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A review by jmeyer376
The Otherworldlies by Jennifer Anne Kogler
3.0
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2.5 stars
A victim of too many ideas, the wrong audience, and itself. This book isn't horrible, I've read worse and the writing was actually pretty good. Kogler actually turns a phrase pretty well and does a good job with pace and creating likable characters. Fern, Sam, and their mother were great characters who made me smile and sometimes feel bad for them. In many ways they did their jobs well and I'm almost tempted to read the next book just to read about more about them - almost.
While the book moves well and the writing is decent, the story is silly and the kids don't act their age. Fern and Sam are in middle school yet most of the time act like they are in high school. There are also things they put together that most people won't connect yet they do at the crazy age of 12. A year ago I spent weeks with over 200 middle schoolers and I can tell Fern and Sam missed the mark. They were too well behaved, too mature (they had essentially no angst), too calm about crazy things happening, and too steadfast to things they should have questioned. That said, they were great characters and would have been close to perfect if they were a few years older and questioned things with more passion.
The story started off ok. An outcast girl who comes into powers and even a friend. Ok, yeah, nothing new but it's a trope I enjoy. Then it turns out she's a vampire. Once again, ok, the book is from 2008 and the vampire kids were in full swing. Plus, I still enjoy vampire stories, even if I'm the only one left. Then the Greek mythology starts to take hold and the eyebrows came together in a confused scowl. The Greek Gods were actually vampires? Um, no, this doesn't work for me. The mash up of Greek mythology and vampire lore didn't work. The random Greek creatures showing up and having bizarre jobs, living in zoos, and all the other randomness worked even less.
Moving past the strange Greek roots, the division of vampire society into the good, non-blood drinking Rollens and the evil, blood-drinking Blouts didn't work for me either. We're never given enough information about the Blouts. Why is it such a big deal that they drink blood? Do they kill every time they drink from someone? Other than disagreeing with the Rollens, why are they bad? We're given some pithy story about Blouts not wanting to live with "Normals" or humans but it's not really clear what the deal is with these vampires. In the end, I don't really care about either group and think Fern makes a good move staying with her "normal" family.
This is book one in what I guess was going to be a series that didn't pan out because there is a second book and this book doesn't give us as much closer as one might like for Fern. There are a number of loose ends and dangling story lines that want to be books. I read some reviews of the second book and it sounds like things only get more unraveled and leave the reader hanging with even less information than the first book. Kogler's website looks as though she's not writing seriously anymore and the last book she published had nothing to do with the Otherworldlies. She's not a bad writer and with some practice could be good fun but it doesn't look like she's in it for the long run.
2.5 stars
A victim of too many ideas, the wrong audience, and itself. This book isn't horrible, I've read worse and the writing was actually pretty good. Kogler actually turns a phrase pretty well and does a good job with pace and creating likable characters. Fern, Sam, and their mother were great characters who made me smile and sometimes feel bad for them. In many ways they did their jobs well and I'm almost tempted to read the next book just to read about more about them - almost.
While the book moves well and the writing is decent, the story is silly and the kids don't act their age. Fern and Sam are in middle school yet most of the time act like they are in high school. There are also things they put together that most people won't connect yet they do at the crazy age of 12. A year ago I spent weeks with over 200 middle schoolers and I can tell Fern and Sam missed the mark. They were too well behaved, too mature (they had essentially no angst), too calm about crazy things happening, and too steadfast to things they should have questioned. That said, they were great characters and would have been close to perfect if they were a few years older and questioned things with more passion.
The story started off ok. An outcast girl who comes into powers and even a friend. Ok, yeah, nothing new but it's a trope I enjoy. Then it turns out she's a vampire. Once again, ok, the book is from 2008 and the vampire kids were in full swing. Plus, I still enjoy vampire stories, even if I'm the only one left. Then the Greek mythology starts to take hold and the eyebrows came together in a confused scowl. The Greek Gods were actually vampires? Um, no, this doesn't work for me. The mash up of Greek mythology and vampire lore didn't work. The random Greek creatures showing up and having bizarre jobs, living in zoos, and all the other randomness worked even less.
Moving past the strange Greek roots, the division of vampire society into the good, non-blood drinking Rollens and the evil, blood-drinking Blouts didn't work for me either. We're never given enough information about the Blouts. Why is it such a big deal that they drink blood? Do they kill every time they drink from someone? Other than disagreeing with the Rollens, why are they bad? We're given some pithy story about Blouts not wanting to live with "Normals" or humans but it's not really clear what the deal is with these vampires. In the end, I don't really care about either group and think Fern makes a good move staying with her "normal" family.
This is book one in what I guess was going to be a series that didn't pan out because there is a second book and this book doesn't give us as much closer as one might like for Fern. There are a number of loose ends and dangling story lines that want to be books. I read some reviews of the second book and it sounds like things only get more unraveled and leave the reader hanging with even less information than the first book. Kogler's website looks as though she's not writing seriously anymore and the last book she published had nothing to do with the Otherworldlies. She's not a bad writer and with some practice could be good fun but it doesn't look like she's in it for the long run.