As Way Leads onto Way by Michael Lajoie: A Book Review
Genre: Realistic Fiction/ Parable
[ Disclaimer: I received a copy of As Way Leads onto Way with my promise of giving it an honest review. This does not reflect my overall rating or view of the book. ]
Just like its predecessor, As Way Leads onto Way was not at all what I expected. Supposedly based in the 1920s, the setting reminds me of today’s world – which isn’t a bad thing. Whether meaning to or not, Lajoie draws a parallel between the Great Depression and the times we are facing now – and how our own coldness with one another effects everything.
Given this, I do wish that the phrase “the world is cold” and the word “cold” itself was used less. While I understand the purpose and the meaning behind their usage, the redundancy of them takes away from the overall feel of the story. To add to this, the descriptions of warmth in general were lukewarm – leading to a meh feeling at their arrival rather than one of comfort and hope. Having a stronger gap between the constant cold and the comfort of heat would have made the message clearer without constantly talking about the world being frozen. It would also have helped toward the redundancy of the cold symbolism.
It would have also been nice if the narrator was nasty to begin with – giving the character time to thaw and thus giving the reader a chance to thaw with them. This also may have made the story longer and fuller as each character comes along and shows the MC how cold they actually are being. It would have made the lesson stronger as well.
Overall, I did really enjoy the story. Lajoie’s writing style still very much complimented the parable writing sense of his last book and he did have an important message that he wanted to share. I don’t think As Way Leads onto Way matches The Summit by the Sea’s level, but I do think that it holds its own well.
| Plot: | 9 / 10 |
| Characters: | 10 / 10 |
| Writing: | 10 / 10 |
| Editor: | 10 / 10 |
| Total | 39 / 40 |
Title: As Way Leads onto Way
Author: Michael Lajoie
Edition: First Printing
Published: 2022
Publisher: Reddington Press
ISBN: 9780578904887
If you want to get it: Amazon; Barnes&Noble
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