Book Review- Inferno

Inferno is a novel by Dan Brown, the author who is most famous for his book The Da Vinci Code and 3 others in the Robert Langdon series. While I absolutely loved his most famous work and was the first book of his I'd read, I was quite disappointed by the ones that followed. However, Inferno sounded promising, had good reviews on Amazon and I was desperately in need of a good, sort-of-trashy, summer fiction read that would keep me absorbed for a few days. While my book club reads were all incredible books, I find that I usually get more absorbed into works of fiction and books like The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo that are fast paced and well written are usually my favourite kinds. I hoped Inferno would help hit that spot... and boy, did it ever!
Dan Brown is a writer for the masses so anyone looking to read serious literature should turn to Dante's Inferno and not Dan Brown's, although the book is all about Dante and his effect on art and literature. Does the basic premise of the book make a lot of sense? Well, if I was a madman looking to cause widespread global damage, I wouldn't send someone on a scavenger hunt to try and stop me, so in that sense no. In essence, the book is one huge scavenger hunt that starts of in Venice and then sort of takes you on a trip through other historic sites revealing the history behind various pieces of art and sculpture. Am trying to be as vague as possible so as to not give away too much of the story line but I'll just say this- this book will make you want to take an art history class. No joke. I was reading the Kindle edition of the book on my iPad which was great as it gave me direct links to wikipedia articles and other research for a lot of the places and works mentioned through the book. While I've been to all of the cities and places he talks about, the novel actually made me want to revisit each one and pay attention to the detail. If a book can make me want to sight see rather than wanting to hit the nearest shopping center, it must be doing something right.
I got halfway through the book and thought that while the trivia in the book was interesting, the plot had just become boring and predictable. Just then, BAM! The book exploded in twists and turns and became the page turner I was hoping it would be. It takes a while to really suck you in, so am just warning you in case you start to get a little bored a little bit in. Inferno is a great summer read if you're looking for something quick that will really keep you hooked. It was my favourite novel from Dan Brown after The Da Vinci Code and I'd highly recommend it to fans of that novel, especially those who were disappointed in his other works.
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