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A review by torts
Palace of Lies by Margaret Peterson Haddix
3.0
I kind of liked that I could pick this up, years after reading [b: Just Ella|18333966|Just Ella|Annette K. Larsen|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1376671654s/18333966.jpg|25881589], never having read [b: Palace of Mirrors|2208767|Palace of Mirrors (The Palace Chronicles, #2)|Margaret Peterson Haddix|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1348977828s/2208767.jpg|2214543], and follow the story with zero confusion. Even though it works as a standalone, I don't think it would be worth reading if the side characters of Ella and Jed (and Ella's Prince Charming) weren't there to imbue the whole thing with a sense of depth. There's not a lot of depth to Desmia; she's just a princess who's too wrapped up in being a princess to be a decent person (and, sure, she grows a bit by the end...but most of the story comes from an entitled and self-absorbed perspective that's not very endearing or interesting). And why does having freckles make someone hard to take seriously? Why would Desmia's narration say that? It's beyond shallow, it's just weird.
I guess Desmia's lack of depth is supposed to be due to her youth. The book is definitely more middle-grade than young adult. Not a big fan, though.
Also: the epilogue contained way too much essential plot resolution to be a proper epilogue. It was more like a final chapter. Someone needed to re-edit this with a "you don't need to have an epilogue" mantra or something.
And the e-book version I read had some pretty big gaffes: an orphaned "it" all by itself on a page about 52% through the book, and a bit of horrible grammar in the escaping-the-fire scene that seemed like it might have been evidence of an editorial decision to shift from third- to first-person ("I told herself").
I guess Desmia's lack of depth is supposed to be due to her youth. The book is definitely more middle-grade than young adult. Not a big fan, though.
Also: the epilogue contained way too much essential plot resolution to be a proper epilogue. It was more like a final chapter. Someone needed to re-edit this with a "you don't need to have an epilogue" mantra or something.
And the e-book version I read had some pretty big gaffes: an orphaned "it" all by itself on a page about 52% through the book, and a bit of horrible grammar in the escaping-the-fire scene that seemed like it might have been evidence of an editorial decision to shift from third- to first-person ("I told herself").