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A review by with_drea
The Girl Between Two Worlds by K.M. Levis
3.0
As other reviewers have said, I wanted so badly to love this book. I liked it, certainly, but I can't say I loved it.
Let me start by saying it means the world to me to have a book that utilizes Filipino mythology and has a Filipina protagonist. I picked this up partially because I'm wanting to broaden my understanding of my heritage's folklore, and this offered a few more nuggets that I hadn't previously known. (I will have to check to see if those nuggets are truly based in the mythology or are made up for the purposes of the book, but that's another story.) I genuinely want Lewis to continue writing in this world and intend to read the sequel regardless of the fact I "only" liked it, as .I think much of my quibbles come from inexperience in novel writing more than anything else
That said, my quibbles:
1) A more personal, your mileage may vary sort of issue, but unless a book is written for middle school reading level or younger I really don't find it appropriate to write in first person perspective. It just feels more juvenile and I really dislike reading anything meant for older than that age range written in it. Although, as I reflect on the language used, maybe this was meant to be juvenile-- I thought at first that it might be meant more for a high school reading level, but with the word choice/way it read, it might be more middle school after all. Not certain if that's what Lewis intended, but at least in that case there might be more consistency
2) Keeping the timeline straight in the beginning of this book was a struggle. The "flashback" pages discussing things that happened before the novel starts would have been easy enough to adjust to on their own. However, the timing of, which the book opens with, confused me. As Karina caught us up on her background and how she discovered her powers/the aftermath of that, the way that those chapters were written made me think that event happened at a different point than it ended up being, and it was jarring. I got over it once we were moving more "in time" with her, though.
3) Pacing. Probably my biggest issue with this book. I genuinely can't tell you if it moved too slow or too fast overall because it just really was very off. On the one hand, the speed with which Karina excelled at her powers stretched my suspension of disbelief a bit too far. On the other, some of the plot elements like felt way too rushed. There were a lot of different threads throughout the book that, although they wrapped up decently, were a little difficult to feel entirely properly developed in the amount of time we had. Since Lewis was already planning on making this a series, it might have been more valuable to hone in on one narrative thread for the duration of this novel-- Perhaps . That would have given both the plot and character development more time to breathe and feel less odd.
All this said, the value I find in a book based in Filipino mythology was too much not to finish it regardless of the issues I had, and there were a great many things I did love. The devotion to family shown by Karina and her mother in particular rang very true to my own experience, and I loved what she did at the end of the novel as a result of that devotion. As I stated above, I'm still going to read the sequel, and I hope that maybe the responses Lewis has received from this book in addition to the experience she now has will help to clean up some of the issues I had with the first.
Let me start by saying it means the world to me to have a book that utilizes Filipino mythology and has a Filipina protagonist. I picked this up partially because I'm wanting to broaden my understanding of my heritage's folklore, and this offered a few more nuggets that I hadn't previously known. (I will have to check to see if those nuggets are truly based in the mythology or are made up for the purposes of the book, but that's another story.) I genuinely want Lewis to continue writing in this world and intend to read the sequel regardless of the fact I "only" liked it, as .I think much of my quibbles come from inexperience in novel writing more than anything else
That said, my quibbles:
1) A more personal, your mileage may vary sort of issue, but unless a book is written for middle school reading level or younger I really don't find it appropriate to write in first person perspective. It just feels more juvenile and I really dislike reading anything meant for older than that age range written in it. Although, as I reflect on the language used, maybe this was meant to be juvenile-- I thought at first that it might be meant more for a high school reading level, but with the word choice/way it read, it might be more middle school after all. Not certain if that's what Lewis intended, but at least in that case there might be more consistency
2) Keeping the timeline straight in the beginning of this book was a struggle. The "flashback" pages discussing things that happened before the novel starts would have been easy enough to adjust to on their own. However, the timing of
Spoiler
the first manananggal attack3) Pacing. Probably my biggest issue with this book. I genuinely can't tell you if it moved too slow or too fast overall because it just really was very off. On the one hand, the speed with which Karina excelled at her powers stretched my suspension of disbelief a bit too far. On the other, some of the plot elements like
Spoiler
her romance with Jason or finding her motherSpoiler
her romance with Jason and her discovery that he was part-aswangAll this said, the value I find in a book based in Filipino mythology was too much not to finish it regardless of the issues I had, and there were a great many things I did love. The devotion to family shown by Karina and her mother in particular rang very true to my own experience, and I loved what she did at the end of the novel as a result of that devotion. As I stated above, I'm still going to read the sequel, and I hope that maybe the responses Lewis has received from this book in addition to the experience she now has will help to clean up some of the issues I had with the first.