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3.63 AVERAGE
3.63 AVERAGE
adventurous
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
adventurous
emotional
funny
informative
lighthearted
mysterious
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
adventurous
tense
medium-paced
The Alchemyst takes historical characters, gives them supernatural explanations, and brings them into current times amidst a battle between gods. A fun read and great setup for this series.
adventurous
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
A fun read. Fast and entertaining. The world is believable and rarely breaks my immersion.
adventurous
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
Hm. I was intrigued by the concept and I really did want to like this book, but there were a looot of things that just did not work for me at all.
Basically the entire book felt like exposition. There wasn't really much of a plot arc to speak of. Every time we were introduced to a problem we suddenly learned about a new, very convenient feature of the world that miraculously handles that particular problem. There was no overarching plot for this book in particular that wasn't an overarching plot presumably for the entire series. And there was literally no resolution or tying up of any loose ends at the end of the book. Like, I understand that it's part of a much longer series and things aren't going to be all wrapped up with a pretty bow when things are really just getting started, but there are a lot of series that can create a satisfying ending for each book while still maintaining the desire and curiosity to keep reading the next book. And satisfying this ending was not. I was reading it as an e-book and I genuinely thought I was having a technology problem where the rest of the pages weren't showing up.
The characters were all very flat and struggled to be likeable to me. There was an attempt at doing a gray morality thing with our protagonists/villains but it was pretty hard to buy in when the characters were simultaneously being placed into pretty discrete good and evil boxes and then not really developed at all. The jumping around between point of view and around the timeline was just kind of distracting and it felt like it took some of the oomph away from the actual action.
I do realize that this is intended for a younger audience and I probably would have enjoyed it more if I read it for the first time as a kid and not in my 20's, but at the same time there's a lot of good YA in the world that is easily enjoyed by older audiences as well.
That being said, I still gave it 2 stars and not 1. The writing itself wasn't terrible and I wasn't super bothered by the simplicity of it because it wasn't hard to understand and writing like that makes it more accessible to younger readers. The concepts were interesting and the characters were interesting in theory and I can hope that perhaps they will get developed in an interesting way in the rest of the series. And I did finish the darn thing despite my issues with it. For some reason I was initially under the impression that it was a trilogy, and I even contemplated continuing on to see if the rest of the series delivered better on the concepts that I did like. Unfortunately I then realized it was actually a six book series and while I was willing to sit through two more books and hope for improvement, I have too many books on my TBR to spend time reading five more, lol.
Basically the entire book felt like exposition. There wasn't really much of a plot arc to speak of. Every time we were introduced to a problem we suddenly learned about a new, very convenient feature of the world that miraculously handles that particular problem. There was no overarching plot for this book in particular that wasn't an overarching plot presumably for the entire series. And there was literally no resolution or tying up of any loose ends at the end of the book. Like, I understand that it's part of a much longer series and things aren't going to be all wrapped up with a pretty bow when things are really just getting started, but there are a lot of series that can create a satisfying ending for each book while still maintaining the desire and curiosity to keep reading the next book. And satisfying this ending was not. I was reading it as an e-book and I genuinely thought I was having a technology problem where the rest of the pages weren't showing up.
The characters were all very flat and struggled to be likeable to me. There was an attempt at doing a gray morality thing with our protagonists/villains but it was pretty hard to buy in when the characters were simultaneously being placed into pretty discrete good and evil boxes and then not really developed at all. The jumping around between point of view and around the timeline was just kind of distracting and it felt like it took some of the oomph away from the actual action.
I do realize that this is intended for a younger audience and I probably would have enjoyed it more if I read it for the first time as a kid and not in my 20's, but at the same time there's a lot of good YA in the world that is easily enjoyed by older audiences as well.
That being said, I still gave it 2 stars and not 1. The writing itself wasn't terrible and I wasn't super bothered by the simplicity of it because it wasn't hard to understand and writing like that makes it more accessible to younger readers. The concepts were interesting and the characters were interesting in theory and I can hope that perhaps they will get developed in an interesting way in the rest of the series. And I did finish the darn thing despite my issues with it. For some reason I was initially under the impression that it was a trilogy, and I even contemplated continuing on to see if the rest of the series delivered better on the concepts that I did like. Unfortunately I then realized it was actually a six book series and while I was willing to sit through two more books and hope for improvement, I have too many books on my TBR to spend time reading five more, lol.
i’m honestly surprised that i got 189 pages into the book with how much i was hating it. the characters felt incredibly flat and boring and the plot line was predictable and didn’t draw me in. the writing itself was really hard for me to get through and felt like (honestly) a poorly written children’s action movie. maybe i’m being too harsh, but it was painful for me to get through just the first 189 pages
So this book was okay. I didn’t really like Josh’s character and I felt like Sophie, as his sibling should’ve shut him up before he could’ve embarrassed himself and her. You know, smacked him and said, “Shut up!” before he made a fool of himself. A few things I felt were over explained and a few that weren’t even touched but maybe those will come up in later books. I’m not sure that I’ll read the others.
I am so annoyed from the beginning because the author failed to fact check San Francisco in the summer and based a plot point on the 85 degree weather. Guess what, it's not 85 degrees in SF in May, it's 65 with fog. We get 85 degrees in March and September. I can't get over it. I can't like this book. To boot, 40 pages in I still do not like the characters and am uninterested. So I am quitting. I love quitting bad books now, something I used to feel so guilty about as a young reader.