false 20 79 79 true 5672486 read 0 true 5332215 currently-reading 0 true 5332214 to-read 70 false 5471430 best-bitten http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/78135165 to: Labyrinth: A Novel (Paperback) by A.C.H. Smith
bookshelves: best-bitten
]]> http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/77202325 Black is for Beginnings (Blue Is For Nightmares, #5) by Laurie Faria Stolarz
This isn't a book review since I don't have the whole book. It's just a bound preview edition that's the first 99 pages of the book itself. I figured why not put in some cents on it, right? It's not going to get a rating or anything since I don't think it's fair to rate something based on a portion of it. But I can give an impression of it.

I know with this series I'm not coming in in the right place and in all honesty, I don't know if I'm the best person to be judging graphic novels. I just don't read enough of them to get a good grasp on them so I'm not sure what's normal, what isn't, what's good, what isn't. But I can say a few things.

I'm almost positive I'd like the book better. It's not that I don't like comics but to me it's lacking a lot from an actual book. I can paint a better picture in my head with the words from a book than I can with the pictures already in front of me. Weird, I know, but there you go.

Plot-wise, it's really jumpy. The timeline is more stream-of-consciousness than chronological (although it's chronological within the stream-of-consciousness which lowers the confusion slightly) and I found it hard trying to keep all of the events together coherently. With everything jumping all over the place, it was hard for me to remember what came when and where.

And a major writing issue for me was the "let's recap even though you guys should know what's going on in the story" moment. It's in there for the benefit of the reader, not the characters, so it comes off as an infodump. Granted it's a crucial infodump for the book itself but I think there are other, better, ways to go about it.

The drawings are pretty cool but like I said, I paint more vivid imagery with words than I do with pictures. But the story itself I actually really liked. It's very fast-paced, has the right amount of drama and tension, it's got some action. There really isn't anything not to like about the story as it is. In fact, it makes me want to go out and buy the books to get a feel of just what I'm jumping into here because I do feel a little lost. But I'm sure that's due solely to the fact that I've never read the series.

So I'm not too sure how I feel about the comic but I definitely like the story.
]]> http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/61313360 to: Jessica's Guide to Dating on the Dark Side (Hardcover) by Beth Fantaskey
bookshelves: best-bitten
Go read. Nao. Nao. Why are you still reading? Go buy. Nao. Dammit, you're still here? Nao? I guess I better do the review then, huh?

Ok, so the first editorial review I read of this book was on bn.com and it's a Kirkus review. The first sentence states, "Populated with thoroughly flat characters, this vampire romance, despite charming moments, makes Twilight look like a feminist handbook." To which I go, O_o. Huh? To further discredit the review, the reviewer (who is anonymous) goes on to reference Lucius as Lucien and states a female vampire must be bitten at puberty in order to be turned into a vampire. Um, no. It's Lucius and it's 18. Here's a hint to all you reviewers out there: if you're going to give a review, especially a bad one, and want to maintain your credibility, you might want to get the book's facts straight. The review also puts the book for ages 12 to 14. Wha? So yeah, Jessica would so trample Stella Crow with her horse, Belle. I kept trying to find any kind of substantiating evidence that would somehow spit on feminism in this book and while it had it's moments, to say it made Twilight look like a feminist handbook is going so far out of the way to insult that you're going to need to reprogram your GPS to find your way back.

Jessica is a very logic-minded girl, almost to the point of being pig-headed. If it exists in her real world, then it's fine by her. When Lucius shows up, he kind of dashes her logic right out of the mythical window. And damn is he funny doing it! The short insights into Lucius's head with his letters are absolutely hilarious. Oh how he mocks lentils! He's so snotty and arrogant and he just doesn't quite know what to do with himself now that he finds himself on a vegan farm. Other than protect Jessica from high school assholes. Which she abhors him doing and is sincere about it too.

It gets to a point where it's maddeningly frustrating for Jessica not to admit to herself what's going on until she finally starts to and then everything starts to slip away. There definitely is a "too late" moment going on that only drove me further and faster to keep reading to see what the resolution would be. I think the dynamic that was built up, though, between Jessica, Lucius and Faith, has happened to all of us at one point or another. Someone pursues us, we kind of go "eh" although there could be potential but when we finally get to coming around, that interest has moved on and we're left going, "um, hello?" It's infuriating to read it happen, especially who it's happening with.

Yes, there are some similarities to Twilight. What I saw? The couple of times that Jessica claims she loves Lucius deeply and doesn't want to live with the pain of losing him. Yeah, that's also a Romeo and Juliet thing too, not to mention a slew of other romance reads but considering Twilight's popularity, and the book's vampire/human romance, the comparison was bound to be made. But that's pretty much where the similarities stop. Hate to break it to the Twihards but Stephenie Meyer didn't invent the star cross'd vampire lovers. Hard pill to swallow, I know, but a pill nonetheless.

Where Bella is a weak, simpering little turd that excelled at nothing, didn't have a self of her own and could only stand on her own two feet with the support of Edward, Jessica was very much her own person with her own ideals, her own thoughts and lo! We were in her head the whole time and and lo! Minimal complaining! And it wasn't anywhere near insufferable! She also didn't comment on how hot Lucius was every freaking nanosecond. Yay! Jessica had her own life, was capable of functioning on her own, had goals. Did that all kind of crumble? To an extent, yeah. Here she thought she was this normal girl until this arrogant schmuck guy shows up and tells her she's a vampire princess that's destined to marry him in order to end a centuries-long vampire war. After getting over the absolute insanity of that and realizing it's real, how would your life shape after that? Especially if you started to fall in love with said cranky Romanian guy? Love does funny things to your head but she didn't push anyone away. People pushed her away because of the rumors that were spread about her. She didn't want to be alone. She was miserable to be alone. She wanted Mindy and Jake back in her life but they wouldn't go near her because of ignorance. And then there's Lucius. To say the shit hit the fan towards the end of this book is an understatement. That senior year really did suck. Badly.

The only injustice I saw in this book was the title. It's probably one of the most unfitting titles I've ever seen in a book. And the emphasis on the vampire dating guide. It was mentioned a handful of times, most of them in passing. It certainly wasn't central to the book but from all the blurbs, you'd think it was. Jessica's Guide to Staking Senior Year would have been a better, and more pertinent, title. I'm not really sure what the aim was there but it just doesn't fit with the story.

All in all, an absolutely amazing book and I'm so glad I went nutball over it when I saw the review on Publisher's Weekly back in January. Smart I was to listen to my gut! Fantaskey has an amazing knack for being able to propel the reader from one end of the book to the other in a compelling, intricate and well-written story. This is what a turmoil-ridden teen vampire romance should read like. There's depth, individuality and realism all mixed into this fantasy world. Jessica is real. Her reactions are believable. Her actions are believable and her emotions can be felt through the pages. I laughed out loud, my eyes watered and I just didn't want it to end.

But it did. Rather abruptly. Please tell me there's going to be a sequel. Beth? A little help?
]]> http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/77202097 to: A Quiet Belief in Angels: A Novel (Hardcover) by R.J. Ellory
I don't read out and out mysteries very often and this book was a random grab at BEA. I just went, "free book!" *yoink* Thankfully it sounded interesting enough and it's set during a time period I normally like so what the hell, right?

It took a little bit to get into and the voice is a retroactive one - the grown up Joseph Vaughan telling the story as he grew up so it's a little strange to read a kid having such high end thoughts. But you get used to it. The only thing I found really annoying was how the MC kept dropping all of his I's. The sentences would often start with the next word in the sentence. I think the author was trying to go for a particular kind of voice but I couldn't help but think, all the way through, that it was just a means to have a first person story not be littered with I's. Kind of weak but there you go.

Joseph is actually an amazingly fleshed out character. Him and his mother. You can't help but not connect with both of them, especially since, for most of the story, Joseph's still pretty young (24 before the shit really hits the fan). You can't help but feel so bad for him, and for everyone in the town, for the murders that keep happening. And when Joseph discovers one of the bodies when he was 11 or 12, it'll take your breath away.

I ended up steam-rolling right through this book because it was basically one tragedy right after the next and I'm sick and interested like that. This kid, let me tell you, had a shitty hand dealt to him over and over and over again and it makes for an immensely compelling story, as demented as that is. It's sad what happens to his mom but in the end you have to question whether it was justified or not. That kind of questioning is all over the story and it was one of the reasons why I liked it like I did.

While the murder mystery is working it's way out in real time, there's a shorter part scattered throughout the book with Joseph talking to a corpse and you can only assume it's the murderer. So when twists and herrings get thrown in, you know it's not the end, it's not it because that part that you keep reading, with the dead body, didn't happen yet. So while you read, and while pieces are thrown at you, you're trying to figure out who's the guilty party.

But the thing with mysteries is, the end is the be all end all of the book. If the ending sucks, it'll destroy the rest of it. Do you see where I'm going with this?

I don't want to give it away but I will say it felt like I was driving 70 miles an hour, slammed on the brakes and threw my car into reverse. I was in such a WTF? World when the murderer came out that I didn't know what to do with myself. It's not revealed until the very last page of the book who it is so I went from going, "Yay!" to "Huh?" in a matter of one sentence to another, it was so sudden.

And usually, with hindsight and the knowledge of who did it, you can do back through the book and pick out all the clues that would lead to that person. I couldn't do that with this one. To me those clues just weren't there and the murderer might as well been chosen out of a hat for all it was worth.

The ending totally destroyed the book for me because I felt the conclusion was so random and so out of whack with the rest of the story that I just couldn't get over it. Maybe I missed something. Something big. But even with my sieve of a memory, I would still be able to pick out instances that would give it all away. Not here. I'm telling you, totally random.

Maybe someone else, someone that's better at reading mysteries and subtleties than I am, would do better with it. It's a pretty damn good book. The end just FUBARed it for me, though, unfortunately. ]]> http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/63942223 to: A Field Guide to Monsters: This Book Could Save Your Life (Paperback) by Dave Elliott
bookshelves: best-bitten
Gotta love them bargain bin finds. And you usually get these good ones right around Halloween. I love Barnes and Noble. I really do.

Aside from being heinously inaccurate (I mean, to say the guy mutilated the Lost Boys section is an understatement), it's actually a pretty funny read. I don't know if the mistakes were intentional or a result of an "I don't give a shit" attitude but the snarky comments partially made up for it. So the guy can't tell the difference between Medus and a Hydra. Is that any reason to mark it against him? O_o

Nevertheless, it's a good handbook to have if you ever decide to take on the forces of evil, or attempt to shave a werewolf's back. Knowing where just to poke them to have them on the ground in a fetal position is vital. I would highly recommend backup material though because, like I said, at times the author couldn't tell his ass from his elbow and I wonder if this guy is really working for the other side and intentionally trying to screw us all over. Bastard.

I think the author fed his editor to Godzilla or something too because damn. A ten-year-old wouldn't have missed some of the stylistic errors I found. Sheesh. ]]> http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/77201898 Red to Black (MP3 CD) by Alex Dryden
After The Sentinels, I just didn't have the patience to actually get through this one. I didn't even get 100 pages in before I gave up on it. Despite the larger font and even larger margins, it was like sludging through molasses and when you get to a point where you're dreading to pick up and read anymore of a book, it's time to stop reading it.

It was nearly pure exposition up until my stopping point, and nonlinear at that. The stories the MC kept telling were jumping all over the time line and I found myself having a hard time keeping track of what happened when and where. If you're a Russian history buff, I'm sure it wouldn't have been a problem. Seeing as I'm not, the facts of the story kept getting lost on me because I couldn't remember them.

I wish the MC had a little more emotion. Maybe she does and it doesn't appear until later in the book, because that this point, not all that much has happened so there isn't much to get worked up over. But right now, she's kind of blah and doesn't react much one way or another to what she does see and/or do. But I won't know because I just can't bring myself to keep reading. I don't have the patience and I have better books to read in my TBR pile.

I'm not going to rate this one because it's not fair to. It could rightly get amazing after all the exposition's out. I just don't have the patience to wait that long. ]]> http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/77201785 to: Secret Society (Paperback) by Tom Dolby
Gee. Yet another book about rich prep school kids getting everything handed to them. How original.

It's Skull and Bones, peanut version but with some estrogen. The whole Egyptian involvement is completely contrived and never really explained. I understand we're hopping around behind the eyes of the noobs to the group but as far as I'm concerned, these guys thought the Egyptians were cool and decided to use their logos for their club. By the end of the book, they could have been pirates for all it mattered to the overall plot.

And noob tattoo dude mistake numero uno - the neck is one of the most conspicuous spots to put a tattoo. No matter how small it is, unless it's a little black dot, it's going to get noticed. No more bobs for those girls! For a secret society, they sure flaunt their marker, don't they?

As far as the writing goes, I didn't feel it was quite there yet. It was . . . mediocre. In the hands of someone with more experience or greater talent, I think it could have done better but instead we get a Swiss cheese plot that meanders in all the wrong places, is thoroughly short on suspense and elementarily written. The characters are one dimensional, narrow-minded and as woe-is-me as you'd expect them to be in their current situations.

What little information we are given of this half-assed society is awkwardly dumped in some of the most chunky and ridiculously-sounding sentences I've ever read. The fact that the invitation is only handed out to prep school kids in their junior year is laughable. Want to narrow it down anymore? People with only blue eyes? One leg slightly shorter than the other? Literally, I laughed when that information was dumped because, considering the context and the way it was said, it was just absurd.

Maybe this is something that's just showing my age but the casualness of underage drinking in this book really shocked me, not to mention the lack of consequences for these over-privileged kids. It's parentfail if I've ever seen it because if I had ever come home drunk and hours past curfew, my grounded ass would never see the light of day again. These kids are actually encouraged to act like shitheads. Again, parentfail. I'm all for lowering the drinking age to 18 because if you're old enough to die for your country, you're old enough to have a drink (because that beer is so more more to handle than those assault rifles and justifiable homicide) but the extreme casualness of it all, how out in the open it was, just really bothered me. We had to be super sneaky when we drank. These kids just did it out in the open with absolutely no consequences. How nice.

The whole secret society concept is unoriginal. The writing needs to be improved. To me, the characters were unrelatable. Because of the poor writing, it lacked the suspense required of these kids' situations. Maybe if it was there, maybe if I was able to feel their fear at what was going on, I might have been able to connect to them. But nope. Tell, tell, tell. I don't care. If I don't feel it, those characters could drink themselves to death and I wouldn't bat an eye . . . oh wait . . .

Maybe it's just my age that's preventing me from liking this one. Or the sheer number of writing flaws have thoroughly detracted me from anything that might be worthwhile in the text. Either way, I didn't like it. This one easily blends in to all the other prep school crap that's out there. Except now it's tainting ancient Egypt's good name and for, apparently, no good reason because the connection is never made.

Alas, by the looks of the end, this isn't the last we'll see of this OMG-we-must-keep-this-secret-but-lets-give-ourselves-secret-tattoos-in-one-of-the-most-unsecret-places-on-our-bodies secret society but rest assured, I won't be reading it. Inconsistencies and technical fallacies irk me. Especially when I'm sick. Irk meter is that much higher. And the ending wasn't even good either. You almost expect it for everything that's happened. But because the author can't write a suspenseful sentence, you don't actually feel it so it all falls flat.

Oh yeah, your neck is one of the most PAINFUL places to get a tattoo. Anywhere where you have a concentration of nerve endings. Where your brain stem meets your spine? I'd say that's a pain hot spot. Just another fallacy that had me not believing anything the author wrote. For a 16 year old, they'd be crying. Just remember, a tattoo needle is as thick as a dime that moves up and down really quickly that punctures your skin over and over and over again in order to wedge the ink in there. And all this being done mere millimeters from your brain stem. Hello???

And this is an ankh tattoo people--


While the circle didn't hurt at all, the butterfly body was some of the most god awful pain I've ever felt in my life. I'll be going back to get my fifth sometime in early spring. And this is on my left hip bleeding onto the top of my leg. The circled ankh is 8 years old and the body is 5. I heart tattoos.
]]> http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/70397045 to: The Magician's Elephant (Hardcover) by Kate DiCamillo
bookshelves: best-bitten
I snagged a chapter preview of this book at BEA and once I read it, I immediately, and I mean immediately (at like 10 at night on a Tuesday or something like that), requested an ARC from the publicist. I had to have it, I was that enamored with just the one chapter I read.

And let me tell, the rest of the book certainly didn't disappoint. At all.

It's about a boy whose only hope in life was to join the military and be a good soldier like his father. But he had a doubt. He doubted that what Vilna Lutz, his caretaker, told him about his sister, Adele, was true. Peter was always told she was dead. When Peter goes to town and decided to spend food money on a fortune teller, he hears otherwise, and that the magician's elephant will take him to her. It sounds amazingly far-fetched. I mean, what could an elephant possibly have to do with this, right?

And that's when one comes crashing through the ceiling of the local opera house and right into the lap of a well to-do woman that the wheels start in motion for the rest of the book. All Peter wants, no, needs, to do is get to this elephant because he knows he can get to his sister through the animal. He has no idea how, but he believes everything will work itself out.

Every once in a while the story shifts to Adele's perspective and it's like little pieces of my heart get torn off and set on fire. Her situation isn't dire but it's one of those so close yet so far scenarios. And she starts having a dream of an elephant coming to rescue her from the orphanage, to take her away to a happier place. And all the while you're still trying to figure out how the deuce this is all going to play out.

The writing is absolutely amazing. I really need to read more of DiCamillo's work. It's such a simply told story told in the tone of an older time fairy tale of sorts but in that simplicity lies the depth of the story itself. Yes, Peter just wants to find his sister but him starting on this quest opens up so many more doors. Soon it's not just his sister he's worried about but the well-being of the elephant and even the magician that's stuck in the jail cell because of his surprise magic stunt.

And the very end, you can see it coming. It's alluded to, and not subtly, right around the middle of the book, but even so, when it gets there, you can't help but have tears in your eyes because finally, they're all happy. And I'm not one for happy endings either, people. Usually I think they're too fluffy and blah. But here it fits. It's just so nice and comforting to see these two children get someone wonderful after struggling for so long. And they're so young to boot!

Even though the writing is simple, it's told in such a fluid language that it pours over you like a waterfall that you just can't get enough of. Just at the plot is allowed to branch in such simplicity, we're allowed to see multi-dimensional characters in their simplest forms. They are in no way shape or form cardboard cut-outs or pandering to the will of the main character. They are fully flesh and blood with such rich feelings that I have a hard time seeing other authors attempting to create such rich characters with so few, and so simple, words. Therein lies such amazing talent.

And the drawings. Oi! There aren't very many in my little ARC but the few that are in there are absolutely astounding. Yoko Tanaka is a truly talented artist and the simplicity of the drawings matches the simplicity of the words so thoroughly. But it's not like they're stick figures here. They are rich, fully realized drawings that capture scenes at their zenith, but they're not superfluous or overtly elaborate. They just capture the moment as it was meant to be.

This is a middle grade book and it can be read probably in about an hour but you will feel so much richer for having read it. It makes you feel good. Your eyes might get a little wet, and you will feel the pain of these children and that poor, poor elephant, but you will enjoy the book immensely. I have no doubt. There's nothing not to enjoy here. Not a bit. ]]> http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/77108371 to: Foundling (Monster Blood Tattoo #1) by D.M. Cornish
Well that sounds interesting, doesn’t it? I certainly thought it did! And it's the best place to start because that blurb drew me in pretty quickly. Unfortunately that piece is a bit misleading. I don’t know about you but from reading that, I thought those would be adventures he’d be taking while working as a lamplighter. It certainly insinuates that, don’t you think?

But that would have to be a no. The whole book, all 311 (not including the 121 pages of reference) pages, is about Rossamund getting to the lamplighter office to report for his first duty. Him getting drafted is the catalyst that sets the ball rolling but once he sets out on his voyage, the whole lamplighter ploy doesn’t come back into play again until very close to the end. Him “traveling the Half-Continent” has nothing to do with the premise the flap employs, or more accurately takes a seat so far in the back its not even visible anymore.

Now it wouldn’t have bothered me so much if Rossamund wasn’t a simpering pussy for 3/4 of the book. He doesn’t have his own voice, he relies heavily on others to get him through to the end and between his departing the foundlingery and actually getting to the lamplighter place, not all that much happens plotwise. It’s all overrun by overburdening, worldbuilding info-dumps.

See, this whole book would have been, if I were writing it, something I would have cut and started on the last chapter which is where the story the bookflap was talking about actually starts. And Rossamund doesn’t really change all that much from the beginning to the end despite the fact that it was his first time really outside of the foundlingery. There’s a touch of toughness at the end but nothing that should have come from the experiences he had.

The entire book was a means for the author to expose readers to a very intricate world. I definitely give him credit. He spent something like 13 years developing this world, drawing maps and characters and creating all the little intricacies that I found while reading but I don’t think anyone told him that there is such a thing as too much worldbuilding. This is a prime example of that.

There were so many new and unusual terms that I found myself skimming a good portion of the time because I couldn’t keep everything straight. A lot of the terms were names for things that exist in the real world but it appears he didn’t want to keep names that people could actually recognize and relate to. One example that stands out in my head is bright-black leather. According to the glossary (did I mention there’s 121 pages of encyclopedia and appendices?) it’s patent leather. Nothing special about it. It doesn’t do anything that patent leather doesn’t do. It’s just a different name. Why? Would keeping the name patent leather been detrimental to the world? Would it have affected it that much?

The Turkey City Lexicon agrees with me on this one -

*

"Call a Rabbit a Smeerp"

A cheap technique for false exoticism, in which common elements of the real world are re-named for a fantastic milieu without any real alteration in their basic nature or behavior. "Smeerps" are especially common in fantasy worlds, where people often ride exotic steeds that look and act just like horses. (Attributed to James Blish.)

I felt so disassociated from this book because I couldn’t keep the terms straight (and I’ll be damned if I’m constantly referencing a fictional glossary while reading for pleasure just to do so), because he went into more detail about the odds and ends of the world instead of creating some kind of plot and because Rossamund was a ninny! I couldn’t figure out just how old he was but I think it’s somewhere between 14 and 16 and you’d think a kid that’s been beaten on most of his life would have built up some resemblance to testicles but this kid really didn’t have them. He really was a wussy and the fact that he was such a pushover really turned me off from reading any more about him in the next book. I just don’t care if he grows into his own later down the info-dumped plotline. It was only a week in time story-wise but he went through high hell and came out relatively the same as he went in. Was he able to go through what he did without breaking down and curling up into a fetal position? Yes but he didn’t come out a stronger person for it. His persona within the last couple of chapters really wasn’t much different than the first couple and that really bothered me. A character is supposed to grow as the story carries on and Rossamund is in dire need of some extra strength milk.

Yes, there is a sequel; one that I know of. I don’t know how many more are planned or are actually out but I, for one, am not going to read them. Like I said, I give the author a ton of credit because this world really is just amazing and intricate and carries with it so much depth, not to mention the drawings are beautiful, but man, draw a line. Now I know how much worldbuilding is way too much. There was definitely a very sizable chunk of this book that could have been sacrificed for the sake of furthering the plot which was grossly lacking in comparison to the world’s backstory and bits and bobs.

The real story, the whole lamplighter quest that the bookflap boasts, starts at the end. Now I’m wishing I just skipped to the second book right off the bat because now I just don’t want to read it and it’s the story that that book contains that initially interested me. I feel had.
In terms of rating, this book is pretty unique. When it comes to plot, it's pretty lacking. There is one but it doesn't read like that's the emphasis. With characters, I actually liked Europe and her helper and even the scurvy captain that was embezzling cargo. But Rossamund I just didn't like and, unfortunately, he is the main character so that ends up being a pretty big mark against it all. However the world is just astounding. If this were another book and it didn't have this rich and lavish world, the bite rating would have been lower but I had to make a compromise. I would say read this story if you're looking for an extraordinary world but don't expect too much else beyond that since the rest has an overwhelming tendency to take a backseat to it. ]]> http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/63941323 to: The Dark Is Rising (Dark Is Rising, Book 2) by Susan Cooper
bookshelves: best-bitten
I’ll be honest. The only reason I picked up this book was because I thought it looked like a cool movie. I had no idea this book even existed until I saw the previews for the film back around the time Stardust came out. When I did buy it, I still hadn’t seen it although it was on my list of movies to watch.

I started reading but kept getting rather perplexed by the language. It just seemed a little too high brow for an eleven-year-old protagonist. So I flipped to the back of the book to read some information on the author and caught notice of her website address. So there I visited. Well, it’s a fan site turned official and when I started reading information, I became even more confused. They were speaking as if this book was rather quite old. So to the copyright page I flipped. Copyright 1973. So it is. I had no idea. Although it does explain the language.

At least a little. I’m not sure if anything explains the language in this book, really. I understand that once Will comes into his gifts, he’s not really 11 any more but an Old One (or an old soul as I’d like to think of it). His eleventh birthday awakened this Old One inside of him that gave him wisdom and age far beyond his years. That notion is downright interesting and I’d completely believed that if he hadn’t been speaking like that from the very beginning. It’s not necessarily the terminology but the propriety of his word choice that makes the speech just a little unbelievable for me in an eleven year old. Maybe the British are different. Maybe they’re much more refined by that age. Or it was a product of the time. Or both. But the language of the boy was the largest drawback for me in this book.

But that was pretty much it. And it was something I got used to by the end because the transformation of boy Will into Old One Will was evident by the end of the story so it was only natural. I just wish his dialogue and thoughts were truer at the beginning. Other than that I thought it was just a fantastic, beautiful story that I wished I had been turned on to when I was younger. Although, in all honesty, I don’t think I would have appreciated (or even liked it) nearly as much then as I do now. The language is fluid and perfectly captures the constant battle of the Light and the Dark, this archaic struggle that has been going on since long before Will’s existence.

As I said before, the growth of this young boy in such a short amount of time is phenomenal but even as it’s pointed out in the story, he’s no longer Will Stanton the boy but Will Stanton the Old One; two vastly different entities entirely. This isn’t Harry Potter where he had the help of everyone around him and really didn’t exhibit any intellectual or magically inclined growth at all throughout the books. Will had to stand on his own through most of the battle. He had support, sure, but there was no sidekick to work out the problems he couldn’t (or wouldn’t). His compatriots forced him to work out the things he had to. And he did. (That’s not to say I didn’t like Harry Potter, but I’ve never been a fan of Harry, the character, and I thought the kid got way more credit than he ever deserved.) He grew a tremendous amount in such a short amount of time.

I think the language is out of touch with today’s youth and I can certainly see more teens and middle grade readers turning to the movie more so than the book but then again but I could rightly be wrong. I think the story’s compelling enough that any reader, regardless of age, would get sucked into it and stand there, beside Will, fighting the Dark with him. It’s obviously doing something right since it’s proven the test of time already.

I did cave and watched the movie when I was about halfway into the book and I do have to say, it was a pretty good book to film adaptation. And in this case I actually liked the book better (unlike Stardust, for instance where I liked the film more than the novel). It was just much more visual for me. More realistic and just carried with it more weight. I could visualize it better. The scenes were stronger and I wish they had kept the scene with the king and the Sign of Water. I would have loved to see that. I also liked the book alluding to the fact that that king was King Arthur. If you’ve ever done research on the mythical king, you’ll know that if he had existed, it was sometime in just post-Roman, between 400 and 800 AD, or thereabouts. I think the nod was obvious and it made me like the story even more.

I do plan on reading the rest of the books in the sequence because I’m officially hooked now but as you can see on the right, I have a few more books to get through before I have a chance with those. If you haven’t read The Dark Is Rising, go buy it now and read it. It’s something you won’t regret ]]>