Take a photo of a barcode or cover
A review by phoebe_phorreal
Aetherbound by E.K. Johnston
2.5
Thanks to Edelweiss+ and Dutton Books for Young Readers for my e-ARC
There was a fair amount to like in this book, but ultimately, it fell short. The characters were likable, but they seemed to be so much of the focus of attention that the setting faded to a nice, convenient backdrop that only had a bearing on the situation when it was convenient for the plot's sake. And that's a shame, because there's a lot of lore that mostly gets dumped in dense little snippets but points at a fascinating wider world that we only rarely glimpse and a magic system that mostly gets the same treatment.
Speaking of these infodumps, they're not all bad. While initially they have all the appeal of reading an encyclopedia cover-to-cover, they do get more personal as the story goes on, and thus it feels more like a genuine insight than a narrator drowning you in technobabble.
As far as the plot goes, I'm going to place part of the blame on the people who wrote the blurb. What you see on the blurb is almost what you get. There's not all that much more, really. And, if you read the blurb, you probably noticed that this book sort of uses a trope similar to Harry Potter and the Sorceror's Stone, namely, the unwanted child with special abilities. I felt that Rowling overplayed it there and Johnston does here as well, though with a little more commentary on social issues than Rowling, which is nice.
The middle is pleasant, but not really much happens. It all somehow feels sort of artificial in terms of the way the plot progresses here. Events happen because they need to happen to progress the plot, not because they feel like they grow organically out of the story. The ending ratchets up the suspense a little bit, but it all just feels kind of tepid and languid, a story that drags on a little too long in each part and might be better as a novella or even a novelette.
None of this is to say that this has put me off Johnston forever or that I could necessarily write a better novel. I feel like I've been perhaps too brutally honest about my opinion, so let me dole out at least a few compliments: The characters were all likable, and the world had potential. If you want a book with a harrowing beginning and a middle and end that are just sort of pleasantly there, this fits the bill. Some people in other reviews are calling it "slice-of life" and I guess that's sort of it, but it's also trying to be something else and it doesn't really manage to have its cake and eat it too. It's not bad per se, just not great. 2.5 stars, rounded up to three on Goodreads because it didn't actively tick me off like some other books
There was a fair amount to like in this book, but ultimately, it fell short. The characters were likable, but they seemed to be so much of the focus of attention that the setting faded to a nice, convenient backdrop that only had a bearing on the situation when it was convenient for the plot's sake. And that's a shame, because there's a lot of lore that mostly gets dumped in dense little snippets but points at a fascinating wider world that we only rarely glimpse and a magic system that mostly gets the same treatment.
Speaking of these infodumps, they're not all bad. While initially they have all the appeal of reading an encyclopedia cover-to-cover, they do get more personal as the story goes on, and thus it feels more like a genuine insight than a narrator drowning you in technobabble.
As far as the plot goes, I'm going to place part of the blame on the people who wrote the blurb. What you see on the blurb is almost what you get. There's not all that much more, really. And, if you read the blurb, you probably noticed that this book sort of uses a trope similar to Harry Potter and the Sorceror's Stone, namely, the unwanted child with special abilities. I felt that Rowling overplayed it there and Johnston does here as well, though with a little more commentary on social issues than Rowling, which is nice.
The middle is pleasant, but not really much happens. It all somehow feels sort of artificial in terms of the way the plot progresses here. Events happen because they need to happen to progress the plot, not because they feel like they grow organically out of the story. The ending ratchets up the suspense a little bit, but it all just feels kind of tepid and languid, a story that drags on a little too long in each part and might be better as a novella or even a novelette.
None of this is to say that this has put me off Johnston forever or that I could necessarily write a better novel. I feel like I've been perhaps too brutally honest about my opinion, so let me dole out at least a few compliments: The characters were all likable, and the world had potential. If you want a book with a harrowing beginning and a middle and end that are just sort of pleasantly there, this fits the bill. Some people in other reviews are calling it "slice-of life" and I guess that's sort of it, but it's also trying to be something else and it doesn't really manage to have its cake and eat it too. It's not bad per se, just not great. 2.5 stars, rounded up to three on Goodreads because it didn't actively tick me off like some other books