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A review by sisteray
The Figure in the Shadows by John Bellairs
2.0
There are a couple of big problems with this book.
It is a sequel so one can't help but compare this book to the original. Now I'm not saying that the original was a masterpiece and this was a drop in quality, rather instead, that the first book established what you were going to get from the series and then the second book didn't deliver any of it. In the first book, the main character's parents die and he comes to live with his lively, caring, magic-wielding uncle and his "friend" who also happens to be a powerful witch. Lewis cries excessively, but you expect this because his parents just died and he's in a new strange place. His relationship with his new guardians and the exploration of the house and the town are the backbone of the story, and it works.
It seems that there is some sense of growth to the character, he learns to trust himself and his new family, and he recognizes that they trust him and have faith in his capabilities. So why is it that the character is still such a whiny crybaby? It bogs the story down and makes him unlikeable. To make matters worse he is overwhelmed by a force to make him even more unpleasant. Why do I want to read about this kid any more?
Now instead of discovering the fantastic things about the house and his family and the town, he's caught up in mundane repetitive bullying. This is mostly just a school drama and an afterschool special about being a "junkie for magic".
I'll skip to the ending, everything worthwhile about the story is pasted on and crammed into the last chapter giving us a cliff notes version of something that we never felt a part of. I wish he'd taken these ideas, elaborated on them and made the characters more of an active part in the story rather than being passive or at best reactive.
The reason why supernatural stories work so well is because the main character/characters often can't share their experience with the rest of the world because either no one will believe them, or no one will have the capability of fighting whatever the threat is. It forces a sense of isolationism. The biggest flaw of this book is that Lewis lives in a house of magic and doesn't tell his magic guardians about magic problems. Why would he not tell his guardians? Apparently because they would get mad at him. The only time that they were unhappy with him in the last book was when he didn't tell them about his magic problems. He ultimately saved the world, so there should be some level of trust, right? In this book, we get the introduction of a new friend, the main character feels that relationship with his uncle is one of mistrust so now he confides in her (someone that knows nothing about what he's talking about and has little interest in it).
The only reason why I finished this was because it was so short. Ugh. I thought that I was going to enjoy this series, but I'm done with it now. All in all everything that was charming about the first book is gone entirely. Too bad.
It is a sequel so one can't help but compare this book to the original. Now I'm not saying that the original was a masterpiece and this was a drop in quality, rather instead, that the first book established what you were going to get from the series and then the second book didn't deliver any of it. In the first book, the main character's parents die and he comes to live with his lively, caring, magic-wielding uncle and his "friend" who also happens to be a powerful witch. Lewis cries excessively, but you expect this because his parents just died and he's in a new strange place. His relationship with his new guardians and the exploration of the house and the town are the backbone of the story, and it works.
It seems that there is some sense of growth to the character, he learns to trust himself and his new family, and he recognizes that they trust him and have faith in his capabilities. So why is it that the character is still such a whiny crybaby? It bogs the story down and makes him unlikeable. To make matters worse he is overwhelmed by a force to make him even more unpleasant. Why do I want to read about this kid any more?
Now instead of discovering the fantastic things about the house and his family and the town, he's caught up in mundane repetitive bullying. This is mostly just a school drama and an afterschool special about being a "junkie for magic".
I'll skip to the ending, everything worthwhile about the story is pasted on and crammed into the last chapter giving us a cliff notes version of something that we never felt a part of. I wish he'd taken these ideas, elaborated on them and made the characters more of an active part in the story rather than being passive or at best reactive.
The reason why supernatural stories work so well is because the main character/characters often can't share their experience with the rest of the world because either no one will believe them, or no one will have the capability of fighting whatever the threat is. It forces a sense of isolationism. The biggest flaw of this book is that Lewis lives in a house of magic and doesn't tell his magic guardians about magic problems. Why would he not tell his guardians? Apparently because they would get mad at him. The only time that they were unhappy with him in the last book was when he didn't tell them about his magic problems. He ultimately saved the world, so there should be some level of trust, right? In this book, we get the introduction of a new friend, the main character feels that relationship with his uncle is one of mistrust so now he confides in her (someone that knows nothing about what he's talking about and has little interest in it).
The only reason why I finished this was because it was so short. Ugh. I thought that I was going to enjoy this series, but I'm done with it now. All in all everything that was charming about the first book is gone entirely. Too bad.