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A review by katmystery
Arabella of Mars by David D. Levine
3.0
It was cute but lacking suspense, character development, and a believable, interesting story.
The writing style would have made 1000% more sense in a MG novel. It was ALL tell and not one tiny bit of show. The twists were extremely predictable. Arabella did not think with the depth associated with YA characters. The book had lovely description but too much- it weighed the story down. It was as if the story had not been long enough originally, so the author wished to stretch out every scene... through description!
The pacing was too slow for most of it and too fast in some parts. The whole middle part of the book was drenched with incredible detail about the voyage, which was interesting but not interesting enough for an extra 50 pages of description. The pacing suddenly increased after the voyage, the story navigating through predictable plot-twists every few pages. It just felt very 2D. Like it needed another round of editing.
I think the book could have benefited from some cutting down, flashbacks about Arabella's life on Mars (so that, once we arrived, we could understand all she was talking about instead of having to rely on convenient info dumps), and a rewritten romance. The way the romance was done was unlikely and annoying...
So, in all, enjoyable enough to finish but not without its flaws.
The writing style would have made 1000% more sense in a MG novel. It was ALL tell and not one tiny bit of show. The twists were extremely predictable. Arabella did not think with the depth associated with YA characters. The book had lovely description but too much- it weighed the story down. It was as if the story had not been long enough originally, so the author wished to stretch out every scene... through description!
The pacing was too slow for most of it and too fast in some parts. The whole middle part of the book was drenched with incredible detail about the voyage, which was interesting but not interesting enough for an extra 50 pages of description. The pacing suddenly increased after the voyage, the story navigating through predictable plot-twists every few pages. It just felt very 2D. Like it needed another round of editing.
I think the book could have benefited from some cutting down, flashbacks about Arabella's life on Mars (so that, once we arrived, we could understand all she was talking about instead of having to rely on convenient info dumps), and a rewritten romance. The way the romance was done was unlikely and annoying...
Spoiler
Also, what's the age gap there? Is it as bad as I gathered? I hope hope hope notSo, in all, enjoyable enough to finish but not without its flaws.