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A review by mybookishdelights
The Colossus Rises by Peter Lerangis
2.0
Cover: 3/5 (I like it)
Story: 2/5 (It was okay/meh)
Oh boy. I picked this series up (yes, the entire series unfortunately) for my daughter. She had just read the Heroes of Olympus series and the Percy Jackson series several times through and was (still is) obsessed with mythology. From the synopsis, I thought this would be similar... even without the blurbs saying it was similar to Percy Jackson. It was unfair to compare it to a series like that because then you go in with expectations that this book just didn't meet.
I thought it would be an interesting and fun adventure where you learn some cool stuff about the Seven Wonders of the world. That's what it tried to be, but it just fell flat. The plot was boring. The characters were so flat. There are puzzles to solve and the characters just solve them. There's no buildup or even an explanation as to how they come up with some of the answers. They just do. The four Select feel like stereotypical middle grade characters that aren't really relatable. The book does that thing where they tell you a character has a certain strength, but you don't see it. I feel like there's a name for it, but I don't know. For example, Aly is a master codebreaker/hacker girl. But all you see her do is tell you what divisions of 7 are. The other kid, Cass, seems pointless. I mean he can remember maps and stuff, but they could also just use a map. His big thing is that he talks backwards. That's what is supposed to make him interesting. The last guy is strong. I think he's also supposed to be the comic relief...you know in that Disney Channel kind of way, but I didn't find him funny.
The writing itself is easy to read. I flew through about 200 pages, But I lost interest and didn't really care what happened to the characters at that point. I managed to finish the book (mainly because I've been DNFing alot lately), but it was just blah. I would like to say that this might be an example of me being too old to enjoy a middle grade book, but I don't accept that. I enjoyed Percy Jackson. I enjoyed Harry Potter. My 10 year old daughter read 20 pages and was like "nope." I should have followed her lead on this one.
Reread? No. In fact, I'll be getting rid of the entire series.
Challenges:
2018 Goodreads Challenge
2018 Mount TBR Challenge
Story: 2/5 (It was okay/meh)
Oh boy. I picked this series up (yes, the entire series unfortunately) for my daughter. She had just read the Heroes of Olympus series and the Percy Jackson series several times through and was (still is) obsessed with mythology. From the synopsis, I thought this would be similar... even without the blurbs saying it was similar to Percy Jackson. It was unfair to compare it to a series like that because then you go in with expectations that this book just didn't meet.
I thought it would be an interesting and fun adventure where you learn some cool stuff about the Seven Wonders of the world. That's what it tried to be, but it just fell flat. The plot was boring. The characters were so flat. There are puzzles to solve and the characters just solve them. There's no buildup or even an explanation as to how they come up with some of the answers. They just do. The four Select feel like stereotypical middle grade characters that aren't really relatable. The book does that thing where they tell you a character has a certain strength, but you don't see it. I feel like there's a name for it, but I don't know. For example, Aly is a master codebreaker/hacker girl. But all you see her do is tell you what divisions of 7 are. The other kid, Cass, seems pointless. I mean he can remember maps and stuff, but they could also just use a map. His big thing is that he talks backwards. That's what is supposed to make him interesting. The last guy is strong. I think he's also supposed to be the comic relief...you know in that Disney Channel kind of way, but I didn't find him funny.
The writing itself is easy to read. I flew through about 200 pages, But I lost interest and didn't really care what happened to the characters at that point. I managed to finish the book (mainly because I've been DNFing alot lately), but it was just blah. I would like to say that this might be an example of me being too old to enjoy a middle grade book, but I don't accept that. I enjoyed Percy Jackson. I enjoyed Harry Potter. My 10 year old daughter read 20 pages and was like "nope." I should have followed her lead on this one.
Reread? No. In fact, I'll be getting rid of the entire series.
Challenges:
2018 Goodreads Challenge
2018 Mount TBR Challenge