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feralnebulous's reviews
108 reviews
Cloaked by Alex Flinn
2.0
After I read Beastly by Alex Flinn, I figured I'd give another one of her fairy tale retelling books a try.
Seeing the title and reading the summary, I assumed that the fairy tale retelling would be the fairy tale of The Frog Prince, but instead the story was a mashed up amoeba of about 10 different fairy tales. I was very confused about this, because it started out with The Elves and the Shoemaker, then went into tales such as The Salad. Some other problems were that the main character, Johnny, was given wayyyyyyyy too much power, so he escaped pretty much everything. He was also so dang oblivious to everything. Like with Beastly, the writing style was poor and the descriptions were limited. It tried to make it look like the protagonist was struggling, and then BANG he gets 10,000 dollars from a rich (not to mention beautiful) princess from a place that sounds somewhat like France. I also think that Johnny was too naive, so I'm not sure I really liked him as a main character. Again, the author used descriptions to describe someone's appearance like "hot-looking."
I'm not sure I would totally recommend this book to a lot of people.
Seeing the title and reading the summary, I assumed that the fairy tale retelling would be the fairy tale of The Frog Prince, but instead the story was a mashed up amoeba of about 10 different fairy tales. I was very confused about this, because it started out with The Elves and the Shoemaker, then went into tales such as The Salad. Some other problems were that the main character, Johnny, was given wayyyyyyyy too much power, so he escaped pretty much everything. He was also so dang oblivious to everything. Like with Beastly, the writing style was poor and the descriptions were limited. It tried to make it look like the protagonist was struggling, and then BANG he gets 10,000 dollars from a rich (not to mention beautiful) princess from a place that sounds somewhat like France. I also think that Johnny was too naive, so I'm not sure I really liked him as a main character. Again, the author used descriptions to describe someone's appearance like "hot-looking."
I'm not sure I would totally recommend this book to a lot of people.
Beastly by Alex Flinn
2.0
When I saw a retelling of one of my favorite fairy tales, Beauty and the Beast, I thought I'd try this book out. Overall, I'd say this book did pretty well for a retelling of the classic fairy tale set in modern day New York City.
There are some elements, however, that could be improved. The writing style was ok, though it could definitely use improvement. The style the author used seemed like a young child was trying to write about a 16-year-old with a rich dad and a snobby personality. That brings up another point. I hated the main character's personality. He didn't go through too much noticeable change, and in the beginning he bothered me so much that I felt like throwing the book across the room. This book also focused heavily on physical appearances, which I didn't like as much. A book should focus on the inner changes of a character, which was shown just a little bit, even though the tale of Beauty and the Beast is focused on inner changing. There was one more thing that bothered me, and that is the supposedly blind character, Will, who acts like he can see, and makes comments on Kyle's appearance. I think that one should do more research on how blind people act before writing about one.
Other than that, I really liked this book.
There are some elements, however, that could be improved. The writing style was ok, though it could definitely use improvement. The style the author used seemed like a young child was trying to write about a 16-year-old with a rich dad and a snobby personality. That brings up another point. I hated the main character's personality. He didn't go through too much noticeable change, and in the beginning he bothered me so much that I felt like throwing the book across the room. This book also focused heavily on physical appearances, which I didn't like as much. A book should focus on the inner changes of a character, which was shown just a little bit, even though the tale of Beauty and the Beast is focused on inner changing. There was one more thing that bothered me, and that is the supposedly blind character, Will, who acts like he can see, and makes comments on Kyle's appearance. I think that one should do more research on how blind people act before writing about one.
Other than that, I really liked this book.
Sky Raiders by Brandon Mull
4.0
When my friend recommended that I read the Five Kingdoms series that Brandon Mull had started, my initial thought was that of some mild disgust, seeing as I hadn't really liked some of Brandon Mull's other work. I reluctantly picked up a copy at a book signing for the third Five Kingdoms book and started reading because I was at the book signing from 8 in the evening to 12:30 at night.
Needless to say, I was pleasantly surprised. The characters were relatable, the plot was well thought out, the setting brilliantly described. The fantasy creations that Brandon Mull thought up were new and different. I'd say that most people should read this, unless of course, you aren't into books written for a child audience. I'm not sure I know many people who don't like those sorts of books, though I suppose there are *those* people out there.
Needless to say, I was pleasantly surprised. The characters were relatable, the plot was well thought out, the setting brilliantly described. The fantasy creations that Brandon Mull thought up were new and different. I'd say that most people should read this, unless of course, you aren't into books written for a child audience. I'm not sure I know many people who don't like those sorts of books, though I suppose there are *those* people out there.