My Book Review on The Evening and The Morning by Ken Follett

jacqueline | May 16, 2025, 2:52 a.m. Practicing Writing

To Ken Follett, if you ever read this.

Well, I can tell you that my heart is fluttering after finishing this book. I read consistently to and from work on the bus. I even got the bus driver so interested that he ordered it online. Apparently, he's never seen someone so captivated by a book he had to get it himself. It was a nice compliment that he noticed because I really lapped this book up.

Mr. Follett, First I'd like to put into context where you took me out of; A ghost ski town where everyone moved away after the mountain closed, yet you brought me into the year 900 AD where I learned of the budding life of our now historical cathedrals in England. I learned of the pilgrimage that it took and how towns could have formed around them, attracting builders, monks, Kings and Bishops, as well as the towns people. I read about the carnage of the Vikings causing war and savagery. I learned of the development of different cultures and masonry that lead to our buildings today. I discovered how corruption had its own culprits and where power hungry people controlled the masses with fear and intimidation. 

I was transported with your eloquent words of historical fiction. There was a beautiful love story that kept me tucked under my covers with a little reading light late into the night until my eyes betrayed me to sleep. 

Your character development was so beautiful it brought tears to my eyes when the characters I came to admire had to endure struggle for that time period. Something that made me look at my life today in comparison and think to myself, I really am living in the best of times. Talk about humbling to any relative problem we face now. It almost felt surreal to realize how our modern boredom contrasts with the desperate survival of that era.

You also wrote of a deception so maniacally thought out it repulsed me in ways I couldn't believe mere words could do. I was shocked and turned and twisted by discomfort, yet you carried it out in such a way that physical relief would shower over me after I'd reach a resolution of some kind one way or another. 

Your education and intellect just poured out of the page. I learned something new and develop perspective after every chapter. Your story builds so seamlessly, and I loved how each character had their own time to shine. Their own personal dialog which would lead to my own frustrations. You did well getting to my emotions. I couldn't put the book down; I was torn to bits if I did before a conclusion of a wrongdoing between my favorite characters was rectified. Your ability to carry me through without leaving a loose end leading me deeper and deeper through makes me give you a metaphorical standing ovation. 

I fell in love, so deep in love, I longed for what the protagonist longed for. I was clinging to hope when I would dive into the next chapter. Mr. Follett, thank you so much for being so well educated and well read that you carried that magic of knowledge into your own books. You've become one of my favorite writers and this book, this book especially was one of my favorites thus far that I have read. I am now reading A World Without End, and you've started this one off nicely. I'm excited to see where it takes me from here. I've already noticed the connection between books, and I am happy to see that. It was a bit sad when I knew once I finished the last chapter that I'd say goodbye to the characters I have learned to love from The Evening and The Morning. So, thank you for carrying some little reminders over. 

In conclusion, to the reader; I didn't want to tell you the story because I want you to read it. I want you to take the adventure so well written that I know you'll thank me later. I promise you; you'll be moved, you'll be happy then sad, sometimes frustrated and devastated... but one thing you won't be is disappointed. 

As always, 

Thank you for reading  <3