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margeryb 's review for:
The Wicker King
by K. Ancrum
2.5 stars I guess.
I have complicated feelings about this book because it is a story I would really like if it had been executed better. I can appreciate the author's vision and intent, but reading this felt like reading the surface of the story when the whole time I wanted to story to dig in its roots.
Most of the chapters are very short, rarely more than one or two pages in YA formatting, and while I am okay with short and vignette-like chapters if they serve the story, I think these ones did a disservice to the story. Sometimes continuous scenes were split up into these different chapters although it wasn't necessary. I mean, there are more ways to emphasize a dramatic line than a chapter break. The short chapters also tended to favor "telling" over "showing" because they didn't allow for longer scenes or moments to develop. Particularly noticeable is all the informed traits assigned August by other characters when the reader is following August throughout the story. Like two thirds through the book one character mentions how eventually people are going to see through August's proper facade, and a few chapters later a different character says all the girls in school think he's mysterious. Not only are those two definitions sort of at odds with each other, they are also just at odds at the character we are shown in the actual pages: lonely, poor kid who has to take care of himself. That is just one, easy example to illustrate my point.
Overall, because this story overtold instead of showing, and had the balance of its setups and payoffs off, I couldn't quiet believe August's descent into this codependency and destruction.
I have complicated feelings about this book because it is a story I would really like if it had been executed better. I can appreciate the author's vision and intent, but reading this felt like reading the surface of the story when the whole time I wanted to story to dig in its roots.
Most of the chapters are very short, rarely more than one or two pages in YA formatting, and while I am okay with short and vignette-like chapters if they serve the story, I think these ones did a disservice to the story. Sometimes continuous scenes were split up into these different chapters although it wasn't necessary. I mean, there are more ways to emphasize a dramatic line than a chapter break. The short chapters also tended to favor "telling" over "showing" because they didn't allow for longer scenes or moments to develop. Particularly noticeable is all the informed traits assigned August by other characters when the reader is following August throughout the story. Like two thirds through the book one character mentions how eventually people are going to see through August's proper facade, and a few chapters later a different character says all the girls in school think he's mysterious. Not only are those two definitions sort of at odds with each other, they are also just at odds at the character we are shown in the actual pages: lonely, poor kid who has to take care of himself. That is just one, easy example to illustrate my point.
Overall, because this story overtold instead of showing, and had the balance of its setups and payoffs off, I couldn't quiet believe August's descent into this codependency and destruction.