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haley_j_casey 's review for:
Alice Will
by Ashley Chappell
3.75 stars
I finally had the time yesterday/this morning to settle down and really dive into this book the way I haven't been able to do since I started it, and I finish the entire second half in two sittings. WHEW. I was hooked.
I have to say: I chose a bad time to start this book. Especially with new books and authors, I like to be able to sit down and really get immersed in the new style and story, and I generally end up plowing through it (sometimes out of sheer curiosity about how the author will manage). However, I started this book when the busiest part of school hit, so I had to take it just a dozen or so pages a day, starting and stopping, and sometimes going long enough between times I got to pick it up that how fast I was reading it would leave me struggling to remember what I had finished last time I let off.
But every time it would only take me a couple lines to find my way back into the story. Everything was distinct, and the world was a complex one but so easily and vibrantly explained that diving back in after all my brief hiatuses was no trouble.
Let me say first that it’s been a long time since I read a story from the third person omniscient perspective, so I wasn’t expecting that to be the style. At first, it threw me. But then I was so curious about what was going to happen and how all these storylines would tie together, that it ceased to bother me. And that’s saying something, because generally I cannot get on board with that style. The story would not have worked without this particular point of view (or it wouldn't have worked as well), because not only do we see Trotter and Alice and the gods, we see sweeping aerial scenes and Chaos, and in my opinion there would have been far too much jumping from character's mind to character's mind had omniscient not been the perspective. It worked, and I thoroughly enjoyed it in this book, so well done, Ms. Chappell!
I had a hard time deciding whether to classify this book as middle-grade or YA. There was some description or a curse word that had me leaning toward YA, but then some of the easy humor and the age of the characters seemed more middle-grade. Either way it was still a simple, good-old-fashioned fantasy. There were realms and magic and gods and mystical creatures, and the world was fed to you a little at a time so it never felt overwhelming. Ashley Chappell has an amazing imagination; I was sucked into the hilarious descriptions of the gods’ realms, the mode of transportation within Realm, and the unique magic surrounding the characters. With so many “demigod” stories out right now, Ms. Chappell’s book managed to never make the mistake of falling in with the rest of the genre; the gods were not Greek, the main character, Trotter, was not the only important and powerful one, and even the magic was not traditional. I didn't feel like I could guess everything that was going to happen, and I certainly didn't. There were surprises and reveals and plenty to keep readers on the edge of their seats!
My only wish for this story was that some of the scenes would be expanded. It was definitely not something to bring my rating down even a whole half-star, and honestly, I'm not sure it's something worth that .25-star reduction. But sometimes I would be so invested in the scene that was happening or coming up and I would have loved to see some of those be longer, more detailed, dived into further, but instead the story moved on. Now, the quick pace was one of the things that kept me so invested—the story never dragged, and I HUGELY appreciated that. Too many stories do.
As an author who's had to attempt some serious world-building myself, I'm awed by Ashley Chappell's ability to do so. Imagination flowed off the page, and everything was so unique and so fitting; it never seemed like she'd had to spend ages deciding how this or that particular piece of her world would appear. It flowed naturally, and she commanded every single bit masterfully, and that made Alice Will utterly enjoyable!
I received a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.
I finally had the time yesterday/this morning to settle down and really dive into this book the way I haven't been able to do since I started it, and I finish the entire second half in two sittings. WHEW. I was hooked.
I have to say: I chose a bad time to start this book. Especially with new books and authors, I like to be able to sit down and really get immersed in the new style and story, and I generally end up plowing through it (sometimes out of sheer curiosity about how the author will manage). However, I started this book when the busiest part of school hit, so I had to take it just a dozen or so pages a day, starting and stopping, and sometimes going long enough between times I got to pick it up that how fast I was reading it would leave me struggling to remember what I had finished last time I let off.
But every time it would only take me a couple lines to find my way back into the story. Everything was distinct, and the world was a complex one but so easily and vibrantly explained that diving back in after all my brief hiatuses was no trouble.
Let me say first that it’s been a long time since I read a story from the third person omniscient perspective, so I wasn’t expecting that to be the style. At first, it threw me. But then I was so curious about what was going to happen and how all these storylines would tie together, that it ceased to bother me. And that’s saying something, because generally I cannot get on board with that style. The story would not have worked without this particular point of view (or it wouldn't have worked as well), because not only do we see Trotter and Alice and the gods, we see sweeping aerial scenes and Chaos, and in my opinion there would have been far too much jumping from character's mind to character's mind had omniscient not been the perspective. It worked, and I thoroughly enjoyed it in this book, so well done, Ms. Chappell!
I had a hard time deciding whether to classify this book as middle-grade or YA. There was some description or a curse word that had me leaning toward YA, but then some of the easy humor and the age of the characters seemed more middle-grade. Either way it was still a simple, good-old-fashioned fantasy. There were realms and magic and gods and mystical creatures, and the world was fed to you a little at a time so it never felt overwhelming. Ashley Chappell has an amazing imagination; I was sucked into the hilarious descriptions of the gods’ realms, the mode of transportation within Realm, and the unique magic surrounding the characters. With so many “demigod” stories out right now, Ms. Chappell’s book managed to never make the mistake of falling in with the rest of the genre; the gods were not Greek, the main character, Trotter, was not the only important and powerful one, and even the magic was not traditional. I didn't feel like I could guess everything that was going to happen, and I certainly didn't. There were surprises and reveals and plenty to keep readers on the edge of their seats!
My only wish for this story was that some of the scenes would be expanded. It was definitely not something to bring my rating down even a whole half-star, and honestly, I'm not sure it's something worth that .25-star reduction. But sometimes I would be so invested in the scene that was happening or coming up and I would have loved to see some of those be longer, more detailed, dived into further, but instead the story moved on. Now, the quick pace was one of the things that kept me so invested—the story never dragged, and I HUGELY appreciated that. Too many stories do.
As an author who's had to attempt some serious world-building myself, I'm awed by Ashley Chappell's ability to do so. Imagination flowed off the page, and everything was so unique and so fitting; it never seemed like she'd had to spend ages deciding how this or that particular piece of her world would appear. It flowed naturally, and she commanded every single bit masterfully, and that made Alice Will utterly enjoyable!
I received a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.