Reviews for The Hour I First Believed

The average rating for The Hour I First Believed based on 2 reviews is 2 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2008-12-05 00:00:00 Kevin Fry It truly pains me to give this book only two stars, but after struggling through it, I can't bring myself to give it more. There are definitely redeeming qualities about this novel, and ultimately I ended up getting something out of it. But it was so hard to push through, and it was such a disappointment to me after loving his previous two novels. This book is just SO all over the map, and after awhile it lost me. Bottom line, I just didn't much care about the characters. Everything ends up coming together in the end...a bit too neatly for my taste, actually...but it was a case of too little, too late for me. I've read rave reviews of this book, so clearly others do not agree with me. But personally, I would not recommend it.

Review # 2 was written on 2008-11-27 00:00:00 Rob Jenkel When an author asks you to go on a 700+ page journey, the trip should be enjoyable and/or the destination should be fulfilling. Unfortunately, I don't feel that "The Hour I First Believed" really offers either a good trip or a satisfying final destination. Rather, it is joyless, self-indulgent, and exposition-heavy. Lamb too often tells rather than shows in this book, and the telling is a little over-done. Also, the dialogue given to the teen characters and an early chapter written from the POV of the narrator at 8 years old are not only unbelievable, but almost cringe-worthy. As evidenced in his first two novels, Lamb is a fantastic writer and a superb storyteller. His latest, however, just didn't do it for me.