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bookishbeth96 's review for:
The Beholder
by Anna Bright
More like 2.5 *. This book kinda sucked. It was a fast paced read and kept me intrigued but I had so many issues with it I can’t really give it a high rating.
First slight annoyance. She calls her Dad, Daddy. I hate reading this. It’s so cringey and childish. She is a teenager not a baby. All of the other characters use Father which just made Daddy even worse.
The naming of countries slightly annoyed me. England was just England. They had overtaken the world at some point but were now running scared. She kept using England and then sometimes British Empire. It’s not the same thing. Either just England did it or Britain as a whole. Pick one. But other countries were changed. For example Yotne. The big bad country overtaking the world in this book is called Yotne. It’s basically Russia so why change the name? She didn’t change England. Either make it a complete fantasy and change everything or don’t. Don’t do a half assed attempt.
The whole ‘retelling’ thing? Yeah, it was rubbish.
MINOR SPOILERS AHEAD
Selah has an evil stepmother who wants to rule and doesn’t want her around. Snow White.
She loses a shoe running away from a party and a guy finds it and gives it back to her. Cinderella.
Navigator of the Ship is named Homer. Odyssey.
Prince of England who his called Arthur and has a round table which is only mentioned in passing. King Arthur and Merlin.
Baba Yaga.
Torden lives in Asgard and uses a hammer only he can use and has a mischievous brother who is basically a shit stirrer. Thor and Loki.
Either things were simply mentioned in passing and were really irrelevant or it was a blatant copy of scenes from fairytales. Either way it sucked. It felt like the author had no imagination for a story of her own and was relying on positive connotations based on other stories you already love. It felt like a cheap shot at getting your attention.
Selah needed to make up her mind. First she liked Peter, then a couple of weeks later loved Bear. Then two weeks later loved Torden. She was also kind of falling for Captain Lang. Girl gave me whiplash.
Perrault annoyed my tits off. Commenting on her eating habits cause she had extra carrots. Telling her to lose weight and put on make up to be prettier before she meets the princes? On your horse pal. Setting up her itinerary for England then leaving her out to hang in Norge. Entering her room without knocking and acting all in charge when he wasn’t. He was an ass. I like the fact that Selah didn’t take it though. She told him not to comment on her eating and put him in his place every time. She always said she was weak but she never put up with rudeness and stood up to sexism and abuse whenever she saw it. It was the only great thing about her. Apart from that she was pretty fickle.
I use tabs in all of my books when I am reading so I can look at a book and see all of the different things I loved and hated whilst reading. This book is FULL of blue tabs. Which I use to highlight issues. There are barely any other colours at all. I have a few yellows (heartwarming tabs) for the scenes in Norge between all the siblings and their banter but apart from that not many other colours. This is a problem. It shows from once glance that the book was full of problems.
Having said all of this I enjoyed picking it up. I wasn’t dreading reading it. I read it quickly. I liked Torden and Bear as characters. There were a few redeeming aspects. However this doesn’t negate all of the bad stuff. So overall my rating is quite low.
First slight annoyance. She calls her Dad, Daddy. I hate reading this. It’s so cringey and childish. She is a teenager not a baby. All of the other characters use Father which just made Daddy even worse.
The naming of countries slightly annoyed me. England was just England. They had overtaken the world at some point but were now running scared. She kept using England and then sometimes British Empire. It’s not the same thing. Either just England did it or Britain as a whole. Pick one. But other countries were changed. For example Yotne. The big bad country overtaking the world in this book is called Yotne. It’s basically Russia so why change the name? She didn’t change England. Either make it a complete fantasy and change everything or don’t. Don’t do a half assed attempt.
The whole ‘retelling’ thing? Yeah, it was rubbish.
MINOR SPOILERS AHEAD
Selah has an evil stepmother who wants to rule and doesn’t want her around. Snow White.
She loses a shoe running away from a party and a guy finds it and gives it back to her. Cinderella.
Navigator of the Ship is named Homer. Odyssey.
Prince of England who his called Arthur and has a round table which is only mentioned in passing. King Arthur and Merlin.
Baba Yaga.
Torden lives in Asgard and uses a hammer only he can use and has a mischievous brother who is basically a shit stirrer. Thor and Loki.
Either things were simply mentioned in passing and were really irrelevant or it was a blatant copy of scenes from fairytales. Either way it sucked. It felt like the author had no imagination for a story of her own and was relying on positive connotations based on other stories you already love. It felt like a cheap shot at getting your attention.
Selah needed to make up her mind. First she liked Peter, then a couple of weeks later loved Bear. Then two weeks later loved Torden. She was also kind of falling for Captain Lang. Girl gave me whiplash.
Perrault annoyed my tits off. Commenting on her eating habits cause she had extra carrots. Telling her to lose weight and put on make up to be prettier before she meets the princes? On your horse pal. Setting up her itinerary for England then leaving her out to hang in Norge. Entering her room without knocking and acting all in charge when he wasn’t. He was an ass. I like the fact that Selah didn’t take it though. She told him not to comment on her eating and put him in his place every time. She always said she was weak but she never put up with rudeness and stood up to sexism and abuse whenever she saw it. It was the only great thing about her. Apart from that she was pretty fickle.
I use tabs in all of my books when I am reading so I can look at a book and see all of the different things I loved and hated whilst reading. This book is FULL of blue tabs. Which I use to highlight issues. There are barely any other colours at all. I have a few yellows (heartwarming tabs) for the scenes in Norge between all the siblings and their banter but apart from that not many other colours. This is a problem. It shows from once glance that the book was full of problems.
Having said all of this I enjoyed picking it up. I wasn’t dreading reading it. I read it quickly. I liked Torden and Bear as characters. There were a few redeeming aspects. However this doesn’t negate all of the bad stuff. So overall my rating is quite low.