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A review by latad_books
The League of Beastly Dreadfuls Book 2: The Dastardly Deed by Holly Grant
3.0
This installment did not keep me as engaged as book one. Anastasia goes with her shapeshifting Aunt Penny and Uncle to Switzerland, where their, and Anastasia's larger family, live. On the way, Anastasia finds out that shapeshifters are called morfolk, and have lived underground in Switzerland for centuries, and that morfolk are very long lived, and Anastasia is a princess.
Anastasia's introduction to her grandmother the Queen and other morfolk isn't the great reunion she expected, thanks to a grim, status-obsessed Aunt and her smirking, simpering daughter Saskia. Anastasia must learn to be a princess, and starts school, where she makes friends with Gus, a half-gorgon and science whiz. The two shadow boys from book one return, being sons of a local shopkeeper, so the Beastly Dreadfuls are reunited, and take Gus into their ranks. The Dreadfuls learn of a mystery related to Anastasia's family and witches, who the morfolk have been against for years, and the Dreadfuls decide to solve the problem. Meanwhile, Anastasia's school days are suitably awful, with Saskia and all the other kids bullying and shunning Anastasia, and teachers behaving terribly.
I found my interest kept flagging as I listened to this. The narration was good, but I just didn't find that the story kept me engaged. And Saskia and a number of the adults were, as I expected them to be, unsympathetic and bullying and demeaning of Anastasia. I would have liked to have seen something unexpected in Anastasia's interactions with other morfolk. Also, I would have liked Anastasia to have encountered other girls who were actually friendly. I understood the lack of girls in book one because of the situation, but here, Anastasia has only boys as friends. I wanted more girls having a positive impact on the story's action, and not just a boring and totally conventional mean girl characterization of Saskia and all the other girls Anastasia encountered in the morfolk land.
Anastasia's introduction to her grandmother the Queen and other morfolk isn't the great reunion she expected, thanks to a grim, status-obsessed Aunt and her smirking, simpering daughter Saskia. Anastasia must learn to be a princess, and starts school, where she makes friends with Gus, a half-gorgon and science whiz. The two shadow boys from book one return, being sons of a local shopkeeper, so the Beastly Dreadfuls are reunited, and take Gus into their ranks. The Dreadfuls learn of a mystery related to Anastasia's family and witches, who the morfolk have been against for years, and the Dreadfuls decide to solve the problem. Meanwhile, Anastasia's school days are suitably awful, with Saskia and all the other kids bullying and shunning Anastasia, and teachers behaving terribly.
I found my interest kept flagging as I listened to this. The narration was good, but I just didn't find that the story kept me engaged. And Saskia and a number of the adults were, as I expected them to be, unsympathetic and bullying and demeaning of Anastasia. I would have liked to have seen something unexpected in Anastasia's interactions with other morfolk. Also, I would have liked Anastasia to have encountered other girls who were actually friendly. I understood the lack of girls in book one because of the situation, but here, Anastasia has only boys as friends. I wanted more girls having a positive impact on the story's action, and not just a boring and totally conventional mean girl characterization of Saskia and all the other girls Anastasia encountered in the morfolk land.