Take a photo of a barcode or cover
Man, this book is a drag. I wanted so much to like it. I tried really hard to like it. But... no. I am barely 60 pages into this thing, and already I have had to remind myself of the following things multiple times:
1) this is an alternate universe (one in which, apparently, adults are exceptionally stupid and one-year-olds can function on one meal a day and be trusted to sit still in a wagon hitched to the back of a fixie? Otherwise I might believe the author has had no experience at all whatsoever with either parents or babies in the real world.)
2) this is fantasy (coyotes "baying" strikes fear into the hearts of adults on the other side of a large river? This MUST be fantasy, or I'd have to conclude that the author either doesn't know what 'baying' is or has never heard a coyote, or both. There is also a description of two coyotes fighting in which "their jaws locked onto each others' throats," and... at least in this universe anatomy doesn't work that way.)
3) this is the vanity project of two already well known artists in other media, otherwise how in the hell did this a) get published with b) such a beautiful binding on the ink-and-paper version?
Seriously, the paperback version of this book is gorgeous and the blurb makes it sound magical and enchanting. However, I'm glad I waited for my library's digital copy, because had I bought it I'd have been severely disappointed. It's clunky and inconsistent and awkward... I found myself mentally copyediting things like sentence structure, which is REALLY not my style. I'm a live-and-let-live reader; I trust that the author and editor(s) have made such stylistic choices deliberately. I'm not sure that happened here, though.
I should add that I live in the greater Portland area, so I was excited to dive into a looking-glass version of this place. I'm doubly disappointed that this book seems to be sucking so hard.
Anyway, I'm going to give it a few more pages and see if I end up liking it any more than I do, but I'm not holding out much hope.
ETA: this scene with the coyotes in uniforms... I just can't. I'm sorry. I give up.
1) this is an alternate universe (one in which, apparently, adults are exceptionally stupid and one-year-olds can function on one meal a day and be trusted to sit still in a wagon hitched to the back of a fixie? Otherwise I might believe the author has had no experience at all whatsoever with either parents or babies in the real world.)
2) this is fantasy (coyotes "baying" strikes fear into the hearts of adults on the other side of a large river? This MUST be fantasy, or I'd have to conclude that the author either doesn't know what 'baying' is or has never heard a coyote, or both. There is also a description of two coyotes fighting in which "their jaws locked onto each others' throats," and... at least in this universe anatomy doesn't work that way.)
3) this is the vanity project of two already well known artists in other media, otherwise how in the hell did this a) get published with b) such a beautiful binding on the ink-and-paper version?
Seriously, the paperback version of this book is gorgeous and the blurb makes it sound magical and enchanting. However, I'm glad I waited for my library's digital copy, because had I bought it I'd have been severely disappointed. It's clunky and inconsistent and awkward... I found myself mentally copyediting things like sentence structure, which is REALLY not my style. I'm a live-and-let-live reader; I trust that the author and editor(s) have made such stylistic choices deliberately. I'm not sure that happened here, though.
I should add that I live in the greater Portland area, so I was excited to dive into a looking-glass version of this place. I'm doubly disappointed that this book seems to be sucking so hard.
Anyway, I'm going to give it a few more pages and see if I end up liking it any more than I do, but I'm not holding out much hope.
ETA: this scene with the coyotes in uniforms... I just can't. I'm sorry. I give up.