Reviews with content warning for Bullying - Il castello tra le nuvole

Kerstin Gier ist für mich Nostalgie pur. Sie war die erste "ya-fantasy"-Autorin, die ich je gelesen hab. Das Wolkenschloss ist zwar kein Fantasy-Buch, aber echt so angenehm zu lesen. Die Chraktere sind super liebenswert. Das ganze Buch fühlt sich wie eine Tasse heiße Schokolade mit Marshmellows und Sahne an. Das Cover ist auch total knuffig und so schön illustriert.
Kerstin Gier schafft es echt tolle schlagfertige weibliche Hauptcharaktere zu schreiben, die realistisch sind.
Was ich auch häufig an YA-Büchern kristisiere ist, dass männliche Hauptcharaktere sich oft in moralischen Grauzonenen bewegen. Das ist bei Kerstin Gier nicht so. Die Charaktere sind zwar manchmal arrogant oder gemein, aber nicht mehr als die üblichen Teenager sind. Man hat nicht, dass Gefühl das Charaktere etwas absolut moralisch Verwerfliches tun.
Toll fand ich auch, dass hier angesprochen wurde das viele Schätzte (hier der Diamant) unrechtmäßig in die Hände Europas und die von Oligarchen gelangt ist.

in diesem Buch wird der Diamant ja sogar zurück gebracht

Ein Kritikpunkt: asiatisch ist kein Beschreibungsmerkmal für das Aussehen. Der asiatische Kontinenent wird von Menschen verschiedener Ethnien bewohnt (indisch, russisch, japanisch, koreanisch). Das auf einen Typ zu stereotypisieren ist falsch. Man kann Charaktere auch anders beschreiben.
Abschließend möchte ich noch auf eine Sache hinweisen: EAT THE RICH. Es gibt keinen Menschen der ohne Ausbeutung und Korruption an seine Milliarden gekommen ist.

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massivepizzacrust's review against another edition

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adventurous lighthearted fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.5

Yeahhhh this was cute. But that was about it for me. I didn't think it was particularly memorable and the tone shift towards the end of the book was surprising to me. It's a bit disappointing because I wanted to love it but I found most of the characters kind of flat and most of the plot twists too sudden.

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kathabooks's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional hopeful lighthearted mysterious medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0

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bexi's review against another edition

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funny lighthearted mysterious relaxing slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.5

Contemporary YA is not a genre I read often, especially if there's romance involved, but I really enjoyed this one! There's a dash of fantasy or magical realism as well, and a mystery in the second part of the book. I've been in a reading slump for the past couple of weeks and this helped bring me out of it. It was cute, cozy, fun, and a little ridiculous.

It takes place around the last week of Christmas up to the first week of January, but there's not a huge emphasis on the holidays. I would definitely recommend it for a general winter read, or if you're looking for a holiday read that's more subtle.

The romance was a little cringey for me at a few points as an adult reader, but I still thought it was cute and it didn't hinder my enjoyment of the book.

Overall, the audiobook narrator did a great job bringing the characters to life with all the different accents, but I sometimes found the accents she used for the main character and a few of the side characters hard to understand (German or Swiss I think?). I had to listen to most of the book at a reduced speed to understand it. There were also a lot of characters to keep track of, which I find difficult to do when listening to audiobooks.

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