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A review by pomegranateseedpress
Kiki Kallira Breaks a Kingdom by Sangu Mandanna
2.0
I'm conflicted.
I wanted to love this book so much - heroic girl featuring fantastical Mysore? Indian mythology? Drawing comes to life? Artist main character? I loved all of these things. Even an unexpected turn of events that I didn't see coming.
Still - something about the story fell flat. We read this aloud at bedtime and it took 7 long MONTHS for us to finish. We literally read dozens of books in between it because the story lagged so much- we lost interest - my son didn't enjoy it at all - but we persevered. In the end, I'd really rate it 2.5. It was an Owl Crate book for us - and I had high expectations -but to be honest - both Owl Crate books we've read so far haven't been that great.
What was it about the story that fell so flat? I think there were a lot of holes in the world building that made it hard to believe (couldn't she just draw her way out of everything? with the power of her pencil creating things - seems like there was a lot of potential for alternate stories here)... the character herself I found hard to get into her head, her viewpoint. So much telling and information dumping that I wasn't lead into the world with wonder - we were just told tons of details and how everything worked, which took away the magic of discovering it as a mystery...
I'm not sure if the high expectations are what made it fall flat, but it just didn't work for us, despite wanting to love it. Yay for diversity though.
I wanted to love this book so much - heroic girl featuring fantastical Mysore? Indian mythology? Drawing comes to life? Artist main character? I loved all of these things. Even an unexpected turn of events that I didn't see coming.
Still - something about the story fell flat. We read this aloud at bedtime and it took 7 long MONTHS for us to finish. We literally read dozens of books in between it because the story lagged so much- we lost interest - my son didn't enjoy it at all - but we persevered. In the end, I'd really rate it 2.5. It was an Owl Crate book for us - and I had high expectations -but to be honest - both Owl Crate books we've read so far haven't been that great.
What was it about the story that fell so flat? I think there were a lot of holes in the world building that made it hard to believe (couldn't she just draw her way out of everything? with the power of her pencil creating things - seems like there was a lot of potential for alternate stories here)... the character herself I found hard to get into her head, her viewpoint. So much telling and information dumping that I wasn't lead into the world with wonder - we were just told tons of details and how everything worked, which took away the magic of discovering it as a mystery...
I'm not sure if the high expectations are what made it fall flat, but it just didn't work for us, despite wanting to love it. Yay for diversity though.