The Elsewhere Express

The Elsewhere Express by Samantha Sotto Yamboa

Let me start with the best part. The cover of this book is phenomenal, beautiful artwork. That in and of itself markets the book, right off the shelf.

Now, let’s get down to business. I was crushed because I really wanted to like this book. It was fantasy, with beautiful artwork and a promising blurb. From there things went south.

The characters were bland, blah, not developed well enough to connect with. There was an attempt to circumvent the reasoning for this by calling their encounters circular in time but I don’t buy it. The effort wasn’t there.

Some characters had the same name or face as others. Confusing, especially when the plot was non-existent. I read the whole thing and I still don’t get the purpose. I really couldn’t describe what I read.

At some points I imagined that this was some speculative, stream of consciousness writing. The train ”compartments” were not described in detail. The book had some bright moments and great potential, but that’s where my adoration ended. Disapointed. 1.5/5⭐