You need to sign in or sign up before continuing.
Take a photo of a barcode or cover
3.7 AVERAGE
3.7 AVERAGE
This is a tale of trust and betrayal, of hope and despair. Enebish lives in a world devastated by war. She has power, power all sides want. She wants to do what is right and make life better for everyone. Her heart leads her to trust, but before she can see who to trust, she must learn to trust herself.
I will definitely be following this series!
I will definitely be following this series!
fast-paced
Strong character development:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Thank you to NetGalley and the publishers for the free copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. My opinion was not affected by the free book.
I'm going to try my best to talk about the good and the bad of this book, but quite honestly I did not like it at all. It started off pretty interesting: deformed girl is locked away because she has some terrifying power and everyone sees her as a monster. But it quickly derails into every other YA fantasy out there. I can think of very little that separates this from those others or makes it unique. I think if this wasn't advertised as a retelling of Hunchback of Notre Dame, I would just see this as "okay" and feel annoyed at all these YA fantasy clichés, but I went in expecting to see some sort of call-back to that classic story.
I'm not the sort of purist who expects retellings to follow the original source material exactly, but having some connection with the original source material wouldn't hurt. Even something as basic as what the character is like wouldn't hurt. And our main character has almost nothing in common with Quasimodo. She's your typical YA female protagonist-- girl with "something special" who somehow gets mixed up in this rebellion against the evil ruling government, and everyone wants her to be on their side. Yes she's been locked away from society, but only for two years at most and before that she was this skilled and bad-ass warrior. Now where have I read that before? Giving her that backstory instead of the extremely sheltered and isolated Quasimodo then doesn't make sense why she is so blindly loyal and believes just about anything she's told. To put it simply, she's an idiot, and while you can excuse a character like Quasimodo for being naïve and desperately seeking any sort of approval from Frollo, with Enebish I felt that after a while common sense should've kicked in.
I don't want to give too much away, but a "twist" that comes up later pretty much negates anything interesting or complex that could've been done with the character. What's the point in giving your character a tragic backstory and making them fear their own power if you don't follow through with it? The only complaint about the love story I have is that it was unnecessary. Again, if you ignore this was marketed as a retelling of Hunchback, I think even then the romance was unnecessary and served no real purpose. Her powers seemed very cool and at the beginning I was very intrigued, but that quickly stopped and I think by the time she was using her powers again I just stopped paying as close attention to the narrative.
Really, every problem I have with this book boils down to it being marketed as a Hunchback retelling. If I went into this without that expectation, I still would think this was pretty generic YA fantasy with very little to distinguish it from the rest. I just don't think I would be this angry and critical. I like closing my reviews with something positive, and the only thing I can think of is that the powers were cool and I do like how she wasn't completely able-bodied. I did also sort of like at first how she was being emotionally manipulated, but she kept letting it happen even after she saw it was manipulation.
I'm sure this book will find an audience, but for me it doesn't do enough differently from other YA fantasy novels. Plus, it really shouldn't try passing itself off as a Hunchback retelling.
I'm going to try my best to talk about the good and the bad of this book, but quite honestly I did not like it at all. It started off pretty interesting: deformed girl is locked away because she has some terrifying power and everyone sees her as a monster. But it quickly derails into every other YA fantasy out there. I can think of very little that separates this from those others or makes it unique. I think if this wasn't advertised as a retelling of Hunchback of Notre Dame, I would just see this as "okay" and feel annoyed at all these YA fantasy clichés, but I went in expecting to see some sort of call-back to that classic story.
I'm not the sort of purist who expects retellings to follow the original source material exactly, but having some connection with the original source material wouldn't hurt. Even something as basic as what the character is like wouldn't hurt. And our main character has almost nothing in common with Quasimodo. She's your typical YA female protagonist-- girl with "something special" who somehow gets mixed up in this rebellion against the evil ruling government, and everyone wants her to be on their side. Yes she's been locked away from society, but only for two years at most and before that she was this skilled and bad-ass warrior. Now where have I read that before? Giving her that backstory instead of the extremely sheltered and isolated Quasimodo then doesn't make sense why she is so blindly loyal and believes just about anything she's told. To put it simply, she's an idiot, and while you can excuse a character like Quasimodo for being naïve and desperately seeking any sort of approval from Frollo, with Enebish I felt that after a while common sense should've kicked in.
I don't want to give too much away, but a "twist" that comes up later pretty much negates anything interesting or complex that could've been done with the character. What's the point in giving your character a tragic backstory and making them fear their own power if you don't follow through with it? The only complaint about the love story I have is that it was unnecessary. Again, if you ignore this was marketed as a retelling of Hunchback, I think even then the romance was unnecessary and served no real purpose. Her powers seemed very cool and at the beginning I was very intrigued, but that quickly stopped and I think by the time she was using her powers again I just stopped paying as close attention to the narrative.
Really, every problem I have with this book boils down to it being marketed as a Hunchback retelling. If I went into this without that expectation, I still would think this was pretty generic YA fantasy with very little to distinguish it from the rest. I just don't think I would be this angry and critical. I like closing my reviews with something positive, and the only thing I can think of is that the powers were cool and I do like how she wasn't completely able-bodied. I did also sort of like at first how she was being emotionally manipulated, but she kept letting it happen even after she saw it was manipulation.
I'm sure this book will find an audience, but for me it doesn't do enough differently from other YA fantasy novels. Plus, it really shouldn't try passing itself off as a Hunchback retelling.
finally finished this book… i enjoyed this a lot more than i expected!! slow start but i was really into it by the end. i really liked enebish’s character arc as well as seeing her growth with other characters.
adventurous
emotional
medium-paced
This tale is full of deception and discovery. The main character's realization of her strength and power was well written. I'm intrigued enough to see where this goes in the next book.
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Night Spinner is a high-fantasy novel that is a fast-paced read with a well-done, creative magic, and just the right touch of romance. I would recommend this book for teens looking for a new fantasy series.
At first I was really excited about this book!
In the first chapters we see a very well designed worldbuilding and I loved the connection that the main character has with her "sister" and her old childhood friend. But there are some points that fell short, such as the fact that the character is very insecure and never knows who to believe or trust, being quite manipulated and the plot twist it was done too hastily in my opinion.
For someone who has read a lot of fantasy, I had a lot of expectations.
In the first chapters we see a very well designed worldbuilding and I loved the connection that the main character has with her "sister" and her old childhood friend. But there are some points that fell short, such as the fact that the character is very insecure and never knows who to believe or trust, being quite manipulated and the plot twist it was done too hastily in my opinion.
For someone who has read a lot of fantasy, I had a lot of expectations.
Definitely a book that has you guessing the whole time.