The Mysterious Flame of Queen Loana Book

I read every 449 pages of this book... and feel like I wasted a lot of time. This book needs SO MUCH editing. The premise and some of the ideas presented had great potential for a very interesting story, however it fails in almost every way. There is no characterization, the story barely moves from page 1 to page 449, and there are many story lines which are left unfinished. 90% of the book is tedious description of dated material such as books, records, photographs, etc. which are suppose to evoke certain memories for the main character; but the writing is factually descriptive to the point there is no room for sentimentality or connection for the reader. I also had a hard time believing the main character would be intellectually limited to his ideas of how his personality was spawned by these random objects he found in his childhood home.

In part 3 (which I am sure a lot of readers don't even make it to) there is actually a section which would have made a terrific short story on it's own. Sadly, it doesn't make up for the rest of the book.

Additionally my copy of the book was poorly laid out, the corresponding photos/drawings were placed too far ahead or too far back from the writing. To place an image and have to flip back to see it once it becomes clear what it refers to makes no sense.