Grade: 4 1/2 stars
Story: Basically an episode of Supernatural with a heavy dose of Buffy. There's a professional monster hunter, with a parent who got killed by one of those said monsters when he was little, who goes about the country investigating strange, gruesome happenings. (In this case, even to Canada! It always bugged me that Sam and Dean of Supernatural never went to Canada. Surely there were monsters there too?) Then, like Buffy, he gathers together a group of young people (of Scoobies--one of whom's a witch and another who's named Will Rosenburg! (these two are not the same person in this case, though)) and has an older British mentor who's a bit stuffy and loves libraries. Also like Buffy, he (spoiler, visit rot13.com to decode): snyyf va ybir jvgu bar bs gur zbafgref ur'f zrnag gb xvyy.
Thoughts: Pretty cool. As with the last book, it says something that I'm able to read it during this strange reading slump I'm having. Although considering how much I like Buffy and Supernatural, perhaps it isn't much of a surprise. And as the story outline above shows, there are a lot of similarities. Almost too many, although I suspect most of them (especially the character named Will Rosenburg) were on purpose.
It also got me thinking about Romance again. Romance in books bugs me so often, and I have been trying--with only partial success--to figure out why. The fact that I didn't mind it in this book got me thinking that perhaps I mind less when it's written from a boy's point of view as opposed to a girl's? YA Fantasy from a female perspective often seems to have too much...something. I don't know--I have to think about it more still. However, this book did have several elements that tend to make me mind less, such as the main female sidekick NOT falling for the hero.
Also, cover!!! I think I should grade this one "To Own" (EDIT: Since writing this, I have. EDIT 2: Since writing the last edit, I've changed my grading system.), because I want to own a book with a cover that looks like that, 'cause it's PRETTY.
2 comments:
Is it okay to comment here about how I liked this book for other people who might read it? Kind of like the customer reviews people leave, except you're not selling the books, just reviewing them....
I liked this book while I was reading it, but after I was done it left me feeling a little weird. I think it was mainly that it involved witchcraft, like real witchcraft, not the HP variety, and the fact that the main characters used "white witchcraft" to fight bad witchcraft and all that. Also I was a little sad that the ending didn't really wrap up and explain things as much as I wanted, but that's partly a matter of taste. But the characters were cool, and I learned two new words.
It is perfectly acceptable to leave comments like that. Really, it's perfectly acceptable to leave any sort of comment, so long as it isn't super horrible or something.
I tend to not mind witchcraft anymore. Bad thing? Probably, I guess, though considering that's not remotely a temptation of mine, I'm hoping it's all ok. And as with most of the books I read, if I don't like a thing, I tend to ignore it unless it really strikes me (which this didn't). (Note: also, if you're thinking of warning people of the witchcraft and stuff, I do compare it to Buffy and Supernatural, which are both similar in that respect, but which you haven't seen.)Some of the ending stuff is wrapped up further in the sequel, Girl of Nightmares, which was good...but I didn't like it as much as the first one.
I agree the characters were pretty cool. It was the main reason why I liked it so much. That and the pretty cover. And the fun, adventure-y type story.
Would you mind telling me which words you learnt? I loooove new words.
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