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3.48 AVERAGE
3.48 AVERAGE
The defining moment of Nora's life was when her brother killed himself and another girl in a drunk driving accident.
Since then her parents have dropped out of their own lives. The only thing Nora has left is her father's love of Latin (which he passed down to her). When her best friend, Chris cajoles her into helping a professor translate some obscure letters from Elizabeth Weston (and English girl living in Prague in the court of Emperor Rudolph) she goes along with it.
Nora goes along with Chris and his beautiful, rich, limber girlfriend Adriane on most things, always hoping she isn't the unwanted third wheel. But these two are her only friends.
Until Max. Chris' roommate Max is also helping with the translations. He's also strangely good with Latin.
Nora becomes fascinated by Elizabeth's letters. Elizabeth has been charged by her Alchemist father on his death bed to finish an alchemical machine that was his greatest legacy.
But Nora's life abruptly changes again when she comes to the office to find someone dead, another drugged to a zombie state, and the last person missing.
A strange symbol is at the scene sets her on the path to modern Prague to unravel the mystery of Elizabeth's machine and save her friend.
It took a me a while to figure out why I couldn't give this book 5 stars. It has all the disparate parts I really get excited by: history presented in an exciting form in Elizabeth's letters, intrigue and mystery, a plucky heroine breaking out of her shell, and friendship and romance issues.
Maybe it's because we never lingered quite long enough on the romance or delved deeply enough into the intrigue to satisfy me. A lot of the friendship between Adriane, Chris and Nora is summarized, likewise with Max and Nora. This summarizing means the action doesn't quite feel real to me until we get to Prague and things start happening a little more in real time.
I loved the Prague scenes not only for the action, but for the historic and modern sense of the city- Jewish cemeteries, castle, puppet stores and all- we get through both Elizabeth's letters and Nora's observations. Spot on.
So cool history, interesting intrigue, awesome location in the second half of the book, but so-so on the relationshipping.
This Book's Snack Rating: Thick, double fried Belgian fries in a paper cone for the European flavor of Prague with the satly, throw down yumminess of the mystery
Since then her parents have dropped out of their own lives. The only thing Nora has left is her father's love of Latin (which he passed down to her). When her best friend, Chris cajoles her into helping a professor translate some obscure letters from Elizabeth Weston (and English girl living in Prague in the court of Emperor Rudolph) she goes along with it.
Nora goes along with Chris and his beautiful, rich, limber girlfriend Adriane on most things, always hoping she isn't the unwanted third wheel. But these two are her only friends.
Until Max. Chris' roommate Max is also helping with the translations. He's also strangely good with Latin.
Nora becomes fascinated by Elizabeth's letters. Elizabeth has been charged by her Alchemist father on his death bed to finish an alchemical machine that was his greatest legacy.
But Nora's life abruptly changes again when she comes to the office to find someone dead, another drugged to a zombie state, and the last person missing.
A strange symbol is at the scene sets her on the path to modern Prague to unravel the mystery of Elizabeth's machine and save her friend.
It took a me a while to figure out why I couldn't give this book 5 stars. It has all the disparate parts I really get excited by: history presented in an exciting form in Elizabeth's letters, intrigue and mystery, a plucky heroine breaking out of her shell, and friendship and romance issues.
Maybe it's because we never lingered quite long enough on the romance or delved deeply enough into the intrigue to satisfy me. A lot of the friendship between Adriane, Chris and Nora is summarized, likewise with Max and Nora. This summarizing means the action doesn't quite feel real to me until we get to Prague and things start happening a little more in real time.
I loved the Prague scenes not only for the action, but for the historic and modern sense of the city- Jewish cemeteries, castle, puppet stores and all- we get through both Elizabeth's letters and Nora's observations. Spot on.
So cool history, interesting intrigue, awesome location in the second half of the book, but so-so on the relationshipping.
This Book's Snack Rating: Thick, double fried Belgian fries in a paper cone for the European flavor of Prague with the satly, throw down yumminess of the mystery
mysterious
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Whoooo...okay. I've been dreading writing this review because I know it's going to be really scattered and mostly because I'm really unsure of how I feel about this book. You see, the parts I loved, I really loved...and the parts I didn't...well, they made the book almost unbearable to finish. It was so difficult for me to really get into and thus, took me almost three weeks to read.
"The Book of Blood and Shadow" is being described as a YA Da Vinci Code, and that's exactly how I felt when I started reading it. Conspiracy theories, religion, history? Sign me up! I devoured the first few chapters of this book excited to get to the meaty mystery that was promised to come. Unfortunately, when I put the book down, it was very hard for me to pick it back up again. First though, let me get into the things I just loved about this book.
I absolutely loved the writing. The premise was highly interesting, and written so well. I read this on my Kindle and I found myself constantly highlighting passages, especially at the beginning. I've always been a sucker for first lines and starting paragraphs, so naturally when I read the beginning (which you can find in my Teaser Tuesday post), I was hooked.
Um yeah! AMAZING. And Ms. Wasserman does not disappoint as the book continues. I liked how it was written for YA but at the older end of the YA spectrum, and although there is a romantic plot line woven into the overall story, it's not a focal point.
I really enjoyed the characters, also. Nora, our heroine, was absolutely realistic and although she gave off a very apathetic vibe, it was hard to dislike her. Maybe I'm just a sucker for smart chicks and she definitely fits the bill. The supporting cast was also well written and very well realized. Wasserman revealed the personalities of her characters at a great pace and even at the end, added new developments to them that didn't at all seem forced or out of left-field.
But speaking of pacing...I could absolutely not deal with the pacing of this book. Parts that offered some background were given entirely too much page time and thus I found myself skimming points of the book. It was so hard to go from "Ok! Yes! fast-paced! I want to know more!!" to essentially not even caring about what's going on a few pages later. It was all too scattered and I really feel this book would have greatly benefited from more edits, especially when it came to the epistolary side story about Elizabeth Weston.
Overall, there was just too much "stuff" clogging up that story that I cared about - to the point where I let the book sit and sit until I picked it up again, out of guilt. I do think that Robin Wasserman is an excellent writer, and the story itself has a fantastic premise, but I'd be reluctant to recommend this book to my friends. I would, though, be more than willing to read more by the author!
"The Book of Blood and Shadow" is being described as a YA Da Vinci Code, and that's exactly how I felt when I started reading it. Conspiracy theories, religion, history? Sign me up! I devoured the first few chapters of this book excited to get to the meaty mystery that was promised to come. Unfortunately, when I put the book down, it was very hard for me to pick it back up again. First though, let me get into the things I just loved about this book.
I absolutely loved the writing. The premise was highly interesting, and written so well. I read this on my Kindle and I found myself constantly highlighting passages, especially at the beginning. I've always been a sucker for first lines and starting paragraphs, so naturally when I read the beginning (which you can find in my Teaser Tuesday post), I was hooked.
Um yeah! AMAZING. And Ms. Wasserman does not disappoint as the book continues. I liked how it was written for YA but at the older end of the YA spectrum, and although there is a romantic plot line woven into the overall story, it's not a focal point.
I really enjoyed the characters, also. Nora, our heroine, was absolutely realistic and although she gave off a very apathetic vibe, it was hard to dislike her. Maybe I'm just a sucker for smart chicks and she definitely fits the bill. The supporting cast was also well written and very well realized. Wasserman revealed the personalities of her characters at a great pace and even at the end, added new developments to them that didn't at all seem forced or out of left-field.
But speaking of pacing...I could absolutely not deal with the pacing of this book. Parts that offered some background were given entirely too much page time and thus I found myself skimming points of the book. It was so hard to go from "Ok! Yes! fast-paced! I want to know more!!" to essentially not even caring about what's going on a few pages later. It was all too scattered and I really feel this book would have greatly benefited from more edits, especially when it came to the epistolary side story about Elizabeth Weston.
Overall, there was just too much "stuff" clogging up that story that I cared about - to the point where I let the book sit and sit until I picked it up again, out of guilt. I do think that Robin Wasserman is an excellent writer, and the story itself has a fantastic premise, but I'd be reluctant to recommend this book to my friends. I would, though, be more than willing to read more by the author!
adventurous
dark
emotional
mysterious
medium-paced
I think this was pretty interesting, but in order to get students to read it they would have to genuinely be interested in the topic. It was a little DaVinci Codeish with the mystery and history combo. This is way too advanced for reluctant readers.
This was a good adventure YA novel. Solid plot. It's pretty much like a better-written Da Vinci Code. Nothing will be terribly surprising, but I enjoyed the characters and the writing was decent.
I picked up this book because one of the YA authors who I read online - Libba Bray (http://libba-bray.livejournal.com/) gushed about it.
She had good reason.
I should hasten to add that this is by no means a YA novel - I can see the appeal, since it is written from the vantage point of a high schooler, and those are the main characters. But this book is really about histories forgotten, and literature, and conspiracies, betrayals and murder.
She had good reason.
I should hasten to add that this is by no means a YA novel - I can see the appeal, since it is written from the vantage point of a high schooler, and those are the main characters. But this book is really about histories forgotten, and literature, and conspiracies, betrayals and murder.
This started off so well but it very quickly became too far fetched and Da Vinci Code like. There's paranormal/fantasy and then there's just absurdity and this story was just absurd.
A thoroughly enjoyable mystery which is surprisingly complex for a young adult novel. Definite shades of Dan Brown but much better written!
