Mythology, Christianity, history … these are all ingredients that normally make a book grab me and hold my attention. And The Last Days of Magic by Mark Tompkins seemed like that kind of book.
But alas, I couldn’t get into this one. It has a lot of elements that I enjoy, but it just felt like a bit of a mess. As many reviewers have noted, the author frequently dumps his research regardless if it adds to the story or not. It also felt a little clichéd at this point.
The story of a powerful church violently destroying the dangerous free spirits and creatures of pagan Ireland. The church is hypocritical and power-hungry and everything you think you know about history and the Bible is wrong. It was all actually about a battle between humans and fairies, demons and other creatures. Witches control the thrones of Europe and on and on it goes.
This is the kind of book where you want to lose yourself in the story and are compelled to read it whenever you have free time. But instead I had to force myself to finish it after I had invested time in starting.
If you like big, messy, sprawling stories about a secret history with lots of violence and sex then this may be for you. Just didn’t work for me.
Thanks to Viking and NetGalley for the review copy.
