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alexalovesbooks's review
adventurous
funny
lighthearted
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
3.0
I really do love that I’m getting to see more Filipino lore and history in middle grade reads! It’s something I think elementary school Alexa would have enjoyed seeing tremendously, and something that even now, as an adult, I still find pretty cool.
Villanueva’s story is jam-packed with all sorts of Filipino touches, from language to legendary figures to food. It also has a fast-paced plot with plenty of action and witty comments. This book is also led by a refreshing main character… who I unfortunately didn’t end up strongly connecting to or feeling emotionally invested in, and neither did I feel particularly attached to any of the secondary cast. Still, as with a lot of middle grade books, I was content to let the story play out till the end and I generally enjoyed my time with it.
Villanueva’s story is jam-packed with all sorts of Filipino touches, from language to legendary figures to food. It also has a fast-paced plot with plenty of action and witty comments. This book is also led by a refreshing main character… who I unfortunately didn’t end up strongly connecting to or feeling emotionally invested in, and neither did I feel particularly attached to any of the secondary cast. Still, as with a lot of middle grade books, I was content to let the story play out till the end and I generally enjoyed my time with it.
pages_and_procrastination's review
I was given a digital copy of this title, free. All opinions are my own.
To be completely honest, I wanted to enjoy this a lot more than I actually did. My mood changing is partially to blame, but so is the book. The most stand out thing about this book is that it was based on Filipino mythology. There are some key things that I likes about Lulu- mainly that she was the most realistic "I've suddenly got powers and now I have to save the world" character I've read for a while. She's not enthusiastic about having powers or being the chosen one. Ad while she has been training for this for most of her life, she doesn't automatically know what to do or how to use weapons. It's not all handed to her. But other than this, this was your pretty standard middle grade quest fantasy, with a bit of friends/found family, magic and big evil out to do the whole world bad. You do get to learn about the Filipino pantheon of gods.
To be completely honest, I wanted to enjoy this a lot more than I actually did. My mood changing is partially to blame, but so is the book. The most stand out thing about this book is that it was based on Filipino mythology. There are some key things that I likes about Lulu- mainly that she was the most realistic "I've suddenly got powers and now I have to save the world" character I've read for a while. She's not enthusiastic about having powers or being the chosen one. Ad while she has been training for this for most of her life, she doesn't automatically know what to do or how to use weapons. It's not all handed to her. But other than this, this was your pretty standard middle grade quest fantasy, with a bit of friends/found family, magic and big evil out to do the whole world bad. You do get to learn about the Filipino pantheon of gods.
titalindaslibrary's review
adventurous
funny
lighthearted
mysterious
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
Just know that little me would have been OBSESSED with this and I’m so glad young Filipino readers will have a book like this ☀️
sphynxreads's review against another edition
adventurous
fast-paced
2.5
I received a digital ARC of this book via NetGalley through the author in exchange for an honest review.
Not gonna lie, so much about this book did not work for me.
I didn't like how much of a Percy Jackson ripoff the first quarter was. You can literally map out comparisons between this book and the Lightning Thief even down to one of the chapter titles. It didn't feel organic or even like a nod to honor Riordan's work. It straight up felt like cheap fanfic.
I also found the main character insufferably annoying. Lulu doesn't have much character development but at the same time she is also unbelievably inconsistent. One moment she will act childish even for her age and then the next she will say something with the awareness of an adult. Many of the other characters' lines of dialogue also did not feel realistic, including the ones spoken in Filipino. In many ways, this book felt like it was written for Western middle-graders in mind rather than for Filipino ones. The unapologetic Filipino-ness was one of the things I loved about Sugar and Spite, and I'm sad to see that I didn't get that here. Don't get me wrong, there is a lot of Filipino culture referenced here, but it feels almost as if it was tweaked to appeal to a Western audience.
I also thought the pop culture references were a little cringe and repetitive. I mean, take a shot whenever "BTS's Jungkook and Blackpink's Rosé" is mentioned and you won't get drunk, but you shouldn't drive yourself home either.
The pacing was also irregularly fast. We aren't given time to really absorb certain events and some of the more emotional moments don't really feel earned.
There were also quite a number of errors in the pronunciation guide at the end of the book and, as someone who enjoyed his linguistics class in uni, this bothered me to no end.
All that said, I am still interested in how the story turns out in the sequel mainly because of how much I liked the ending scenes. To me, that was when the magic truly began. We are given higher stakes, intriguing plot twists, and the main character was forced to be more grounded.
All in all this was a bit of a miss for me, but I'm still glad to have read it.
Not gonna lie, so much about this book did not work for me.
I didn't like how much of a Percy Jackson ripoff the first quarter was. You can literally map out comparisons between this book and the Lightning Thief even down to one of the chapter titles. It didn't feel organic or even like a nod to honor Riordan's work. It straight up felt like cheap fanfic.
I also found the main character insufferably annoying. Lulu doesn't have much character development but at the same time she is also unbelievably inconsistent. One moment she will act childish even for her age and then the next she will say something with the awareness of an adult. Many of the other characters' lines of dialogue also did not feel realistic, including the ones spoken in Filipino. In many ways, this book felt like it was written for Western middle-graders in mind rather than for Filipino ones. The unapologetic Filipino-ness was one of the things I loved about Sugar and Spite, and I'm sad to see that I didn't get that here. Don't get me wrong, there is a lot of Filipino culture referenced here, but it feels almost as if it was tweaked to appeal to a Western audience.
I also thought the pop culture references were a little cringe and repetitive. I mean, take a shot whenever "BTS's Jungkook and Blackpink's Rosé" is mentioned and you won't get drunk, but you shouldn't drive yourself home either.
The pacing was also irregularly fast. We aren't given time to really absorb certain events and some of the more emotional moments don't really feel earned.
There were also quite a number of errors in the pronunciation guide at the end of the book and, as someone who enjoyed his linguistics class in uni, this bothered me to no end.
All that said, I am still interested in how the story turns out in the sequel mainly because of how much I liked the ending scenes. To me, that was when the magic truly began. We are given higher stakes, intriguing plot twists, and the main character was forced to be more grounded.
All in all this was a bit of a miss for me, but I'm still glad to have read it.
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