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rainmisoa's review
1.0
I tried... oh, I tried so hard to like this book... but that's nearly impossible when there is nothing in this book to like! I saw this YouTube video (I can't remember which one) one day that showed this book on it. I thought, "This could either be really amazing... or really stupid." Either way, I made note of it in case I came across it one day. Well, fast forward to when I went to the library a few days ago. I saw it on the shelf, thought, "Why not?" and brought it home with me. Anyway, I read it... and it's just really stupid. The plot is predictable, the characters shallow underdeveloped carbon copies of one another, and the writing? Oh, God... The most juvenile piece of writing I have ever seen in any YA novel. This book is not that long at all and it was a struggle for me to get through. I just... I can't. DX
Adrienne Kress seems to have the right educational background to support her career as a writer and I am quite happy for her. I am. However, after reading this book, I have to question whether she is aware of how to write towards her targeted audience. It seems to me she just dumbed-down her writing style to make it that much more "understandable" to younger readers. Well, young readers are not imbeciles. They can understand a lot more than people give them credit for. I feel that if Kress took the time to write things out in a less simple fashion, maybe the book wouldn't have been such a mess. Her plot was so predictable that the reader knows who the villain is from the get-go. Not to mention her characters are characters you see from a high school drama (more on this later). Kress should have plotted out her story better and tried to mix things up a bit. Also, this is nothing on Kress, herself, but her editor. Did her editor actually take the time out to read her book and make sure that simple typos were fixed? There are more than FIVE typos and, in a book this short, it is VERY noticeable. Maybe this is just me being slightly nick-picky. I can forgive typos in novels... but not if it's this many.
On to the characters. I hated them all except for two and those two are not even main characters! Cora was a self-centered, bad attitude, horny little shit that got on my nerves rather quickly. In fact, she is the character I hate the most because she had absolutely no redeemable qualities about her whatsoever. I was rolling my eye towards her more than I was rooting for her to win. Nellie is a bit more passable but she, too, is a self-centered, manipulative girl. She knows she is pretty and she's always trying to manipulate people for her own gain. Always flirting and acting coy. Ugh... Michiko isn't as conceited but she is still a self-centered little cunt. I didn't like her high-and-mighty attitude towards those "beneath" her rank. It annoyed me to high heaven! In fact, all three of these girls were just carbon copies of one another. At times, it was hard to tell who was talking at what time; their lines are THAT interchangeable. Especially Cora and Nellie's lines. Kress needed to give them a bit more of a personality in order for things to have run smoothly. Instead, they all came across as the same character which made the reading experience lackluster.
There are only two characters that I enjoy in this book. Officer Jeff Murphy, the cop who was assigned to solving the "case." He is shy, sweet, kind, and not a total idiot (unlike most of these characters here). I always wanted to see him in the story but, since he's a side character, he hardly appeared. Oh well... the other character I like is Hayao. He was the apprentice to Michiko... she treated him like crap throughout the entire book for no other reason than he was below her rank. Hayao is, much like Murphy, except not as shy or awkward. These two characters were enjoyable because they were vastly different and they served a purpose to the story. Everyone else can just go piss off.
As you can see, I did not enjoy this book one bit. The plot was too predictable, the characters idiotic clones of one another (save for two), and the writing mediocre. I really can't recommend this book to anyone to read. However, I won't discourage it either. If you are curious and want to see for yourselves what this book entails, then go ahead and read it! Just keep everything I said in mind because this book was such a chore to get through. Ugh... I am not a fan. Hopefully, you'll find something to like about this book. I'm off to bleach out my brain.
Adrienne Kress seems to have the right educational background to support her career as a writer and I am quite happy for her. I am. However, after reading this book, I have to question whether she is aware of how to write towards her targeted audience. It seems to me she just dumbed-down her writing style to make it that much more "understandable" to younger readers. Well, young readers are not imbeciles. They can understand a lot more than people give them credit for. I feel that if Kress took the time to write things out in a less simple fashion, maybe the book wouldn't have been such a mess. Her plot was so predictable that the reader knows who the villain is from the get-go. Not to mention her characters are characters you see from a high school drama (more on this later). Kress should have plotted out her story better and tried to mix things up a bit. Also, this is nothing on Kress, herself, but her editor. Did her editor actually take the time out to read her book and make sure that simple typos were fixed? There are more than FIVE typos and, in a book this short, it is VERY noticeable. Maybe this is just me being slightly nick-picky. I can forgive typos in novels... but not if it's this many.
On to the characters. I hated them all except for two and those two are not even main characters! Cora was a self-centered, bad attitude, horny little shit that got on my nerves rather quickly. In fact, she is the character I hate the most because she had absolutely no redeemable qualities about her whatsoever. I was rolling my eye towards her more than I was rooting for her to win. Nellie is a bit more passable but she, too, is a self-centered, manipulative girl. She knows she is pretty and she's always trying to manipulate people for her own gain. Always flirting and acting coy. Ugh... Michiko isn't as conceited but she is still a self-centered little cunt. I didn't like her high-and-mighty attitude towards those "beneath" her rank. It annoyed me to high heaven! In fact, all three of these girls were just carbon copies of one another. At times, it was hard to tell who was talking at what time; their lines are THAT interchangeable. Especially Cora and Nellie's lines. Kress needed to give them a bit more of a personality in order for things to have run smoothly. Instead, they all came across as the same character which made the reading experience lackluster.
There are only two characters that I enjoy in this book. Officer Jeff Murphy, the cop who was assigned to solving the "case." He is shy, sweet, kind, and not a total idiot (unlike most of these characters here). I always wanted to see him in the story but, since he's a side character, he hardly appeared. Oh well... the other character I like is Hayao. He was the apprentice to Michiko... she treated him like crap throughout the entire book for no other reason than he was below her rank. Hayao is, much like Murphy, except not as shy or awkward. These two characters were enjoyable because they were vastly different and they served a purpose to the story. Everyone else can just go piss off.
As you can see, I did not enjoy this book one bit. The plot was too predictable, the characters idiotic clones of one another (save for two), and the writing mediocre. I really can't recommend this book to anyone to read. However, I won't discourage it either. If you are curious and want to see for yourselves what this book entails, then go ahead and read it! Just keep everything I said in mind because this book was such a chore to get through. Ugh... I am not a fan. Hopefully, you'll find something to like about this book. I'm off to bleach out my brain.
gracedreads's review
5.0
This is seriously such a good book. It reminds me of Nancy Drew on steroids. It is so good. Mystery, suspense, romance, betrayal. This book has a little something for everyone especially a younger demographic but trust me this is a story that can be enjoyed by all!
sandraagee's review
3.0
If you like strong girls and steampunk, this is a solid choice. Also a good choice for fans of [b:Kiki Strike|187753|Inside the Shadow City (Kiki Strike,#1)|Kirsten Miller|http://d.gr-assets.com/books/1316730174s/187753.jpg|1679326].
Minor quibbles: There were times when I just felt like I was being hit over the head with the author's feminist agenda. It's an agenda that I fully support, but the lesson was sometimes a tad too didactic. There are also a few occasions of less than graceful writing that involve incomplete sentences and odd phrases such as "she looked totally hot" that didn't seem to mesh well with the setting.
These writing issues are relatively minor within the context of the novel, which is actually mostly awesome.
Minor quibbles: There were times when I just felt like I was being hit over the head with the author's feminist agenda. It's an agenda that I fully support, but the lesson was sometimes a tad too didactic. There are also a few occasions of less than graceful writing that involve incomplete sentences and odd phrases such as "she looked totally hot" that didn't seem to mesh well with the setting.
These writing issues are relatively minor within the context of the novel, which is actually mostly awesome.
bookishnicole's review
3.0
I found that this story was really cute, but not a favorite. If you remember, we did a Waiting on Wednesday on this book back in October, and I was able to get a copy of it when I went to New York Comic Con. I was excited to check out a book about three kick ass ladies who solve crime.
The reason that I did not love this book was because a lot of the language and terms used were ones not from the early 1900s, and as a historian, well, I got irked. For starters, the Nellie and Cora kept referring to themselves as "so hot"which is not a term that was used that way in the early 1900's. The other offending term was "Wow. Deep." I felt that a lot of what they were saying were colloquialisms unique to our time.
I loved Michiko and felt that she was the only character that managed to grow within the book. She went from being this girl in a foreign land, who was bullied by her "master" into this strong samurai. I did feel that it was a little difficult to incorporate her because she had a language barrier. I loved learning a little bit more about the art of the samurai.
Cora started out as my favorite, she was strong and independent, but as the book went on, she just bothered me. Her whole dalliance with a gentleman in the book felt so rushed but not in an insta-love way, just a this feels weird way. Nellie was another one that I didn't like from the beginning just because she seemed so superficial and fake. I will admit that I love her use of glitter as self defense.
If I look past the characters and the other difficulties, I liked the plot line. At times it felt a little all over the place. I loved the titles of the chapters and how they all tied together. I also liked how the steampunk tied in with Cora's inventions. There were a lot of fun themes through this book, that make it worth checking out, I have friends that totally loved it, so maybe its the book for.
The reason that I did not love this book was because a lot of the language and terms used were ones not from the early 1900s, and as a historian, well, I got irked. For starters, the Nellie and Cora kept referring to themselves as "so hot"which is not a term that was used that way in the early 1900's. The other offending term was "Wow. Deep." I felt that a lot of what they were saying were colloquialisms unique to our time.
I loved Michiko and felt that she was the only character that managed to grow within the book. She went from being this girl in a foreign land, who was bullied by her "master" into this strong samurai. I did feel that it was a little difficult to incorporate her because she had a language barrier. I loved learning a little bit more about the art of the samurai.
Cora started out as my favorite, she was strong and independent, but as the book went on, she just bothered me. Her whole dalliance with a gentleman in the book felt so rushed but not in an insta-love way, just a this feels weird way. Nellie was another one that I didn't like from the beginning just because she seemed so superficial and fake. I will admit that I love her use of glitter as self defense.
If I look past the characters and the other difficulties, I liked the plot line. At times it felt a little all over the place. I loved the titles of the chapters and how they all tied together. I also liked how the steampunk tied in with Cora's inventions. There were a lot of fun themes through this book, that make it worth checking out, I have friends that totally loved it, so maybe its the book for.
venusfawn's review
2.0
I grant this story some credit for having an interesting premise and for its attention to the portrayal of someone trying to adapt in an unfamiliar country, because I don’t always see things like culture shock and language barriers given much thought.
But there the credit ends. Nellie and Cora were both supremely obnoxious and cringey; basically loudly self-proclaimed feminists “ahead of their time.” If they existed in modern times, I’m sure they’d march around in pussy hats, Cora especially. And while I know that given the historical setting of the story women being seen as inferior is not unrealistic, it all just felt so forced and melodramatic anytime Cora started off on a tangent. I physically grimaced at these conversations, and at the fact that Andrew Harris was such an utter caricature of the Patriarchal Male ™, clearly designed for the sole purpose of goading Cora into said tangents. Even though she routinely made out with him for some reason. He didn’t remotely feel like a real person. He was a gimmick, and his larger role in the story could be seen a mile away. That can’t even reasonably be called a plot twist.
On a side note I was weirdly annoyed by there being a Harris and a Harrison (Nellie) in the same story. Talk about complete unoriginality in name choosing. Further I was annoyed by the constant appearance of language that felt way too modern for the period. Nellie referring to her parents as “two hot people” who “hooked up” made me cringe for a few reasons. These girls often came off more like millennials in the Central Valley of California than they did girls from 1900-era Europe and Japan in their speech and mannerisms. It was hard to stomach.
There were bits that were interesting and bits that were funny (I did rather enjoy Sherry the parrot), but the writing often felt lazy, the characters quite flat and hard to like or relate to, and just felt like such a letdown given that a steampunk story with an inventor, female samurai, and magician’s assistant has the potential to be so kickass. But the execution of The Friday Society fell flat and just came off as corny and amateur.
But there the credit ends. Nellie and Cora were both supremely obnoxious and cringey; basically loudly self-proclaimed feminists “ahead of their time.” If they existed in modern times, I’m sure they’d march around in pussy hats, Cora especially. And while I know that given the historical setting of the story women being seen as inferior is not unrealistic, it all just felt so forced and melodramatic anytime Cora started off on a tangent. I physically grimaced at these conversations, and at the fact that Andrew Harris was such an utter caricature of the Patriarchal Male ™, clearly designed for the sole purpose of goading Cora into said tangents. Even though she routinely made out with him for some reason. He didn’t remotely feel like a real person. He was a gimmick, and his larger role in the story could be seen a mile away. That can’t even reasonably be called a plot twist.
On a side note I was weirdly annoyed by there being a Harris and a Harrison (Nellie) in the same story. Talk about complete unoriginality in name choosing. Further I was annoyed by the constant appearance of language that felt way too modern for the period. Nellie referring to her parents as “two hot people” who “hooked up” made me cringe for a few reasons. These girls often came off more like millennials in the Central Valley of California than they did girls from 1900-era Europe and Japan in their speech and mannerisms. It was hard to stomach.
There were bits that were interesting and bits that were funny (I did rather enjoy Sherry the parrot), but the writing often felt lazy, the characters quite flat and hard to like or relate to, and just felt like such a letdown given that a steampunk story with an inventor, female samurai, and magician’s assistant has the potential to be so kickass. But the execution of The Friday Society fell flat and just came off as corny and amateur.
amarylissw's review
2.0
I read that the author is an actor, which explains a lot. There's hardly any description in here, maybe because the author is too used to being on the stage and easily being able to "see" the setting and costumes and characters.
Other than the lack of description, the characters were excellent. The plot did seem to take a while to get rolling, though, and some of the characters' actions didn't seem quite right.
A fairly enjoyable read, though.
Other than the lack of description, the characters were excellent. The plot did seem to take a while to get rolling, though, and some of the characters' actions didn't seem quite right.
A fairly enjoyable read, though.
marimoose's review
4.0
This was closer to a 3.5, actually, but had to rate it much higher for the great deal of satisfaction I got at the end of a really deplorable character (and no, I don't actually mean the main villain either, which says a lot).
The Friday Society consists of a trio of peculiar girls at a day and age where girls were not invited to play with the big boys. However, after stumbling into a couple of explosions and murders, it turns out these three girls are a bit more competent than a number of the characters in the book. Not bad for a bunch of teens, right?
Anyway, girl power, yadda yadda, the book was filled with a lot of tricks and a lot of glitter, some I liked, and others were so-so. I did enjoy each of the individual perspectives of Cora, Nellie, and Michiko; surprisingly, my favorite of the three were neither the kickass Japanese swordswoman, nor the brilliant scientist who packs a lot of firepower. For some reason, Nellie stole the show for me. Though I do find that amusing, 'cause she is technically the magician's assistant. Or maybe I like her so much because she wasn't afraid to use glitter or call herself Lady Sparkles...
But yes, as far as it being an entertaining read, I was clearly entertained.
The Friday Society consists of a trio of peculiar girls at a day and age where girls were not invited to play with the big boys. However, after stumbling into a couple of explosions and murders, it turns out these three girls are a bit more competent than a number of the characters in the book. Not bad for a bunch of teens, right?
Anyway, girl power, yadda yadda, the book was filled with a lot of tricks and a lot of glitter, some I liked, and others were so-so. I did enjoy each of the individual perspectives of Cora, Nellie, and Michiko; surprisingly, my favorite of the three were neither the kickass Japanese swordswoman, nor the brilliant scientist who packs a lot of firepower. For some reason, Nellie stole the show for me. Though I do find that amusing, 'cause she is technically the magician's assistant. Or maybe I like her so much because she wasn't afraid to use glitter or call herself Lady Sparkles...
But yes, as far as it being an entertaining read, I was clearly entertained.
ginnikin's review
3.0
I quite liked this. The three women were lots of fun and human but not horribly problematic. The story was interesting. The twist about the Fog I didn't expect at all. The twist about Andrew I did. Oh well.
I don't know if the pacing was off, or if I just got distracted, but it started out like a book I would read in two days, tops. Instead, it took me over a week. What's with that?
I don't know if the pacing was off, or if I just got distracted, but it started out like a book I would read in two days, tops. Instead, it took me over a week. What's with that?
catpingu's review
5.0
A very, very surprising ending! It's a complete feminist book, as the cover and summary indicate , set in...uhm...Victorian??? times. There are some hot make-out sessions, awesome kick-ass battle sequences, and a very very interesting turn of events.
Reason:
The characters are very well developed and portrayed. I just wish, however, that.
I just have a liking for books about characters that form a sort-of gang, with code names and phrases and specialties and whatnot. Argh! So amazing!
Spoiler
and even the ultimate villain is feminist!Reason:
Spoiler
Instead of the characters solving 1 crime, they instead end up having to solve 2!!The characters are very well developed and portrayed. I just wish, however, that
Spoiler
Hayao lived and both he and Michiko, and perhaps even Nellie and Cora would come and kick Callum's fat pompous assI just have a liking for books about characters that form a sort-of gang, with code names and phrases and specialties and whatnot. Argh! So amazing!