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3.43 AVERAGE
3.43 AVERAGE
I'm uncertain of how I feel about this novel.
Through out reading it I was criticizing it quite badly. I was reading it at the tail end of taking a graduate school course on fiction fundamentals and the coursework was bleeding out my eyes and all over the pages of this book.
I found a few things odd about the book. The length could easily be cut back. There are a lot of unnecessary scenes that didn't tie to the overall plot or only ended up being repetitive as it tried to pound the fact that the location we were dealing with was odd/unique/magical.
The character relationships were far too quickly formed. While once they were established the friendships seemed genuine, their development rushed through. I believe it took one chapter for each relationship to develop. It was to the extent that it reminded me of small children who meet, discover they both like to run in circles, and immediately consider themselves the best of friends. Except as adults we do not develop friendships that quickly. So all relationships in the book were a little awkward for me because they became so tight, so close, within what seemed to span a month's time. Same goes for the love interest--how in love can you be with a person who is so much a mystery to you in so short a period of time.
Another very minor issue I had: I understand the author was born/raised in upstate NY just as I was. Yet this takes place in the fall, the characters are starting college and there's leaves falling all aflutter and fireflies out. Three things: most colleges begin in August, few begin in September. In upstate NY while foliage begins earlier than most places, it's not in full swing in August. Also, once the foliage starts it's also usually quite cold out and there would be no fire flies. Super minor details that no one else cares about but it irritated me constantly.
Other than that, I did enjoy the book. Don't allow my list of complaints make you assume otherwise. I read it and was happy to read it. I was eager to find out how they would get out of the situations they were in, cheered on the good guys, and booed the bad. When I finished the book I found myself thinking of that world quite often for the week following it. Harbour uses beautiful language to convey the otherworldly details of the characters and I feel she wrote decent, raw emotion when handling those who are left behind after a suicide of someone close.
Through out reading it I was criticizing it quite badly. I was reading it at the tail end of taking a graduate school course on fiction fundamentals and the coursework was bleeding out my eyes and all over the pages of this book.
I found a few things odd about the book. The length could easily be cut back. There are a lot of unnecessary scenes that didn't tie to the overall plot or only ended up being repetitive as it tried to pound the fact that the location we were dealing with was odd/unique/magical.
The character relationships were far too quickly formed. While once they were established the friendships seemed genuine, their development rushed through. I believe it took one chapter for each relationship to develop. It was to the extent that it reminded me of small children who meet, discover they both like to run in circles, and immediately consider themselves the best of friends. Except as adults we do not develop friendships that quickly. So all relationships in the book were a little awkward for me because they became so tight, so close, within what seemed to span a month's time. Same goes for the love interest--how in love can you be with a person who is so much a mystery to you in so short a period of time.
Another very minor issue I had: I understand the author was born/raised in upstate NY just as I was. Yet this takes place in the fall, the characters are starting college and there's leaves falling all aflutter and fireflies out. Three things: most colleges begin in August, few begin in September. In upstate NY while foliage begins earlier than most places, it's not in full swing in August. Also, once the foliage starts it's also usually quite cold out and there would be no fire flies. Super minor details that no one else cares about but it irritated me constantly.
Other than that, I did enjoy the book. Don't allow my list of complaints make you assume otherwise. I read it and was happy to read it. I was eager to find out how they would get out of the situations they were in, cheered on the good guys, and booed the bad. When I finished the book I found myself thinking of that world quite often for the week following it. Harbour uses beautiful language to convey the otherworldly details of the characters and I feel she wrote decent, raw emotion when handling those who are left behind after a suicide of someone close.
I have never been a fan of poetry. Yet I am somewhat familiar with the story of Tam Lin. I was interested in seeing what new author, Katherine Harbour could do with this story. She could do a lot. She added her own magical twists and helped bring it to the new generation of readers.
I do have to admit that in the beginning I found this book to be a slow read. However the father I got into it, the better it did get. Although I know this is suppose to be a love story between Sera and Jack, I was not feeling the love as much as I wanted to. Maybe this is because this is book one and the author wanted to slowly build the romance up or the author was looking for this book to be more of a young adult story. Either way, I rate the chemistry between Sera and Jack to be about a 4 on a scale of 10. A good start to a new series. I am curious as to what happens in the next book.
I do have to admit that in the beginning I found this book to be a slow read. However the father I got into it, the better it did get. Although I know this is suppose to be a love story between Sera and Jack, I was not feeling the love as much as I wanted to. Maybe this is because this is book one and the author wanted to slowly build the romance up or the author was looking for this book to be more of a young adult story. Either way, I rate the chemistry between Sera and Jack to be about a 4 on a scale of 10. A good start to a new series. I am curious as to what happens in the next book.
This book is absolutely amazing! The fantasy and action in great. The romance is a little slow but otherwise it's a well written book and has you want in more. It makes you question things and really gets your gears working. I definitely recommend this to anyone who likes fantasy, mystery, and romance.
There are so many reasons to abhor this book, and I'll save you from all of them, but I did take notes so I could fully explain my position. First I think the author is trying too hard to establish herself. she gives us so many references to other pieces of literature it's like she can't even write her own book or have her own thoughts. she wants you to know how much she reads and it's just unnecessary. Second one of my major issues was the similarities between Finn (our heroine, oh please) and Jack her love, to the infamous Bella & Edward from Twilight. She's constantly losing herself over the sight and thought of him. He's constantly telling her to ask what not who he is, alluding to his old age and supernatural abilities. Third, many of the characters have the most ridiculous names, I get it, those aren't necessarily their real names, but what about calling a boy Christie. Fourth, there is just so much emphasis on setting and feel of things that there isn't enought development where you really want story. This isn't a travel book describing location and people of a certain place, so don't treat it as such. I don't know. I have so many issues with this book, the way it's written. I won't go on for fear of spoilers, though if you were smart you'd put this book down and find something better to read and wouldn't be worried about spoilers anyhow.
BEST BOOK EVER!! I loved it, so thrilling and adventurous. Just amazing.
When I started listening to this book, I resisted a little. Teenage urban fantasy, I sighed, and tried to remember what prompted me to buy it. (Ah – I'd gotten the ebook on the cheap, and there was a special price for the audiobook, so I took a shot.) I tsked over some phrasing – "when they'd been young"; "since they'd been little"; "when she'd been twelve", etc. But, on the other hand, I enjoyed things like this –
"Whatever."
"And once again the kingdom of whatever asserts itself."
It was clever. And funny. And intriguing. And sad. And creepy. And some of the writing achieved true poetry. I kept going.
The audiobook narrator, Kate Rudd, is overall very good, although I'm not in love with the way she reads intense scenes. Can't put my finger on exactly why. My only real complaint is that she insisted on pronouncing Tam Lin as "Tom Lin", which jangled against the ballad as I've always heard it. Well, and the fact that rather often the wrong "voice" was used for a character's lines. (To give her credit, it takes some time to get used to the main female character being named Finn, which is usually a male name, and her best male friend being named Christie, which outside of Ireland and Charles De Lint is usually not.) Well, and the fact that I got a bit weary of Finn exclaiming "Jack!!" like Rose in Titanic, but I suppose that one was unavoidable. (ETA after second listening: There had to be a way to avoid it, because my lord does Finn yell his name a lot...)
After a bit the story began to unfold in earnest. Finn and her father have moved back to the town where her parents went to school, planning to make a new start after the death a few years ago of her mother and the more recent suicide of her sister, and Finn began attending her parents' alma mater. She found a pair of amazing friends, Sylvie and Christie, with a speed that made me sigh again. I appreciated that Katherine Harbour had a solid knowledge of fantasy without feeling the need to reference Tolkien or Beagle every paragraph. I enjoyed the scents that permeated the book – people's individual fragrances, the smell of a street at night or a lawn at high noon or an abandoned and astonishingly creepy hotel. And the imagery began to get under my skin – and I mean that in a really good way. Her descriptions were a few degrees off the common, and conjured marvelously clear images. Her command of language is light years better than all those lesser writers I've seen who throw the book (the dictionary, that is) at a sentence to try to force the reader to "see" exactly what was in their minds, and just end up with word salad half the time. "He was like something that had stopped pretending to be human". "His eyes were colder than moonlight on a knife." "Jewels and eyes glittered like tooth and claw." Katherine Harbour writes like a painter. The imagery was so powerful I wish I'd had a sketchbook handy along with the leisure to fill it up as I listened, with things like boys filled with flowers and a hooded figure holding a rose in its hands. Maybe someday.
The names are magnificent. Leafstruck Mansion. HallowHeart. Caliban Ariel'Pan.
There is a nicely struck balance of humor and deadly seriousness. The three teenaged protagonists are wonderful characters – everyone deserves friends like these (however cranky the speed of their having been acquired made me), and their fate is never assured. They inadvertently interrupt an arcane wake, and while the reader-slash-listener knows that this could be a fatal misstep for them, the author adroitly shows that Our Heroes are all but clueless about the very real danger they're in. They're still not seeing the line between mundane and fae, still unaware that the world as they know it never really existed, and they do not understand that they are let off lightly when those holding the wake decide to penalize them with the lesser of three evils: mischief. It's bad enough – little do they know how very much worse it could be.
They find out.
And then someone came out and said the word "teind", and if it hadn't begun to happen already everything changed. "Tam Lin" (or as SJ Tucker calls it, "the 400-year-old Childe ballad about trying to rescue your baby-daddy from the queen of the fairies before it's too late") has been one of my favorite tales forever. Pamela Dean's novel of that name is something I've probably read half a dozen times (and I need to go find it and read it again), and one of the books I'd quite possibly go back into a burning building for is my thirty year old paperback of Elizabeth Marie Pope's [b:The Perilous Gard|195381|The Perilous Gard|Elizabeth Marie Pope|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1441373154l/195381._SY75_.jpg|2210482], one of my favorite books in all the world (this or any other – also in need of a reread soon). (ETA: It's also available on Audible, in a really lovely narration, and now I don't have to rush to find my paperback, or risk my life for it.) And, of course, Steeleye Span's "Tam Lin" was a pillar of my twenties (and, to a lesser degree, Fairport Convention's). It's actually a theme I'm surprised hasn't been used to death, because the lady saves the knight's butt.
Something happened to me as I was listening to this book. You know the book (or movie) "How Stella Got Her Groove Back"? That's kind of how I felt, only quite not in the way Terry McMillan meant it. A long, long time ago, I drew. I painted. I wrote. I made things. I was positively steeped in Steeleye Span and Phoenyx and The Chieftains, and as often as possible I dressed in bodice and boots and bells and hied me to the Renaissance Faire.
I haven't done any of that in a long, long time. Did I "grow up"?
Why? Where's that gotten me?
Something … something about this book woke all of it up in me.
Another added bonus from this book is that a ways into it I felt the need to go listen to the ballad "Tam Lin", and betook myself to YouTube, intending to bring up Steeleye Span. Instead, I found Tricky Pixie, and fell straight in love, and have since become a fangirl of S.J. Tucker (Sooj!) in particular. (And in looking to expand my knowledge of where the group went after that one album ("Keepers of the Flame"), I discovered more about the aforementioned Phoenyx and lead singer and songwriter Heather Alexander; I'm still wrapping my brain around that.)
And so. Hopefully this will last. I really hope so. It felt … amazing. "Iron and salt. Poetry. Silver. Running water. Church bells, incense, mirrors, blessed ribbons, rowan wood, parsley, various other botanical varieties – these are your defenses." Silver, iron, salt, a talisman that means something (preferably in iron or silver) – these are the things that will keep you safe from the dark things, those things of night and nothing, the unseelie court. For the night is dark, and full of ter – um, yeah, anyway.
"Do you want this world of absolutes and accidents? Of hopelessness and ugly deaths? If we die, there will be no hope. Nothing but what you see." The sublime – something sadly absent in modern life – that's what else the night is full of, and faerie. It can kill you – or it can make you see, really see, kind of like a night on Cadair Idris.
Music and bells, incense and roses, Tricky Pixies and Phoenyxes – these are the things that will help to open me up to the starry night, the bright fae – the magic. I think I remember the path now.
Thanks, Katherine Harbour.
Tam Lin by Steeleye Span
Tam Lin by Tricky Pixie - a subtly different take, and my introduction to some spectacular people.
And if you're a completist, here's
Tam Lin by Fairport Convention
The Perilous Gard by Elizabeth Marie Pope
Tam Lin by Pamela Dean
One final lesson that – depending on your outlook – might not be a bad thing to keep in mind: "Don't ever put anything outside your house with the word 'welcome' on it." Oh. Hey. Good point. (Happily, my doormat says "Hi. I'm Mat.")
"Whatever."
"And once again the kingdom of whatever asserts itself."
It was clever. And funny. And intriguing. And sad. And creepy. And some of the writing achieved true poetry. I kept going.
The audiobook narrator, Kate Rudd, is overall very good, although I'm not in love with the way she reads intense scenes. Can't put my finger on exactly why. My only real complaint is that she insisted on pronouncing Tam Lin as "Tom Lin", which jangled against the ballad as I've always heard it. Well, and the fact that rather often the wrong "voice" was used for a character's lines. (To give her credit, it takes some time to get used to the main female character being named Finn, which is usually a male name, and her best male friend being named Christie, which outside of Ireland and Charles De Lint is usually not.) Well, and the fact that I got a bit weary of Finn exclaiming "Jack!!" like Rose in Titanic, but I suppose that one was unavoidable. (ETA after second listening: There had to be a way to avoid it, because my lord does Finn yell his name a lot...)
After a bit the story began to unfold in earnest. Finn and her father have moved back to the town where her parents went to school, planning to make a new start after the death a few years ago of her mother and the more recent suicide of her sister, and Finn began attending her parents' alma mater. She found a pair of amazing friends, Sylvie and Christie, with a speed that made me sigh again. I appreciated that Katherine Harbour had a solid knowledge of fantasy without feeling the need to reference Tolkien or Beagle every paragraph. I enjoyed the scents that permeated the book – people's individual fragrances, the smell of a street at night or a lawn at high noon or an abandoned and astonishingly creepy hotel. And the imagery began to get under my skin – and I mean that in a really good way. Her descriptions were a few degrees off the common, and conjured marvelously clear images. Her command of language is light years better than all those lesser writers I've seen who throw the book (the dictionary, that is) at a sentence to try to force the reader to "see" exactly what was in their minds, and just end up with word salad half the time. "He was like something that had stopped pretending to be human". "His eyes were colder than moonlight on a knife." "Jewels and eyes glittered like tooth and claw." Katherine Harbour writes like a painter. The imagery was so powerful I wish I'd had a sketchbook handy along with the leisure to fill it up as I listened, with things like boys filled with flowers and a hooded figure holding a rose in its hands. Maybe someday.
The names are magnificent. Leafstruck Mansion. HallowHeart. Caliban Ariel'Pan.
There is a nicely struck balance of humor and deadly seriousness. The three teenaged protagonists are wonderful characters – everyone deserves friends like these (however cranky the speed of their having been acquired made me), and their fate is never assured. They inadvertently interrupt an arcane wake, and while the reader-slash-listener knows that this could be a fatal misstep for them, the author adroitly shows that Our Heroes are all but clueless about the very real danger they're in. They're still not seeing the line between mundane and fae, still unaware that the world as they know it never really existed, and they do not understand that they are let off lightly when those holding the wake decide to penalize them with the lesser of three evils: mischief. It's bad enough – little do they know how very much worse it could be.
They find out.
"Caliban and Phuagh shall escort you over the threshold."
Finn didn't like how Reiko had phrased that last statement. She searched for a trick. She looked over her shoulder at Jack, who said clearly, "Phouka – make sure they move safely over the threshold of this building and into Fair Hollow."
And then someone came out and said the word "teind", and if it hadn't begun to happen already everything changed. "Tam Lin" (or as SJ Tucker calls it, "the 400-year-old Childe ballad about trying to rescue your baby-daddy from the queen of the fairies before it's too late") has been one of my favorite tales forever. Pamela Dean's novel of that name is something I've probably read half a dozen times (and I need to go find it and read it again), and one of the books I'd quite possibly go back into a burning building for is my thirty year old paperback of Elizabeth Marie Pope's [b:The Perilous Gard|195381|The Perilous Gard|Elizabeth Marie Pope|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1441373154l/195381._SY75_.jpg|2210482], one of my favorite books in all the world (this or any other – also in need of a reread soon). (ETA: It's also available on Audible, in a really lovely narration, and now I don't have to rush to find my paperback, or risk my life for it.) And, of course, Steeleye Span's "Tam Lin" was a pillar of my twenties (and, to a lesser degree, Fairport Convention's). It's actually a theme I'm surprised hasn't been used to death, because the lady saves the knight's butt.
Something happened to me as I was listening to this book. You know the book (or movie) "How Stella Got Her Groove Back"? That's kind of how I felt, only quite not in the way Terry McMillan meant it. A long, long time ago, I drew. I painted. I wrote. I made things. I was positively steeped in Steeleye Span and Phoenyx and The Chieftains, and as often as possible I dressed in bodice and boots and bells and hied me to the Renaissance Faire.
I haven't done any of that in a long, long time. Did I "grow up"?
Why? Where's that gotten me?
Something … something about this book woke all of it up in me.
Another added bonus from this book is that a ways into it I felt the need to go listen to the ballad "Tam Lin", and betook myself to YouTube, intending to bring up Steeleye Span. Instead, I found Tricky Pixie, and fell straight in love, and have since become a fangirl of S.J. Tucker (Sooj!) in particular. (And in looking to expand my knowledge of where the group went after that one album ("Keepers of the Flame"), I discovered more about the aforementioned Phoenyx and lead singer and songwriter Heather Alexander; I'm still wrapping my brain around that.)
And so. Hopefully this will last. I really hope so. It felt … amazing. "Iron and salt. Poetry. Silver. Running water. Church bells, incense, mirrors, blessed ribbons, rowan wood, parsley, various other botanical varieties – these are your defenses." Silver, iron, salt, a talisman that means something (preferably in iron or silver) – these are the things that will keep you safe from the dark things, those things of night and nothing, the unseelie court. For the night is dark, and full of ter – um, yeah, anyway.
"Do you want this world of absolutes and accidents? Of hopelessness and ugly deaths? If we die, there will be no hope. Nothing but what you see." The sublime – something sadly absent in modern life – that's what else the night is full of, and faerie. It can kill you – or it can make you see, really see, kind of like a night on Cadair Idris.
Music and bells, incense and roses, Tricky Pixies and Phoenyxes – these are the things that will help to open me up to the starry night, the bright fae – the magic. I think I remember the path now.
Thanks, Katherine Harbour.
Tam Lin by Steeleye Span
Tam Lin by Tricky Pixie - a subtly different take, and my introduction to some spectacular people.
And if you're a completist, here's
Tam Lin by Fairport Convention
The Perilous Gard by Elizabeth Marie Pope
Tam Lin by Pamela Dean
One final lesson that – depending on your outlook – might not be a bad thing to keep in mind: "Don't ever put anything outside your house with the word 'welcome' on it." Oh. Hey. Good point. (Happily, my doormat says "Hi. I'm Mat.")
This book intrigued me because of what it was about. A modernized retelling of the Scottish ballad of Tam Lin. It’s a combination of loss, love, fantasy, and myth. Its summary is listed as: “In the wake of her older sister's suicide, Finn Sullivan and her father move to a quaint town in upstate New York. Populated with socialites, hippies, and dramatic artists, every corner of this new place holds bright possibilities—and dark enigmas, including the devastatingly attractive Jack Fata, scion of one of the town's most powerful families. As she begins to settle in, Finn discovers that beneath its pretty, placid surface, the town and its denizens—especially the Fata family—wield an irresistible charm and dangerous power, a tempting and terrifying blend of good and evil, magic and mystery, that holds dangerous consequences for an innocent and curious girl like Finn. To free herself and save her beloved Jack, Finn must confront the fearsome Fata family . . . in a battle that will lead to shocking secrets about her sister's death.”
This sounded intriguing and even flipping through the book, the print looks great. I love the change up of fonts, as well as the slightly wider page format. These small changes made me anxious to read it. And then I did, only to watch the story spit and sputter throughout. It seemed to follow the basic storyline for some of these fantasy stories. There was a girl protagonist who is basically ordinary, a loss of life, a move to another place, instant love interest in a mysterious, but “bad” boy, weird things happen that ordinary girl is clueless on, “bad” love interest is fixable, and an un-climatic battle where boy and girl walk off together ready to begin life forever because they’ve made it through a few weeks so surely they’ll last. It’s what books like Twilight have done, and when the writing is great, readers will not even notice the non-inventive plot. However, the writing was choppy and the characters were flat. With changing perspectives to people I didn’t even care to read through, the story was difficult to finish.
This doesn’t mean I hated this book. I actually like the concept behind it. I like the Fatas, and I want to know more. I hope that with the next novel, Harbour starts letting the characters drive the plot. I think that is maybe why I had such a hard time. The plot was just there, and the author told me things happened and that they were significant, but I didn’t feel that because the characters developed about none. With an opening of Jack being told to find the brave girl who will make him bleed, I was expecting a quest sort of adventure. I didn’t get that. I got a mystery that I figured out in the first 3 chapters. So, I just hope that Harbour progresses these, because I’m willing to give this series another shot in book 2.
This sounded intriguing and even flipping through the book, the print looks great. I love the change up of fonts, as well as the slightly wider page format. These small changes made me anxious to read it. And then I did, only to watch the story spit and sputter throughout. It seemed to follow the basic storyline for some of these fantasy stories. There was a girl protagonist who is basically ordinary, a loss of life, a move to another place, instant love interest in a mysterious, but “bad” boy, weird things happen that ordinary girl is clueless on, “bad” love interest is fixable, and an un-climatic battle where boy and girl walk off together ready to begin life forever because they’ve made it through a few weeks so surely they’ll last. It’s what books like Twilight have done, and when the writing is great, readers will not even notice the non-inventive plot. However, the writing was choppy and the characters were flat. With changing perspectives to people I didn’t even care to read through, the story was difficult to finish.
This doesn’t mean I hated this book. I actually like the concept behind it. I like the Fatas, and I want to know more. I hope that with the next novel, Harbour starts letting the characters drive the plot. I think that is maybe why I had such a hard time. The plot was just there, and the author told me things happened and that they were significant, but I didn’t feel that because the characters developed about none. With an opening of Jack being told to find the brave girl who will make him bleed, I was expecting a quest sort of adventure. I didn’t get that. I got a mystery that I figured out in the first 3 chapters. So, I just hope that Harbour progresses these, because I’m willing to give this series another shot in book 2.
If you liked Twilight but wished Bella had some more agency and a really close knit group of friends, then I think you'll enjoy this book.
I'm pretty sure it's a modern day retelling of Tamlin, and though it definitely made me snooze in some places there were also some really creepy bits as well.
Instalove?
Well yeah. But I honestly didn't mind so much. I was here for the mystery and the atmosphere. Oh, and the Shakespearean ghosts.
Jack does have this annoying habit of saying something enigmatic and then VANISHING INTO THE NIGHT or DISAPPEARING INTO A PILE OF LEAVES you get the gist he was really just a real drama queen okay?
My biggest objection was how convoluted the storytelling was.
When I was a little girl I had this really high fever, and I dreamt that I was building a castle made out of blocks and someone kept knocking it over and I was forced to make the castle again. Over and over this occurred. Long story short, I woke up standing in my living room, and my mother was trying to speak to me. I didn't know how I'd gotten there. I didn't understand anything.
That's basically what this book felt like.
I enjoyed the characters and their journey but at the same time there were so many confusing pieces of dialogue that never added up and plot points that were vaguely hinted at but not explained until the last chapter.
Most of the characters freaking talked in lines of poetry and then threatened to kill someone, so that should tell you everything you need to know.
Overall, I appreciated this novel but I was so confused. I couldn't love it because I felt alot of it was sloppily done. Still, when I next visit the library I will get the next one. I'm interested enough to do that.
Also, this quote is everything:
"How come I don't see them moving?" Christie whisper shrieked.
Sylvie murmured, " Between. Christie, I saw something like this on Doctor Who- don't take your eyes off them."
"What? Are you kidding? Doctor-"
I love that this book is super high stakes and not everybody makes it out okay but it still doesn't take itself too seriously.
And can I just say?
I expected there to be fade to black sex in this.
I was so surprised and happy that this book just contained kissing even though it is an adult title. It is so hard to avoid.
3.5 stars.
I'm pretty sure it's a modern day retelling of Tamlin, and though it definitely made me snooze in some places there were also some really creepy bits as well.
Instalove?
Well yeah. But I honestly didn't mind so much. I was here for the mystery and the atmosphere. Oh, and the Shakespearean ghosts.
Jack does have this annoying habit of saying something enigmatic and then VANISHING INTO THE NIGHT or DISAPPEARING INTO A PILE OF LEAVES you get the gist he was really just a real drama queen okay?
My biggest objection was how convoluted the storytelling was.
When I was a little girl I had this really high fever, and I dreamt that I was building a castle made out of blocks and someone kept knocking it over and I was forced to make the castle again. Over and over this occurred. Long story short, I woke up standing in my living room, and my mother was trying to speak to me. I didn't know how I'd gotten there. I didn't understand anything.
That's basically what this book felt like.
I enjoyed the characters and their journey but at the same time there were so many confusing pieces of dialogue that never added up and plot points that were vaguely hinted at but not explained until the last chapter.
Most of the characters freaking talked in lines of poetry and then threatened to kill someone, so that should tell you everything you need to know.
Overall, I appreciated this novel but I was so confused. I couldn't love it because I felt alot of it was sloppily done. Still, when I next visit the library I will get the next one. I'm interested enough to do that.
Also, this quote is everything:
"How come I don't see them moving?" Christie whisper shrieked.
Sylvie murmured, " Between. Christie, I saw something like this on Doctor Who- don't take your eyes off them."
"What? Are you kidding? Doctor-"
I love that this book is super high stakes and not everybody makes it out okay but it still doesn't take itself too seriously.
And can I just say?
I expected there to be fade to black sex in this.
I was so surprised and happy that this book just contained kissing even though it is an adult title. It is so hard to avoid.
3.5 stars.
My blossoming romance with this novel fell flat. I swooned through the first few chapters, then we got bogged down in paranormal romance territory. Usually, I'm okay with that, but I have little patience for 19 year olds unless you craft excellent characters (I mean, I swooned through ALL of Eleanor & Park and they are not even 19). Thorn Jack is atmospheric for sure, and, if you love fairy tales as I do, you will swoon mightily. Let me know if you swoon all the way through. I'm dropping this. Maybe I will return one day. Probably not.
3.5
You can find my review for Thorn Jack here: https://taylormaemarie.wordpress.com/2016/08/16/thorn-jack-spoiler-free-review/
You can find my review for Thorn Jack here: https://taylormaemarie.wordpress.com/2016/08/16/thorn-jack-spoiler-free-review/