Zara is going on with her life, normal activities: going to school, hanging out with friends. But, in the back of her mind she continues to think about the pixies. Worried they will attack at any moment. She begins to worry even more when other pixies from other territories begin to show up including King pixies. Zara had weaken her father the pixie king and now the rest are coming to claim his territory and wreak havoc in Zara's town! And if that is not enough, Zara begins to have a strange reaction to Kings...she turns blue!
Phobia chanting isn't so prominent in this book than the first one. She seems like she is always scared but she doesn't say many phobias. The phobias are replaced with pixie tips which are supposed to be funny. But feel redundant and childish.
Throughout the book Zara doesn't always make the best choices. A lot of the characters and dialogue is annoying. At one point I think the plot is redeeming itself, and then the plot changes and it is back to being confusing and contradicting.
I never really figure out what the need is that pixies have, and why some have it and some don't. And only at certain times. There seems to be too many causes for the need and not enough answers. Lots of things still don't make sense in the book. I feel like there are so many holes in the storyline. Things continue to contradict each other.
One question I do have is...why doesn't Zara's pixie father have a name? He is just father, dad, pixie king but never has a name.
Wednesday, January 19, 2011
Thursday, January 13, 2011
Need - Carrie Jones
Zara, still getting over the death of her dad, is sent away to live with her Grandma Betty, by her mother, to Maine. Maine is cold and icy and Zara doesn't want to be there. But she makes friends fast, has the attention of two boys, and on the first day already has a best friend. But in the mist of making new friends Zara is being stalked by a man that shows up unexpectedly and, of all things, points menacingly at her and calls her name from the depths of the woods.
The book is an easy read. No real dull spots. The listing of phobias when Zara is nervous is kind of odd but I guess it helps differentiates this book from all the other books like it out there. The book has a lot of loose ends. Things don't add up. A couple examples are: Zara makes a point about going to the DMV and another character offers to go with her. She brings this up several times that she must go to the DMV, but then the that part of the book is completely skipped. Did she actually go to the DMV? It was important to her, she was also going with another character...if you are going to make it so important the least you can do is put a sentence saying she went!
There are so many instances that things don't add up. It is like the author didn't double check her writing to make sure everything made sense. And cast turned into a splint and then back to a cast, a bed turns into a couch from one sentence to another. Somehow a wolf can wear special glove for an eagle to land on him. At one point Zara uses a poker as a weapon outside. Later she is inside using the poker on the fire. Then a couple sentences later her grandma asks for the poker and Zara proclaims she left it by the door when she used it as a weapon. So, what happened to her seconds before using it at the fire?
Parts of conversations seem missing. Things feel rushed and not completely thought out by the author. The characters don't seem very in depth. At the beginning Nick is such a bad guy but it doesn't go into depth why and he does so much good things. For some reason Ian is called a user by Nick but it doesn't go into detail why, and then it is completely dismissed.
The book is very similar to other books out there: new school, meet boy fall in love, live by a woodsy area, parent figure not around, and super human speed. If you like Twilight, Shiver or The Darkest Power trilogy you will like this book.
The book is an easy read. No real dull spots. The listing of phobias when Zara is nervous is kind of odd but I guess it helps differentiates this book from all the other books like it out there. The book has a lot of loose ends. Things don't add up. A couple examples are: Zara makes a point about going to the DMV and another character offers to go with her. She brings this up several times that she must go to the DMV, but then the that part of the book is completely skipped. Did she actually go to the DMV? It was important to her, she was also going with another character...if you are going to make it so important the least you can do is put a sentence saying she went!
There are so many instances that things don't add up. It is like the author didn't double check her writing to make sure everything made sense. And cast turned into a splint and then back to a cast, a bed turns into a couch from one sentence to another. Somehow a wolf can wear special glove for an eagle to land on him. At one point Zara uses a poker as a weapon outside. Later she is inside using the poker on the fire. Then a couple sentences later her grandma asks for the poker and Zara proclaims she left it by the door when she used it as a weapon. So, what happened to her seconds before using it at the fire?
Parts of conversations seem missing. Things feel rushed and not completely thought out by the author. The characters don't seem very in depth. At the beginning Nick is such a bad guy but it doesn't go into depth why and he does so much good things. For some reason Ian is called a user by Nick but it doesn't go into detail why, and then it is completely dismissed.
The book is very similar to other books out there: new school, meet boy fall in love, live by a woodsy area, parent figure not around, and super human speed. If you like Twilight, Shiver or The Darkest Power trilogy you will like this book.
Tuesday, January 11, 2011
The Distant Hours - Kate Morton
Everything starts out with a lost letter sent out 50 years too late. Then a distraction that leads the main character Edie to a sign post that reads Milderhurst 3 miles. Milderhurst castle, where Raymond Blythe wrote the Mud Man which started Edie love of reading, where Edies mother spent 18 months during the great war, where secrets are kept of missing love ones, where the ancient walls sing the distant hours, where three elderly sisters live together.
The book alternates from Edie's point of view in 1992, to the past with the Blythe sisters: Saffy, Percy and Juniper. The two time frames wrap together effortlessly as the story unfolds about the history of the Mud Man and the Blythe sisters.
Throughout this book, I kept feeling like there was going to be a big reveal, a big twist that would make me want to read the book again to see if I could catch it. But, the reveal, and the twist wasn't as big as I thought and it made me feel like I didn't get what I was promised. From the very beginning there is a lot of foreshadowing of things to come to prepare you for later events to make you think something big would happen. Things did happen, but it wasn't as big as I thought. But nevertheless I really enjoyed the book!
The book alternates from Edie's point of view in 1992, to the past with the Blythe sisters: Saffy, Percy and Juniper. The two time frames wrap together effortlessly as the story unfolds about the history of the Mud Man and the Blythe sisters.
Throughout this book, I kept feeling like there was going to be a big reveal, a big twist that would make me want to read the book again to see if I could catch it. But, the reveal, and the twist wasn't as big as I thought and it made me feel like I didn't get what I was promised. From the very beginning there is a lot of foreshadowing of things to come to prepare you for later events to make you think something big would happen. Things did happen, but it wasn't as big as I thought. But nevertheless I really enjoyed the book!
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