Book Review || In Another Country, and Besides by Maxwell Jacobs

Hello Beautiful People, 

Today, I finally decided to DNF a book that I have been trying to read for three months, and I feel so much lighter already. So here are my thoughts on this book. 

(Because I DNFed this book, I am not going to give it a rating.) 

'In another country, and besides' is a 266 page novel, although it is short it took me months to read it and even then I had to DNF it. I wanted to finish this novel, because I received a review copy of it and it sounded interesting.
In Another Country, and BesidesMy problems with the book are the slow pace and the unnecessary details. From reading the summary, I expected the revenge plot to start sooner, but even after 133+ pages (which is more than halfway through the book) the revenge plot doesn't take place yet.

I believe the revenge plot begins late, because random things keep on happening before getting to anything juicy. For example; the MC goes to a hiking trip with his friend and the book chooses to describe the actual trip bit by bit. There might be people out there who enjoy reading about men hiking, getting tired and walking more, but this is a mystery. I ended up skimming through the hiking paragraphs, just to make sure nothing important happens.



This confused me, why would we be told about something if it doesn't move the plot forward? It didn't especially work for me, because of the writing style. It is the opposite of "Show don't tell"; you are just told about everything that happens to the MC and it makes the story feel dry. 

One more thing I am confused about is, the genre of the book; it doesn't read as a historical fiction. I kept on forgetting it is set in the past until the MC mentions the war. Moreover, the mystery element isn't strong, the crime doesn't seem to be the main focus of the story nor does the romance, so I can't figure out the genre of the book is.

I really wanted to enjoy this book, which explains why I tried to read it till this very day. Unfortunately, it wasn't meant for me but maybe it is for someone else.

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