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4.01 AVERAGE
4.01 AVERAGE
Long live the insanely long commutes and audiobooks to keep me entertained
Oh my god I love this series! This makes me feel like a kid again just constantly DEVOURING books in a series. The lore and world is neat and it feels like every book just gets better. I got into this series because of Lockwood and co and this book honestly is the closest to it. The connections to a larger plot but still feels stand alone. I can’t wait to physically get these and reread them soon.
emotional
funny
hopeful
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
adventurous
emotional
mysterious
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
Strong character development:
No
So... This book was a big old disappointment.
I adored the first two books in this series. For the prior books, I found myself puzzling over the mystery alongside the team. In this book? I simply couldn't care. Something about this novel was off. I'm inclined to agree with everyone saying that the humor -- and therefore the charm -- is gone. The plot is also. Not plotting.
To keep things brief (since I simply don't feel like writing an entire essay), the pacing was incredibly off. The best example of this was the entire chapter dedicated to Lydia Lee. With all the emphasis put onto her character, you would've thought that she would be some sort of major character -- maybe someone who had a big clue or a supernatural being. What really happened? Lydia Lee told them to go to a shop several chapters after they met and then parted ways. She never showed up again. Ritter literally just included her to show his stance on LGBT+. To be clear, I don't have an issue with the inclusion of a trans character. I just wish it had been done more gracefully. Lydia Lee could've been the wife or friend of one of the scientists. Maybe she knew one of them from ten years ago. Something to just give her more relevance -- and then we could've shown and not told a lot about her character. I feel like this would've aided the pacing in the book.
Jenny's murder 'mystery' was also dissatisfying. I still could not tell you why she was killed. Let me lay out the facts.First, Jenny only knew about the machine her fiance was building. She had a bad feeling about the project and kept trying to get Howard to leave. Second, she was not the only person murdered in that manner. Third, she died before Howard, and Howard was threatened to build the machine or Jenny would be killed. Fourth, the machine in question would brainwash the entire city.
So let's ask ourselves this: why did they murder Jenny?
Frankly, it makes absolutely zero sense.You're only drawing attention to these 'loose ends' when you murder them! And since you're repeating this cycle, you're only drawing attention to the project! Do you want it to fail?? How was Jenny even a loose end in the first place? Would she contact the police? Are we forgetting that you literally had the mayor in your pocket? Who else in the government or in the police force was there at the time? That's not even considering the fact that her murder sounded so singular before. Now she's just a 'loose end'. It was only business. It was SUCH a flat reveal.
Was not a fan of the whole Underworld bit. It just felt bizarrely off.
Alright. Let's talk about the loose ends. There have been hints this entire series leading up to a reveal in book 3. It's a reveal I dislike.It's simply more charming for this to be a story focused on solving crimes around the city, and the shift from that to the entire world is very, very jarring. I did some poking around in the reviews in the later books because I wasn't satisfied with this one, and after knowing what happens in The Dire King, I'm more than satisfied to drop the series while I'm ahead.
So long, Jackaby. You were fun while it lasted!
I adored the first two books in this series. For the prior books, I found myself puzzling over the mystery alongside the team. In this book? I simply couldn't care. Something about this novel was off. I'm inclined to agree with everyone saying that the humor -- and therefore the charm -- is gone. The plot is also. Not plotting.
To keep things brief (since I simply don't feel like writing an entire essay), the pacing was incredibly off. The best example of this was the entire chapter dedicated to Lydia Lee. With all the emphasis put onto her character, you would've thought that she would be some sort of major character -- maybe someone who had a big clue or a supernatural being. What really happened? Lydia Lee told them to go to a shop several chapters after they met and then parted ways. She never showed up again. Ritter literally just included her to show his stance on LGBT+. To be clear, I don't have an issue with the inclusion of a trans character. I just wish it had been done more gracefully. Lydia Lee could've been the wife or friend of one of the scientists. Maybe she knew one of them from ten years ago. Something to just give her more relevance -- and then we could've shown and not told a lot about her character. I feel like this would've aided the pacing in the book.
Jenny's murder 'mystery' was also dissatisfying. I still could not tell you why she was killed. Let me lay out the facts.
So let's ask ourselves this: why did they murder Jenny?
Frankly, it makes absolutely zero sense.
Was not a fan of the whole Underworld bit. It just felt bizarrely off.
Alright. Let's talk about the loose ends. There have been hints this entire series leading up to a reveal in book 3. It's a reveal I dislike.
So long, Jackaby. You were fun while it lasted!
dark
funny
hopeful
mysterious
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
N/A
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
Ah, the Jackaby series, so dear to my heart.
The third book is where cases from the previous two finally merge into one big evil plot, and I didn't really see it coming. I thought that the first two were a nice prologue, a chance for the reader to get familiar with the characters, and spend some time with them on their journey, and then in the third book, the bigger plot emerges when the reader is already nicely settled in the company of characters. I didn't mind that there was a greater evil behind the previous two books because the author really neatly connected them with a single tiny clue and not by tightly weaving it all together since the first book.
I think, so far, I've enjoyed the second book the most, but the third one remained consistent with humour, the Don Quixote relationship, and the folktale-related mystery around the story; the second one, unfortunately, contained a dinosaur mystery which is very hard to top for me (I'm like a four-year-old when it comes to dinos).
The first two books, while very entertaining, lighthearted and mysterious, did not have much info on the characters, except the bits and pieces that the narrator provided of herself, and that was fine, it made sense that they weren't just oversharing everything with each other. In the third book, I learnt a great deal more about the ghost Jenny and Detective Jackaby; I did not expect to actually learn that much about their pasts, so it was a very pleasant surprise that helped the flow of character development and the story.
My only grievance, hence the 4 stars, is that there was a lack of Douglas the duck - Douglas the former assistant.
The third book is where cases from the previous two finally merge into one big evil plot, and I didn't really see it coming. I thought that the first two were a nice prologue, a chance for the reader to get familiar with the characters, and spend some time with them on their journey, and then in the third book, the bigger plot emerges when the reader is already nicely settled in the company of characters. I didn't mind that there was a greater evil behind the previous two books because the author really neatly connected them with a single tiny clue and not by tightly weaving it all together since the first book.
I think, so far, I've enjoyed the second book the most, but the third one remained consistent with humour, the Don Quixote relationship, and the folktale-related mystery around the story; the second one, unfortunately, contained a dinosaur mystery which is very hard to top for me (I'm like a four-year-old when it comes to dinos).
The first two books, while very entertaining, lighthearted and mysterious, did not have much info on the characters, except the bits and pieces that the narrator provided of herself, and that was fine, it made sense that they weren't just oversharing everything with each other. In the third book, I learnt a great deal more about the ghost Jenny and Detective Jackaby; I did not expect to actually learn that much about their pasts, so it was a very pleasant surprise that helped the flow of character development and the story.
My only grievance, hence the 4 stars, is that there was a lack of Douglas the duck - Douglas the former assistant.
dark
mysterious
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:
Yes
emotional
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
Ein bisschen hat die Reihe für mich ihren Reiz eingebüßt. Ich weiß auch nicht genau, woran das konkret liegt.
Vielleicht wirkt auf mich der Punkt, den Ritter aufbaut um alle vier Bände mit einer übergeordneten Handlung zu versehen etwas gezwungen.
Vielleicht wirkt auf mich der Punkt, den Ritter aufbaut um alle vier Bände mit einer übergeordneten Handlung zu versehen etwas gezwungen.