Book Review :: Labyrinth, by Kate Mosse

Labyrinth by Kate Mosse
Published by Orion
on September 1st 2006
Genres: Fiction
Pages: 694
Goodreads

July 2005. In the Pyrenees mountains near Carcassonne, Alice, a volunteer at an archaeological dig, stumbles into a cave and makes a startling discovery-two crumbling skeletons, strange writings on the walls, and the pattern of a labyrinth.

Eight hundred years earlier, on the eve of a brutal crusade that will rip apart southern France, a young woman named Alais is given a ring and a mysterious book for safekeeping by her father. The book, he says, contains the secret of the true Grail, and the ring, inscribed with a labyrinth, will identify a guardian of the Grail.

Now, as crusading armies gather outside the city walls of Carcassonne, it will take a tremendous sacrifice to keep the secret of the labyrinth safe.

Last updated on 19 January 2022

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My thoughts on Labyrinth by Kate Mosse

One of the books I’ve been meaning to read for a little while now is Labyrinth, by Kate Mosse. Now, the reason that is on my list is because I was in the opshop one day and I picked it up, read the back, thought it sounded cool and my kind of thing, bought it for like a pound. I’m glad it was only a pound because oh.my.GOSH I struggled through it.

I started it ages ago, probably when I first got it (at least 4 months ago) and it was okay in the beginning. But I did expect it to get better. If a book doesn’t really start off with a bang in the first few pages or chapters, then you expect it to get better, right? Right. This one didn’t. If anything, it got worse and worse. The last few chapters picked up and it even got a little bit exciting, but by golly the road there took far longer than a 700 page road should.

Sorry, sorry. I’ll stop complaining.

The story

There are two stories running through the book. Alice Tanner is an archaeologist from England and is in France for a dig. She comes across a symbol (of a labyrinth), and along with dreams of fires and books that she has and things she discovers (and other various bits and bobs that I won’t go into) this sets into motion a story about a hidden secret of the past in which Alice is connected to in nearly every way.

Then there is Alaïs Pelletier. She is 17 years old, married and lives in Carcassonne, France, in 1209. One day her father confides in her a secret and it eventually falls to her to keep that secret and keep it safe. Which she manages to do – after a huge number of dramatic events that weren’t actually that dramatic. Her secret, of course, is the one that Alice Tanner discovers and learns of, hundreds of years later.

There is mystery, there is love, death, kidnapping, ancient symbols, modern technology, and random theories about the Holy Grail (yes, it’s one of those books). And these are things that I normally love in a story! But this one…argh! I really wanted to like it! I’m not quite sure why I didn’t like it, and for that, I’m sorry. There are a few good bits though, but because they were at the end, I had to read the whole book to get there. I gave it one star because of the semi and very frequent okay parts.

But don’t let me keep you from reading it – you may read it and find that you absolutely love it (or even just like it), and that’s fantastic. One of the beauties of book reading is that no two people read a story the exact same way.