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A review by ravencrantz
Lionboy by Zizou Corder
2.0
This book has been sitting on my shelf since middle school and honestly I wish I read it back then because I think I would have enjoyed it more. I mean, it's great. It has a POC as the main character and that's something I always love because we need more diversity in books. Plus he can talk to cats. I'm thinking that was the reason I picked this book up all those years ago. That or the shiny cover.
I finished it pretty quickly, so I mean it didn't take up a lot of my time, but I just don't think I read this at the right time. It was certainly aimed at a younger audience (which is why I gave it to my younger cousin when I finished it). The writing was very direct and spelled things out for the reader and personally I would rather try to figure things out for myself. It was very imaginative, especially when it came to the circus scenes, but I'm just not a fan of the circus so those scenes kind of bored me. I don't like the man Charlie met towards the end who just seemed to accept everything Charlie threw at him and took Charlie under his wing. I mean, a child sneaks into your train car with six lions and you're like "oh yeah, that's cool". I don't think so.
I would have liked to hear more from the cats. They clearly have some sort of gossip system going around because within hours it seemed every cat in the country knew about Charlie's parents.
Honestly, the only reason I even picked up this book now was because I thought my cousin might want to read it and I wanted to read it before I gave it to her. I should have read it when I bought it all those years ago, and I regret not doing so. It's a series (trilogy I believe?) so nothing was really explained this time around and nothing was really solved in the end. It ended more like a chapter would end rather than a book. I never connected with any of the characters, so I don't care to continue the series.
I finished it pretty quickly, so I mean it didn't take up a lot of my time, but I just don't think I read this at the right time. It was certainly aimed at a younger audience (which is why I gave it to my younger cousin when I finished it). The writing was very direct and spelled things out for the reader and personally I would rather try to figure things out for myself. It was very imaginative, especially when it came to the circus scenes, but I'm just not a fan of the circus so those scenes kind of bored me. I don't like the man Charlie met towards the end who just seemed to accept everything Charlie threw at him and took Charlie under his wing. I mean, a child sneaks into your train car with six lions and you're like "oh yeah, that's cool". I don't think so.
I would have liked to hear more from the cats. They clearly have some sort of gossip system going around because within hours it seemed every cat in the country knew about Charlie's parents.
Honestly, the only reason I even picked up this book now was because I thought my cousin might want to read it and I wanted to read it before I gave it to her. I should have read it when I bought it all those years ago, and I regret not doing so. It's a series (trilogy I believe?) so nothing was really explained this time around and nothing was really solved in the end. It ended more like a chapter would end rather than a book. I never connected with any of the characters, so I don't care to continue the series.