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A review by lunaseassecondaccount
Bones of Faerie by Janni Lee Simner
3.0
This book is recommended quite often when the question of books about the land of faerie comes up, and so having heard a lot about it, I bought it when I found it at my local bookshop. I do like the cover a lot, particularly the simplicity of it, and I also though the blurb could be interesting. Hooray for faeries, hooray for magical worlds! So I looked forward to reading it. From the first page, this book reminded me a lot of [b:The Forest of Hands and Teeth|3432478|The Forest of Hands and Teeth (The Forest of Hands and Teeth, #1)|Carrie Ryan|http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/41q8PcJO1mL._SL75_.jpg|3473471] by [a:Carrie Ryan|1443712|Carrie Ryan|http://photo.goodreads.com/authors/1259620381p2/1443712.jpg].
The pacing is all off in this book. By the third chapter (all of which are short), Liza was off on her mission and the reader is left reeling over the sudden onset of action. I would have liked a lot more worldbuilding to have been done here. How did Liza, her family and her town get to be where they are? What was done? Do the faeries still live in the world? How do children get their powers? Why is her father so cruel? Who, what, when, where, why and most importantly, how?
So Liza goes on her adventure with her far-too aware and complying cat, Tallow. I'll accept that Tallow sits on her shoulder. None of my cats would have ever done that, not without me holding their bum, but I'll accept it. Maybe it's to do with Liza's powers. And then some action scenes occur and I'm left confused and need to re-read the past few pages. Simner has a bit of difficulty with writing clear action scenes, particularly with her pacing of them.
And then we wind up with a much to adult-speaking young girl, Allie, and more odd pacing issues and then there's radiation poisoning and mirrors and... dead cats.
I felt that the pacing got worst towards the end of the book. It started to get under my skin, and I wanted to tell at Simner to SLOW DOWN and DESCRIBE. Especially about the history here. How was the arch built? How does it connect with the faerie world? How did the war start- why did the war start? And what is Liza's ability, truly?
I was able to enjoy the book, though, despite all this, which is why I'm giving it three stars. The pacing does annoy me to bits, but I liked the twist on the faerie world situation.
The pacing is all off in this book. By the third chapter (all of which are short), Liza was off on her mission and the reader is left reeling over the sudden onset of action. I would have liked a lot more worldbuilding to have been done here. How did Liza, her family and her town get to be where they are? What was done? Do the faeries still live in the world? How do children get their powers? Why is her father so cruel? Who, what, when, where, why and most importantly, how?
So Liza goes on her adventure with her far-too aware and complying cat, Tallow. I'll accept that Tallow sits on her shoulder. None of my cats would have ever done that, not without me holding their bum, but I'll accept it. Maybe it's to do with Liza's powers. And then some action scenes occur and I'm left confused and need to re-read the past few pages. Simner has a bit of difficulty with writing clear action scenes, particularly with her pacing of them.
And then we wind up with a much to adult-speaking young girl, Allie, and more odd pacing issues and then there's radiation poisoning and mirrors and... dead cats.
I felt that the pacing got worst towards the end of the book. It started to get under my skin, and I wanted to tell at Simner to SLOW DOWN and DESCRIBE. Especially about the history here. How was the arch built? How does it connect with the faerie world? How did the war start- why did the war start? And what is Liza's ability, truly?
I was able to enjoy the book, though, despite all this, which is why I'm giving it three stars. The pacing does annoy me to bits, but I liked the twist on the faerie world situation.