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thespicelessreader 's review for:
The Land of Unfinished Dreams
by Marco Ferraris, marco daeron ventura
adventurous
emotional
reflective
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
This is a tricky one, and at the end of the day I think it trickles down to just not being for me. I think the harder part is that I cant quite nail down who it is written for. The tags list it as children's/middle grade fiction but the story tackles topics that are decidedly more grown up in nature ex. loss of a spouse, checking out of human interactions, mental decline (no condition given but alludes to dementia or Alzheimer's) .
The art is beautifully illustrated but also in a very cartoony childish style that's bright and inviting, this matches the tone and story beats we see early on. As the story moves on and we see Ned struggle more and more it seems almost discordant or at odds with the story. Maybe this was an intentional story element but i found it very distracting.
My other critique is the dialogue which I found to be very clunky and awkward especially again, as it was billed as a children's/middle grade read. Again this may have been intentional to make the world feel "old timey" but it was so unnatural and unintuitive in flow that it also pulled me out of the story frequently. This could also possibly be due to poor translation, or the Italian author writing his own English dialogue. I couldn't find any translator credits so I am leaning more to the latter.
Again this book is gorgeously illustrated, and the story beats near the end are moving, but it was a struggle for me to finish.
The art is beautifully illustrated but also in a very cartoony childish style that's bright and inviting, this matches the tone and story beats we see early on. As the story moves on and we see Ned struggle more and more it seems almost discordant or at odds with the story. Maybe this was an intentional story element but i found it very distracting.
My other critique is the dialogue which I found to be very clunky and awkward especially again, as it was billed as a children's/middle grade read. Again this may have been intentional to make the world feel "old timey" but it was so unnatural and unintuitive in flow that it also pulled me out of the story frequently. This could also possibly be due to poor translation, or the Italian author writing his own English dialogue. I couldn't find any translator credits so I am leaning more to the latter.
Again this book is gorgeously illustrated, and the story beats near the end are moving, but it was a struggle for me to finish.