While Carpenter knows how to dish out the dread that a spy story needs, what makes Ilium intriguing are the characters ... This is the sort of moral ambiguity that seems to fascinate Carpenter, the way living a double life and every day making your cover, that critical and deeply embedded lie, feels real to everyone around you. It’s also what makes Ilium such an unexpectedly moving novel.
A work of dazzling eloquence and sensitivity. The prose demands that readers pay close attention — not because there are confusing leaps or twists, but because the slightest detail or gesture conveys so much information. The writing is controlled but not cold; on the contrary, Carpenter allows the narrator great sweeps of emotion that are some of the novel's finest passages.
A spy story, a romance, a coming-of-age record, and a tale of lost innocence told in an elegiac tone, with something for every reader to get lost in ... An espionage thriller in its richly wrought and detailed plot; but its spotlight falls centrally on the narrator herself, whose yearning for a role to play earns her a bigger one than she could have imagined. The dreamy tone of this sparkling, riveting story sets up a memorable counterpoint to its intrigue.
Espionage thrillers are notably high octane, but Carpenter takes a refreshingly cerebral, literary, and cunningly cinematic approach in her exploration of personal moral ambiguity playing out in the world of international intrigue.
An anemic slow-burn ... While Carpenter wrings some pathos out of that conceit, her narrative elides too much and holds readers at too great a remove to truly captivate. Espionage fans are likely to find this disappointing.
Image by Gerd Altmann from Pixabay[/caption]
