Take a photo of a barcode or cover
gen_wolfhailstorm 's review for:
The Land of Stories: Beyond the Kingdoms
by Chris Colfer
Reading vlog: https://youtu.be/Pea0IUzpJEg
Buddy read with Kat from KatsReadingCorner!
I was so excited to learn that a major plot would be exploring other fictional worlds and learning the differences of those to that of the fairytale world. I loved that. It was so cool and I enjoyed seeing how our main characters interacted with other classic story characters. I did like that we still got some input from the Other World as that broke up some of the crazy non stop adventure of the main plot, whilst unfolding a mystery there (although I still by my statement that the Book Huggers are irrelevant and unnecessary).
I had a bit of a conflicting thought process throughout this read because although I loved reading about all the story book characters (especially Mother Goose flirting with Merlin lol), it became too repetitive very quickly and it just kept going and doing the same thing for too long.
I also found that the with holding of certain information was quite cruel. I understand why the character felt like they had to keep that secret, but surely they should have done what was right for those left behind, because it would have saved so much distress, grief and confusion, the council would have taken things more seriously and it would have saved so much time for other things to be developed.
I liked how central Alex was, but more specifically, with her struggling with controlling her emotions (and rightly so, if she's being made to feel like she's going insane).
Alex really does take book boyfriends to the next level though!
Some choices were made for "entertainment" which I didn't enjoy too much.
I wasn't impressed with how a pregnant character was written. I think it was supposed to be funny but it took the stereotypical over emotional due to hormones vibe too far and just felt like it was taking the mick in the least tasteful way ever.
I found that there wasn't an even coverage of character conversation with such a big group being the main focus for most of the time. It's almost as if the author forgot other characters were around, so they'd chip in every so often, but it didn't feel cohesive. Side stepping into another character related thing, I was constantly wondering where Cornellious was and it wasn't until the last fourth that his reason for not being around so much was explained. Again, it felt like another example of the author not being able to keep track of all the characters.
So, I ended up rewatching an episode of The 10th Kingdom and realised how similar in idea this series is to that early 2000's show. Also, whilst reading the section about Arthur, it made me have a flashback to the never-ending story where it felt like the characters were breaking the fourth wall about being a story someone else is reading. It was both eery and captivating.
I did find a lot of things that didn't work for me, but I think that was down to going for such an ambitious plot, with a lot of things happening at once. It still made for an incredibly gripping and entertaining adventure what was very fast to read and has me still excited to get to the next installment.
Pick it up, give it a go and enjoy! >(^_^)<
Gén
Buddy read with Kat from KatsReadingCorner!
I was so excited to learn that a major plot would be exploring other fictional worlds and learning the differences of those to that of the fairytale world. I loved that. It was so cool and I enjoyed seeing how our main characters interacted with other classic story characters. I did like that we still got some input from the Other World as that broke up some of the crazy non stop adventure of the main plot, whilst unfolding a mystery there (although I still by my statement that the Book Huggers are irrelevant and unnecessary).
I had a bit of a conflicting thought process throughout this read because although I loved reading about all the story book characters (especially Mother Goose flirting with Merlin lol), it became too repetitive very quickly and it just kept going and doing the same thing for too long.
I also found that the with holding of certain information was quite cruel. I understand why the character felt like they had to keep that secret, but surely they should have done what was right for those left behind, because it would have saved so much distress, grief and confusion, the council would have taken things more seriously and it would have saved so much time for other things to be developed.
I liked how central Alex was, but more specifically, with her struggling with controlling her emotions (and rightly so, if she's being made to feel like she's going insane).
Alex really does take book boyfriends to the next level though!
Some choices were made for "entertainment" which I didn't enjoy too much.
I wasn't impressed with how a pregnant character was written. I think it was supposed to be funny but it took the stereotypical over emotional due to hormones vibe too far and just felt like it was taking the mick in the least tasteful way ever.
I found that there wasn't an even coverage of character conversation with such a big group being the main focus for most of the time. It's almost as if the author forgot other characters were around, so they'd chip in every so often, but it didn't feel cohesive. Side stepping into another character related thing, I was constantly wondering where Cornellious was and it wasn't until the last fourth that his reason for not being around so much was explained. Again, it felt like another example of the author not being able to keep track of all the characters.
So, I ended up rewatching an episode of The 10th Kingdom and realised how similar in idea this series is to that early 2000's show. Also, whilst reading the section about Arthur, it made me have a flashback to the never-ending story where it felt like the characters were breaking the fourth wall about being a story someone else is reading. It was both eery and captivating.
I did find a lot of things that didn't work for me, but I think that was down to going for such an ambitious plot, with a lot of things happening at once. It still made for an incredibly gripping and entertaining adventure what was very fast to read and has me still excited to get to the next installment.
Pick it up, give it a go and enjoy! >(^_^)<
Gén