Willow 's Reviews > Inferno

This is my first Dan Brown book and what can I say...it pretty much sucked.

I was kind of shocked. Yes, I had read a lot of disparaging comments about Brown’s writing, but I pushed them aside, figuring his books must be at least entertaining. Otherwise, why would he be so popular? And I rather like cheesy books. This one had a condescending tone though that grated on my nerves and sapped all the fun right out of the story. It was a tedious read.

First off, Brown’s characters are boring. There’s no depth or nuisance. Everybody talks and thinks alike. Their dialogue has no individuality. There are no intricate, personality conflicts. Brown also has the annoying tendency to tell you how brilliant and amazing his characters are ALL THE TIME, but he never really shows you why they are extraordinary.

Then there are the endless info dumps. OMG! Brown gives a Humanities lecture for every museum Langdon goes to (even when his characters are running for their lives). They’re not short little vignettes either that give character and life to a place. No, they’re long dry passages that seem to be cut and pasted straight from a travel brochure. Brown will use half a page to describe a statue that has NOTHING to do with the plot. I found his description on Botticelli’s Map of Hell to be somewhat questionable too.

My God! Langdon’s hand trembled slightly as he absorbed the macabre scene projected on the wall before him. No wonder I’ve been seeing images of death.

At his side, Sienna covered her mouth and took a tentative step forward, clearly entranced by what she was seeing.

The scene projected was a grim oil painting of human suffering—thousands of souls undergoing wretched tortures in various levels of hell. The underworld was portrayed as a cutaway across section of the earth into which plunged a cavernous funnel-shaped pit of unfathomable depth. This pit of hell was divided into descending terraces of increasing misery, each level populated by tormented sinners of every kind. Dark, grim, and terrifying … Botticelli had crafted his Map of Hell with a depressing palate of reds, sepias, and browns.”



What the hell is Brown talking about? The people are teeny weeny! How could Langdon and Sienna even see them? Yes I know it’s a nit. But it made me wonder… were all of Brown’s boring info dumps crap? They better not be, damn it! (To be honest, I didn’t bother to check). But if you’re going bore the snot out of me, at least make sure you’re boring me with accurate information.

The plot is probably the best part of this book. There were some twists and turns I didn’t see coming, and Brown practically ends every chapter in a cliff hanger, so the book kept moving. There are so many plot holes though, it was like a sponge. If you think too much about it, you’ll spend all your time rolling your eyes and fall out of your chair.

In the end, I’m amazed that Brown is a bestselling author. His writing is terrible. He tells instead of shows. He repeats everything at least twice, sometimes three or four times. He describes three amazing European cites, but doesn’t bring any of them to life. And his story starts up an interesting conversation about population and the apocalypse, but Brown never gives it any real thought. The ending was so sanctimonious and preachy, I wanted to toss the book across the room. Maybe without the book’s snooty tone, this could have been a fun and cheesy read, but Brown takes himself way too seriously.


I give 1 ½ stars.

Are all Brown’s books this bad?