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184 reviews for:
Serafina Y El Bastón Maligno / Serafina and the Twisted Staff (Serafina, Book 2)
Robert Beatty
4.03 AVERAGE
184 reviews for:
Serafina Y El Bastón Maligno / Serafina and the Twisted Staff (Serafina, Book 2)
Robert Beatty
4.03 AVERAGE
I'm conflicted with this series.
On one hand, it's intriguing once it gets started, but it takes about 135 pages for the real story to sink in. Both The Black Cloak and this one started with a very boring introduction of Serafina roaming around to catch rats. The details going into the rat catching scenes were painstakingly dull. I didn't care. There wasn't a need to start the second book like the first because it distances the reader from the story by spitting out a fact that we already learned repeatedly in the first book.
The biggest issue I have is the dialect and its inconsistency. Serafina, her father, and the other lowly maids and butlers don't speak proper English. They speak horrible Southern mountain talk. Improper speech is a HUGE annoyance of mine. Yes, I'm aware that people have the right to speak the way they want, but despite growing up an hour and forty-five minutes away from Biltmore, I refused to follow my elementary peers and teachers and acquire the typical Southern dialect and vocabulary. First off, I couldn't understand it. Second, I wanted to speak properly and had no desire to hinder my vocabulary to fit in. Improper word structures are the equivalent to nails on a chalkboard for me. They always have been and always will.
In The Black Cloak, at least I could understand the dialogue between Serafina and whoever she interacted with. I couldn't in The Twisted Staff. I didn't even try to understand what was happening because I refused to waste my time translating the vocabulary. Robert Beatty made the language so much more stilted that it detached me from the story because it was difficult to comprehend what was going on.
Going along with the ghastly dialect, the story is from Serafina's point of view but in third person. I understand how her father is poor and not educated. That he raised Serafina and hid her away from everyone and she learned to speak from him. I get that. But what makes absolutely no sense is how she switches dialects when talking to her father, when talking to Braeden et. family, and when describing the story. It wasn't consistent and it should have been. You can't go from cringe worthy mountain talk to suddenly eloquent, whimsical descriptions regarding the Winter Room. If Beatty wanted to show how these people spoke then he should have kept Serafina's language consistent for the whole story and not have her talking proper English when she begins thinking and describing her surroundings. No, not all of her descriptions and interactions with Braeden et. family were perfect English since she usually slipped in a twangy word here and there, but that I could remove. You can't remove pages of incoherent dialogue.
I have a feeling Beatty didn't write everything in Southern dialect because then no one would understand what was going on. But the lack of consistency made the story weaker. This isn't necessarily a complaint because I rejoiced every time I understand Serafina. The story flowed perfectly! But then it hit a brick wall when she interacted with her dad or Essie, and at first I spent too much time reconstructing sentences in my head as I read this book just for it to try to make sense. If anything, Beatty should have included footnotes on each page with translations. That would have made reading this easier.
On to Serafina. She reads like an eight or nine year old instead of twelve. One can say it's because she's never interacted with kids her age. It makes sense. But she liked to make dumb decisions and ignore the obvious clues in front of her. And she described everything so much that it took away from what was going on. Like in the middle of her getting attacked, she would suddenly pause the attack (in her head) and her mind would wander to other things and then fall back down to Earth a few paragraphs or pages later. I hate it when books do this.
For the first ~150 pages, besides the never-ending rat catching descriptions and the shuddering dialect, nothing happened except Serafina being chased and attacked by animals multiple times. She somehow survived numerous dog, wolf, and coyote bites without needing stitches or wound care despite all the skin flapping off her. My mom was bitten by a dog once and it was quite nasty. Maybe Serafina's body heals wounds quickly because she's part mountain lion and panther? But without confirmation, it's another flaw in the story.
Once the story started, like with The Black Cloak, everything was entertaining and kept my interest. The dialects magically vanished and the plot inched forward. Waysa was amazing and I hope to read more about him in the next installments. Why am I reading the next installments? Because I own all the books in the series. If I didn't then I would have labeled The Black Cloak as 'did not finish' solely because of the dialect.
Well, on to the next I guess.
On one hand, it's intriguing once it gets started, but it takes about 135 pages for the real story to sink in. Both The Black Cloak and this one started with a very boring introduction of Serafina roaming around to catch rats. The details going into the rat catching scenes were painstakingly dull. I didn't care. There wasn't a need to start the second book like the first because it distances the reader from the story by spitting out a fact that we already learned repeatedly in the first book.
The biggest issue I have is the dialect and its inconsistency. Serafina, her father, and the other lowly maids and butlers don't speak proper English. They speak horrible Southern mountain talk. Improper speech is a HUGE annoyance of mine. Yes, I'm aware that people have the right to speak the way they want, but despite growing up an hour and forty-five minutes away from Biltmore, I refused to follow my elementary peers and teachers and acquire the typical Southern dialect and vocabulary. First off, I couldn't understand it. Second, I wanted to speak properly and had no desire to hinder my vocabulary to fit in. Improper word structures are the equivalent to nails on a chalkboard for me. They always have been and always will.
In The Black Cloak, at least I could understand the dialogue between Serafina and whoever she interacted with. I couldn't in The Twisted Staff. I didn't even try to understand what was happening because I refused to waste my time translating the vocabulary. Robert Beatty made the language so much more stilted that it detached me from the story because it was difficult to comprehend what was going on.
Going along with the ghastly dialect, the story is from Serafina's point of view but in third person. I understand how her father is poor and not educated. That he raised Serafina and hid her away from everyone and she learned to speak from him. I get that. But what makes absolutely no sense is how she switches dialects when talking to her father, when talking to Braeden et. family, and when describing the story. It wasn't consistent and it should have been. You can't go from cringe worthy mountain talk to suddenly eloquent, whimsical descriptions regarding the Winter Room. If Beatty wanted to show how these people spoke then he should have kept Serafina's language consistent for the whole story and not have her talking proper English when she begins thinking and describing her surroundings. No, not all of her descriptions and interactions with Braeden et. family were perfect English since she usually slipped in a twangy word here and there, but that I could remove. You can't remove pages of incoherent dialogue.
I have a feeling Beatty didn't write everything in Southern dialect because then no one would understand what was going on. But the lack of consistency made the story weaker. This isn't necessarily a complaint because I rejoiced every time I understand Serafina. The story flowed perfectly! But then it hit a brick wall when she interacted with her dad or Essie, and at first I spent too much time reconstructing sentences in my head as I read this book just for it to try to make sense. If anything, Beatty should have included footnotes on each page with translations. That would have made reading this easier.
On to Serafina. She reads like an eight or nine year old instead of twelve. One can say it's because she's never interacted with kids her age. It makes sense. But she liked to make dumb decisions and ignore the obvious clues in front of her. And she described everything so much that it took away from what was going on. Like in the middle of her getting attacked, she would suddenly pause the attack (in her head) and her mind would wander to other things and then fall back down to Earth a few paragraphs or pages later. I hate it when books do this.
For the first ~150 pages, besides the never-ending rat catching descriptions and the shuddering dialect, nothing happened except Serafina being chased and attacked by animals multiple times. She somehow survived numerous dog, wolf, and coyote bites without needing stitches or wound care despite all the skin flapping off her. My mom was bitten by a dog once and it was quite nasty. Maybe Serafina's body heals wounds quickly because she's part mountain lion and panther? But without confirmation, it's another flaw in the story.
Once the story started, like with The Black Cloak, everything was entertaining and kept my interest. The dialects magically vanished and the plot inched forward. Waysa was amazing and I hope to read more about him in the next installments. Why am I reading the next installments? Because I own all the books in the series. If I didn't then I would have labeled The Black Cloak as 'did not finish' solely because of the dialect.
Well, on to the next I guess.
This was a good follow-up to Serafina & the Black Cloak. It was a little slow at times, but it ended with a bang.
Really good follow up to the first book, well written and good story line.
adventurous
challenging
dark
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
Beaton is excellent at writing cliff hanging chapters, and interweaving history, folklore, and a terrifying story that will suck the readers in.
3.5/4. I did enjoy the overall story, and the growth of Serafina. However, I do think it drug on a bit too long, and the actual ending felt a little easy, had too little resolution for some of the characters, and was a bit too quick after everything.
This second Serafina book is darker and scarier than the previous one. While still labeled as middle grade fiction, I would aim this book towards older readers because the themes feel more strongly adolescent. Serafina is no longer uncertain about her lineage, her only questions now involve how she will establish herself in the present. She no longer hides in the dark places of the grand mansion, she now dresses up and attends functions with the family and guests in the mansion proper. Although this story occurs only a few weeks after the end of the first book, it feels as though years have passed. -Suzanne R.
This book was even better than the first one. The writing was amazing. The only complaint I had was that the author went into a strange amount of detail when describing the clothes. I understood it better later on, but I still think he could have gone into slightly less detail. I didn't particularly care about the placement of every bow on Rowena's dress. Other than that though, the book was BRILLIANT!
The plot was great. I liked how it was not a completely new and random plot, but stemmed from the plot of the previous book.
SPOILERS BELOW
I just wanted to touch on how Rowena's character was handled. If you had asked me at the beginning of the book if she were a villain, I would have said there was a pretty good chance. But after she became Serafina's friend, I thought that's it, problem solved, moving on. So her being the wielder of the staff in the end really caught me by surprise. That was really smart to write it like that. Because most people don't expect a character to go bad, good and then back to bad.
Another great thing was how he put in more than one mystery, while still making it seem like one. It confuses the reader and makes it harder to figure out what's going on. It's a technique that Agatha Christie uses a lot (although, no offense to Robert Beatty, but Agatha Christie is a much better mystery writer).
I can't wait for the third book. I don't know how I'm going to last a year.
The plot was great. I liked how it was not a completely new and random plot, but stemmed from the plot of the previous book.
SPOILERS BELOW
I just wanted to touch on how Rowena's character was handled. If you had asked me at the beginning of the book if she were a villain, I would have said there was a pretty good chance. But after she became Serafina's friend, I thought that's it, problem solved, moving on. So her being the wielder of the staff in the end really caught me by surprise. That was really smart to write it like that. Because most people don't expect a character to go bad, good and then back to bad.
Another great thing was how he put in more than one mystery, while still making it seem like one. It confuses the reader and makes it harder to figure out what's going on. It's a technique that Agatha Christie uses a lot (although, no offense to Robert Beatty, but Agatha Christie is a much better mystery writer).
I can't wait for the third book. I don't know how I'm going to last a year.
Real rating: Mmm...maybe 3.6 stars? It wasn’t a bad book, but I feel it didn’t quite deserve 4 stars. I thought the first book was better. This installment seemed a little bit...predictable. Like, you KNEW that Lady Rowena was a bad seed, and you KNEW that Detective Grathan was going to turn out as the bad guy in the end. So, the first book was awesome, this one was still awesome, but not as much.