Mike’s Reviews > Bones of Faerie > Status Update

Eugh. This is the least interesting anti-war message ever. I've liked these messages, in The Hunger Games and Chaos Walking, but both Suzanne Collins and Patrick Ness had good ideas of why wars happen, how they effect people and societies. I have no evidence that Simner knows any of that - wars are bad because they destroy things, simple as that. We don't even know why this war happened.

The writing in this novel started out pretty good, but it's getting kinda awkward and repetitive. Like they wanted to leave a good first impression, but they didn't care about the rest. Actually, that sums up everything about this novel - very good opening, but everything else is lackluster.

This is so boring. Allie is the only character who's even mildly interesting, and there's no reason to care about any of this. I've liked Simner's short stories, but maybe that's just what she's better at, because this sucks.

Eugh, Simner just introduced like eight different characters at once, and none of them are interesting, and they're so difficult to keep track of. I really can't be compelled to care about the story, or Liz. And while the worldbuilding in Liz's town was nice, Simner makes the huge mistake of having Liz immediately leave that town for a far more boring one.

Yeah, I'm not too into this so far. The worldbuilding is still decent, the pacing is still rushed, and Liz just doesn't seem like a very interesting character so far. Plus, the tone is so gloomy and humorless. It reminds me of an Amelia Atwater-Rhodes novel, except that she used it intentionally as a stylistic choice to enhance her themes and world. This just feels like Simner has no sense of humor.