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A review by davinakt
Brightly Woven by Alexandra Bracken
3.0
Brightly Woven is a fun shitty novel.
I think I might make a separate shelf for fun shitty books. I seem to be reading quite a lot of them lately. This was the type of book I perpetually looked for in seventh grade, cute, romance, fantasy, strong female character. Strong is of course, a relative term.
In terms of characters, they're fine. The book does okay on characters. They're all moderately believable, if catering to specific steryotypes, moderately interesting, and moderately shippable. If we are defining Mary Sue as a female character given tons of powers for no reason who isn't that interesting, I guess you could call Sydelle a Mary Sue. But she grew on me.
I forget what the guys name was (bad sign? possibly) but I remember sort of liking him.
The setting, as I have seen others commenting on, was really not all that great. There wasn't enough world building, not enough dimension. No cultures. Even the people who were supposed to be the opposite country weren't at all different. I don't even think they spoke a different language or had many different customs. There just needed to be more depth.
Plot-wise, I thought the book was acceptable. It was predictable, but had a few twists. You knew the entire time who Sydelle was going to get with, you knew pretty much where things were going. It was fine.
This book isn't revolutionary. It isn't going to touch you or ask you difficult questions. That's not it's purpose. It's a fun trashy seventh grade girl's fantasy. That's okay. For me, it accomplished its goal. All it wanted was to be a short fun read with characters relatable enough for daydreams.
The fact is that I think there is a place for books like this. It's where dreamer seventh graders wish they were in math class. It's fine. It's not great.
I also thought that it was REMARKABLY similar in tone and plot to "The Two Princesses Of Bamarre" by Gail Carson Levine. I actually thought that TPOB was a better book, but if you wanted an author to go to from this book, Levine would probably satisfy.
I think I might make a separate shelf for fun shitty books. I seem to be reading quite a lot of them lately. This was the type of book I perpetually looked for in seventh grade, cute, romance, fantasy, strong female character. Strong is of course, a relative term.
In terms of characters, they're fine. The book does okay on characters. They're all moderately believable, if catering to specific steryotypes, moderately interesting, and moderately shippable. If we are defining Mary Sue as a female character given tons of powers for no reason who isn't that interesting, I guess you could call Sydelle a Mary Sue. But she grew on me.
I forget what the guys name was (bad sign? possibly) but I remember sort of liking him.
The setting, as I have seen others commenting on, was really not all that great. There wasn't enough world building, not enough dimension. No cultures. Even the people who were supposed to be the opposite country weren't at all different. I don't even think they spoke a different language or had many different customs. There just needed to be more depth.
Plot-wise, I thought the book was acceptable. It was predictable, but had a few twists. You knew the entire time who Sydelle was going to get with, you knew pretty much where things were going. It was fine.
This book isn't revolutionary. It isn't going to touch you or ask you difficult questions. That's not it's purpose. It's a fun trashy seventh grade girl's fantasy. That's okay. For me, it accomplished its goal. All it wanted was to be a short fun read with characters relatable enough for daydreams.
The fact is that I think there is a place for books like this. It's where dreamer seventh graders wish they were in math class. It's fine. It's not great.
I also thought that it was REMARKABLY similar in tone and plot to "The Two Princesses Of Bamarre" by Gail Carson Levine. I actually thought that TPOB was a better book, but if you wanted an author to go to from this book, Levine would probably satisfy.