very first librarian. It's worth a read as well as a review, which I'll get to later.
Because I liked Jericho a lot, I had even higher expectations for Dust, especially since Jericho was McMan's debut novel. Anyway. One of the reasons that Jericho worked really well for me was character development - there was a small cast of characters, the book actually gave the would-be lovers relationships with people in the outside world (shock! gasp!) rather than marooning them on their own totally insular island of love.
Dust is structured similarly - there are family bonds, friendships, and links to vast conspiracies that the heroines must negotiate in order to escape the novel together. What made Dust different (and less enjoyable for me) was that I felt like the supporting cast in Dust was less well-fleshed out. Part of this was the fault of the suspense (sub?)plot, which was often confusing and opaque; this made it more difficult to determine what characters' motivations were, or what their motivations meant for the progress of the novel. There were too many plot lines that weren't fully articulated or even resolved - this left me questioning the purpose of some of the characters and their relationships with one another.
This was the novel's biggest failing for me. Dust wasn't a bad read - just a confusing one. If there's a sequel in the works, I suspect it would simplify matters a bit. McMan's a good writer, though, and her characters are a lot of fun. While Dust was not to my taste, I liked Jericho and would definitely read future works by her.
Rating: Three kitties out of five. Which is still a lot of kitties.
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