(Book) A look at 'The Slow Regard of Silent Things' by Patrick Rothfuss.

This is my first ever blog review and I have to say I'm pretty excited to be writing it.

This is partially due to the fact that I love writing.

But the main reason is that I'll be reviewing a book by an author I highly respect.

The story follows Auri and the days leading up to a meeting with 'him.' If you have read Mr. Rothfuss' previous works, 'him' requires no such introduction.

I must admit as I picked up the book, it felt heavy on an emotional level. This small, 30,000 word novella was so FULL to bursting with secrets and hopefully a few answers.

Before I go any further, I want to establish that Auri is my favourite character and as such a story purely about her was more than enough motivation for me to go purchase the book.

When I got home and opened it, I found myself somewhat discouraged.

The first sentence I read from the author is,'You might not want to buy this book.'

I found myself at war with my feelings to continue further. Who in their right mind tells you that you might not want to buy their book? That's either an incredibly dangerous marketing gambit or the author doesn't have a lot of faith in his work.

But as a writer myself and general troublemaker, I ignored his advice and kept reading.

and I am so very glad that I did.

This book can be summed up with a perfect (albeit paraphrased,) quote from Sherlock Holmes.

"The little things are infinitely the most important."

Rothfuss has taken a character who is seemingly unknowable and put her in a story that in any other book, would not quite work.

He has taken a broken character and tilted her at a different angle to show the audience that she is not less because she is broken, but more.

I also feel that, through her beautiful and bizarre understanding of the world, which feels like an mixture of Alchemy and Feng Shui, she betters understands herself.

and it works.

I'm giving this book 5 stars.

Not because I respect the author and not because I kept reading even though I'm usually prone to getting distracted.

Originally, I was going to give it 3 and a half for the self deprecating author's note at the beginning. (Seriously though, please don't do that again. It felt wrong. Like an out of tune piano or an unfinished piece of music.)

But because he has taken something broken (or what I believe he thought was broken,) and poured gold into the cracks.

Making it more beautiful as a result.

So thank you, Mr. Rothfuss. I thoroughly enjoyed learning more about Auri.