ARC REVIEW: TIN MAN BY SARAH WINMAN

that's...it ? 

Tin Man felt like a wisp of a novel. It gave me impressions and vague feelings and sensations but none of it felt...substantial. Everything about this book just felt so hazy: the writing, the characters, the story. I understand what Winman was going for when she chose to tell her story the way she did, but it just didn't click with me. It was all tell and no show, some characters thought about some sad things, and then before I knew it the book was over. I didn't get a feel for the characters or their relationships or their histories or anything. Not that Winman didn't try to give the reader any of that, it's just that she did it in such a flimsy way—none of it felt sturdy enough to sustain the story(something which definitely wasn't helped by the fact that this book is also very short). I wanted more from this, especially given that it deals with such heavy subject matter (e.g. the AIDS crisis). Overall there was nothing glaringly bad about Tin Man; it was just very lacking. I'd feel bad about it being so underwhelming, except that I literally can't remember a single thing about this book. It's been a week. That is never a good sign.