Publisher: Doubleday
Publication Date: March 18th, 2003
Pages: 454
Song I Played While Reading: Somewhere to Run by Krewella
Rating: 4 stars
While in Paris on business, Harvard symbolist Robert Langdon receives an urgent late-night phone call. The elderly curator of the Louvre has been murdered inside the museum, a baffling cipher found near the body. As Langdon and a gifted French cryptologist, Sophie Neveu, sort through the bizzare riddles, they are stunned to discover a trail of clues hidden in the works of Da Vinci- clues visible for all to see and yet ingeniously disguised by the painter.
The stakes are raised when Langdon uncovers a startling link: The late curator was involved in the Prior of Sion- an actual secret society whose members include Sir Isaac Newton, Botticelli, Victor Hugo, and Da Vinci, among others. Langdon suspects they are on the hunt for a breathtaking historical secret, one that has proven through the centuries to be as enlightening as it is dangerous. In a frantic race through Paris, and beyond, Langdon and Neveu fin themselves matching wits with a faceless powerbroker who appears to anticipate their every move. Unless they can decipher the labyrinthine puzzle, the Priory's secret- and an explosive ancient truth- will be lost forever.
This is one of those adult novels that, at least for me, I have to read in my lifetime. I've heard about it all my life, and have seen the controversy over it, so naturally I wanted to read it and form my own opinion. Plus Christine Riccio (my favorite Booktuber) swears by this book. I spontaneously bought it on my kindle last week (I own the physical copy but its currently residing in my home in Chicago), and finally started reading it. And I absolutely loved it.
I think the combination of my neutral take on religion and my open-mindedness led me to absolutely devouring this book. Based on some truth, Brown formed some pretty shocking statements in here about the Church and Jesus Christ, so I think some people, even though this is technically a work of fiction, will be rubbed the wrong way. But I love a good scandal and found this book to be super engrossing, to the point where I would stop reading and feel almost drunk off all the information I was learning. This took me 5 days to read and on one of those days, I was cooped up in my room almost all day. Unless you enjoy the feeling of your brain oozing out of your ears, then I recommend you only read this in spurts. For someone like me, who has a very small amount of knowledge on religion, this was a BOATLOAD of information.
But I never once faltered and honestly found everything so damn fascinating. Brown managed to weave together history and facts alongside heart-stopping action, making this a fantastic historical thriller. I didn't even know that type of genre really existed, yet here I am, in awe that I both learned something and ran all over Europe with wanted fugitives.
The characters lacked emotion and I didn't feel much of a connection, but this story is obviously all about the details, and for that it gets an A+ in my book.
