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rosaleapc's review against another edition
adventurous
funny
mysterious
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
2.75
howifeelaboutbooks's review against another edition
2.0
I like Childress' writing style and story ideas, and this book was no different - the premise was interesting and parts of it were pretty witty. Magical realism doesn't bother me in fiction and I had no problem swallowing it, but in this case, it brought the book down a few notches. Childress' island world needed to be described very vividly for the magic to fly (no pun intended), and he didn't deliver. It was disappointing because many scenes were too wordy when they didn't need to be, so clearly he could have described visuals in order to pull them off, but it just didn't happen. The ending kind of petered off and fell flat as well.
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