{"id":1305,"date":"2024-12-11T14:09:00","date_gmt":"2024-12-11T14:09:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/?p=1305"},"modified":"2024-12-11T14:09:00","modified_gmt":"2024-12-11T14:09:00","slug":"book-review-the-ivory-obelisk","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/?p=1305","title":{"rendered":"Book Review: The Ivory Obelisk"},"content":{"rendered":"
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The Ivory Obelisk<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

by Eli Kale<\/p>\n

Genre:<\/strong> Literary Fiction \/ Psychological<\/p>\n

ISBN: <\/strong>9798363229916<\/p>\n

Print Length:<\/strong> 316 pages<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Reviewed by S.A. Evans<\/em><\/p>\n

<\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong>Hidden truths and broken bonds in a masquerade ball\u2014a deeply felt psychological novel.<\/strong><\/h2>\n

The Ivory Obelisk<\/em> is a tale about the kind of regret that comes from suppressing grief. Our main character, Fabian Loxley, is an 87-year-old businessman of a pharmaceutical company. His main objective is to distract himself from recurring nightmares and the work required of him in the company\u2019s recent merger.\u00a0<\/p>\n

He\u2019s brimming with regret for the choices he\u2019s made, while his dear friends try to help in any way they can. These friends consist of Gianni, an Italian chef, Sebastian, an Austrian butler, and Alden, Fabian\u2019s arguably longest friendship. At one point Alden evens says, \u201cOne minute, he\u2019d be fine; the next minute, he\u2019d be staring off into space or lost in a glass of whisky.\u201d<\/em><\/strong> I believe that\u2019s the best way to describe Fabian. An old flame of his even mentioned, \u201cRegret and guilt are tough things to handle sometimes. You can\u2019t let it consume you\u201d<\/em><\/strong> It is with all this that the question arises: can Fabian face his inner demons before it\u2019s too late?<\/p>\n

While on the way to a masquerade party to celebrate the merger, Fabian gets into a car accident, leaving his body in critical condition. However, in his subconscious state, things take a turn\u2014the masquerade ball he ends up at is filled with various characters from his personal life.<\/p>\n

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Thinking this is all a dream or nightmare (seeing as the manor the party takes place in is the same manor from his frequent nightmares), Fabian tries to make sense of what\u2019s going on. When Alden appears, Fabian learns that the only way for his physical body to stay alive is to make amends to the people he wronged in the past and ultimately heal from the guilt and grief he\u2019s harbored for years.\u00a0<\/p>\n

From room to room, Fabian makes the rounds to greet the guests before attempting to make the apologies. Alden urges Fabian to hurry since the apologies must be made before Fabian\u2019s physical body dies. Once an important guest named Gordon goes missing, everyone splits up in groups and tries to find him before time runs out for Fabian to get the emotional closure he needs.<\/p>\n

\u201cOpening my eyes, I spotted a tear in one of his, but his face was full of defeat and empty of hope.\u201d<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Since time slows down to search for Gordon, flashbacks keep the pace moving and\u00a0 provide much needed backstory as to why Fabian feels like he needs to atone for his wrongdoing. While some flashbacks occur with unnatural transitions, they all play a role in showing us what kind of man Fabian is. With a big party like this one\u2014and each one being a person from real life\u2014there are a lot of characters to keep straight. But Eli Kale succeeds in something I\u2019ve never seen before: a study of remorse at a masquerade ball.<\/p>\n

Grief and regret are handled with great creativity in this novel. It shows how the gravity of those things can weigh on a person over time and that it\u2019s better to bridge connections while you can and know you did all you could instead of bottling it up. The stories of the guests and friends are heartwarming, and it\u2019s an entertaining mystery to find out who died, why they\u2019re still there, and how much they meant to Fabian. The story\u2019s title has a touching purpose too. If you love emotionally-charged stories told through the lens of psychological fiction, you must read The Ivory Obelisk<\/em>.\u00a0<\/p>\n

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Thank you for reading S.A. Evans\u2019s book review of The Ivory Obelisk <\/em>by Eli Kale! If you liked what you read, please spend some more time with us at the links below.<\/p>\n

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The post Book Review: The Ivory Obelisk<\/a> appeared first on Independent Book Review<\/a>.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Ivory Obelisk by Eli Kale Genre: Literary Fiction \/ Psychological ISBN: 9798363229916 Print Length: 316 pages Amazon Reviewed by S.A. Evans Hidden truths and broken bonds in a masquerade ball\u2014a deeply felt psychological novel. The Ivory Obelisk is a tale about the kind of regret that comes from suppressing grief. Our main character, Fabian […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":1306,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1305","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-bookreviews"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1305"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1305"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1305\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/1306"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1305"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1305"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1305"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}