Take a photo of a barcode or cover
_aprilg_ 's review for:
The Reader
by Traci Chee
The story starts off very slow for me, with a lot of repetitive thoughts. Then it got a little (maybe a lot?) confusing towards the middle. There were different plot lines and for a while, they seem disconnected. These points didn't start converging up until chapter 20+, so there's really a lot of questions opening up in my mind. It's a good thing I buddy-read this with a couple of my friends so I had people to bounce theories off with. Otherwise, I'd probably go crazy and/or DNF-ed this. But it's a good thing I pushed through. There's this whole mystery within the entire book, and I won't spoil you by detailing a little bit more. The beauty of it is in discovering what the whole mystery is about. There's room for improvement in the storytelling/writing style. I understand the intention, but I felt it would have been more effective had it been written a different way. It would have been less confusing too.
There were also a lot of characters. Plus, there were nicknames going around (as some of the characters are pirates) so it was hard to keep track who's who. The difficulty with a story having so many named characters is how to give focus on each of these characters so no one gets left out. But I fear it's one of the pitfalls of this novel. Even the leads don't have much to go on. We just know Sefia has abilities and we know she has a goal to rescue Aunt Nin. But we don't see much dimension to her character, only the repetitive chant on the symbol written on the book. Archer would have been a much more interesting character, had we known more about him. Sadly, we just know he's a fighter and that he's prophesied to do something. Though, it was interesting how that big violent brute of a boy/man show vulnerability (kinda like The Hulk in some ways), so that was good. I also wished Captain Reed was more pirate-y. I mean, he lacked certain swag and arrogance (or even humor) from stereotype pirates (Jack Sparrow anyone?) so that was a bit of a letdown. But I find it so enjoyable reading about his swashbuckling adventures.
If you read this and you suddenly get confused, push through it - everything will be explained in due time. If you look closer (as the prologue mentions), you'd see hints every now and then. If you can, try and take notes while reading, I wished I did. Also, you'll be able to form a few sentences with the words written on the page numbers, keep a look out on that.
There were also a lot of characters. Plus, there were nicknames going around (as some of the characters are pirates) so it was hard to keep track who's who. The difficulty with a story having so many named characters is how to give focus on each of these characters so no one gets left out. But I fear it's one of the pitfalls of this novel. Even the leads don't have much to go on. We just know Sefia has abilities and we know she has a goal to rescue Aunt Nin. But we don't see much dimension to her character, only the repetitive chant on the symbol written on the book. Archer would have been a much more interesting character, had we known more about him. Sadly, we just know he's a fighter and that he's prophesied to do something. Though, it was interesting how that big violent brute of a boy/man show vulnerability (kinda like The Hulk in some ways), so that was good. I also wished Captain Reed was more pirate-y. I mean, he lacked certain swag and arrogance (or even humor) from stereotype pirates (Jack Sparrow anyone?) so that was a bit of a letdown. But I find it so enjoyable reading about his swashbuckling adventures.
If you read this and you suddenly get confused, push through it - everything will be explained in due time.