The Museum of Broken Promises by Elizabeth Buchan || Book Review

I REALLY struggled to get into this book in the beginning, so much that after a few days I shelved it and went on to read something else.

I try not to DNF (did not finish) books and give every book an equal chance so I went back to the book with the help of an audiobook. It didn’t help improve my liking of the book but I did finish it in the end.

DISCLAIMER: This review could contain possible spoilers based on my opinions. All opinions and views are my own.

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Originally published: 2019

Pages: 416
Format: Paperback

Plot from GoodReads:

Paris, today. The Museum of Broken Promises is a place of wonder and sadness, hope and loss. Every object in the museum has been donated – a cake tin, a wedding veil, a baby’s shoe. And each represent a moment of grief or terrible betrayal. The museum is a place where people come to speak to the ghosts of the past and, sometimes, to lay them to rest. Laure, the owner and curator, has also hidden artefacts from her own painful youth amongst the objects on display.

Prague, 1985. Recovering from the sudden death of her father, Laure flees to Prague. But life behind the Iron Curtain is a complex thing: drab and grey yet charged with danger. Laure cannot begin to comprehend the dark, political currents that run beneath the surface of this communist city. Until, that is, she meets a young dissident musician. Her love for him will have terrible and unforeseen consequences. It is only years later, having created the museum, that Laure can make finally face up to her past and celebrate the passionate love which has directed her life.

Thoughts:

The book was very drawn out, the mood of the book was gloomy already enough without it being stretched out. It kind of felt like the book was never going to come to an end.

There are two main themes in the book – love and repression, exploring the dark moments in European history. The switch between the two timelines was done smooth and the transition to understand the context was good. There was also a surprise waiting around the halfway line in the book which didn’t work too well because it was introduced too late in the story to easily wrap your head around it.

I found the parts about the museum to be much more interesting than the characters’ lives, and I didn’t really connect with any of the characters or their lives to matter that much in the bigger scheme of things going on.

For most of the book, I was just waiting for the title to make sense. Apart from the catchy title and the pretty cover, I didn’t feel the book had much more to grab my attention for a higher rating.

My Rating:

The book has a rating of 3.64 on GoodReads. I gave it a 3.

The Museum of Broken Promises by Elizabeth Buchan #bookreview #elizabethbuchan #historicalfictionbooks #contemporarybooks #bookaddict #booktwitter
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