Book Review: "More Minds" by Carol Matas and Perry Nodelman

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SPOIL-FREE SUMMARY

Something is wrong in the North: a giant has appeared and is causing trouble. Lenora sneaks away to deal with it, using her magic so she won't be missed. But it turns out she can't just wish the giant away, in fact the Balance doesn't seem to be working. Lenora needs to figure it out, but she may have made some trouble herself.

LIKABILITY

Lenora is much likable then the last book. She isn't rude and arrogant and treats Coren much better. I almost wish we could just skip the last book, and already have her this nice.

After all, she still doesn't trust Coren completely, and keeps secrets from him. To have their relationship develop into trusting each other, instead of her not hating him, would have been preferable.

LENORA'S MAGIC-SPOILERS

Lenora doesn't seem quite worried about using her magic. I found this rather odd, considering the last book, where she learned about how powerful she is, and how that power can easily seduce her. Instead, she still dreams of running off and having an adventure, as though it is a game. Isn't that what she thought last time?

A NEW CHARACTER

We get a new character, a young girl named Sayley. Lenora notes how she reminds her of her younger self. Think of how she was in the first book: naive and using her abilities without thought of the consequences. But I do feel like we only skimmed the surface of this relationship.

THE SOURCE OF THE PROBLEM-SPOILERS

Throughout the book, the problem is that the giant cannot be just thought away. Magic doesn't seem to be working. In fact it only works on and off, causing Lenora quite a few problems. So we muddle along, wondering about why this is. Eventually we find out that in Grag, there are no longer following the balance. And that is way things are crazy. But it's in solving the problem where things start to make no sense.

THE CLIMAX-SPOILERS

Eventually, Lenora goes back in time. It's chaotic because everyone is constantly changing the nature of reality and who they are. Ironically, it turns out that she is the one who created the balance. And then she goes back home.

I think it was trying to be clever. But I never really wondered about the origins of the Balance in this book. Although I did in the first.

In this book, I wondered why it was no longer working and how to fix it. I think perhaps the origins should have been explored in the first book, and Lenora's abilities in the second. It just felt like it would have naturally progressed better that way.

MAJOR PLOTHOLE

And then there is the matter of the return to the Balance. How would Lenora's going back and time and realizing she created the Balance on accident, restore the present Balance? I thought it was the People of Grag's fault. And Lenora even mentions that mess is still going on. She does vaguely wonder if her and Sayley being so powerful had something to do with it. But this thought passes by so quick that you'll miss it if you're not paying attention. It's just so confusing.

FREEDOM TO SLAVERY-SPOILERS

When Lenora goes back in time, she finds a history book that explains everything to her. Apparently when technology got advanced, people no longer needed to work and could do anything they want. So their brains evolved to control reality. This alone I found silly. The more technology has evolved, the dumber people seem to get. We have to do less because technology does it for us. We have so much free time and we don't do anything worthwhile with it, let alone learn and expand our minds. But lets ignore this for now.

Lenora wonders how everyone could give up freedom. But then she sees chaos and thinks maybe freedom isn't so good. Remember earlier, when she leaves the castle and sees how fake and controlled the population seems? It felt like a cult. There was no freedom at all. In the epilogue, she mentions that the balance is still too strict. It seems this should have been dealt in the actual plot, not an afterthought.

I just feel like the story was far too shallow to deal with such weighty, philosophical issues.

CONCLUSION

Lenora is much more likable, and should have been this way from the start. Not to mention she spends the plot pushing the story along unlike before. And yet there are some pretty big flaws: mainly, not addressing the issue of what is destroying the balance, as well as the controlled, robot-like population. We spend too much time trying to be clever with a plot twist instead of explaining how the main problem was solved. I give “More Minds” two stars.

Book Review: "The Arcade Catastrophe" by Brandon Mul

SPOIL-FREE SUMMARY

Nate, Trevor, Pigeon and Summer are busy living their lives. They still get magical candy which they have fun with in secret. But then they notice some strange things happening at the arcade in the next town and some stamps that are worth an unimaginable amount of tickets. And Dart has gone missing. Is the owner of the arcade behind it?

RETURNING CHARACTERS

Nate is still our main character. We are reminded when he ends up being near the end, while others fail.

Trevor hasn't developed much from the last book.

Pigeon hasn't changed, although he seems to have a crush on Lindy.

Summer is the same, enthusiastic and willing to get her hands dirty.

Mr. Stott is now the adopted father of Lindy. He still hands out some magic candy, but he doesn't seem to concerned about the kids being spotted. He is protective of his new daughter.

NEW CHARACTERS-SPOILERS

Lindy has know idea of her past and how she lost her memories. She tries to press and learn more, but is frustrated to find no one will tell her.

The Battiato brothers are a pair of magical brothers with an unique magical ability that they share. There names are Ziggy and Victor and they are entertaining to watch, to say the least. They replace Dart, as the mentors of the group.

STRUCTURE

The story is set up where we learn about the stamps, then we work to earn them. There are twenty four chapters, and we get our stamp on chapter nine, and actually learn about the man handing them out. From there we go on our first mission. So we don't immediately rush into action.

PACING

There is actually a lot of action in this book. The missions are less about sneaking and more about full on attacks. If you prefer this over anything else, you will actually prefer this over the first book.

SEPARATING

Because of the way the stamps are handed out, the characters are separated. So we don't get them working together like before. There is still plenty of interaction, its just not when it comes to fighting. I do think the story may have suffered because of this. And later on, there isn't even the off the battlefield – talks.

We don't really see any change or growth in relationships between anyone. Pigeon and Lindy do have a scene where it seems Lindy trusts him the most, but it doesn't really play out in the rest of the book.

SIMILAR PATTERN

There are many things that are the same as the first book: new villain is after a dangerous item, and is using kids to get it. This makes sense, because we know kids can yield magic better than adults. But even so, I do wish there were some more creativity. Instead of fudge, we have nacho cheese. Its quite obvious this man is up to no good, like Mrs. White was. But again, these new kids are either dense or don't care to put their lives on the line, because they get magical abilities.

There is a twist at who the villain is, but it never has the effect we fear it might on a certain character. I wish there were more unique aspects that set it apart from the first book, and although entertaining, other than Lindy (who doesn't develop much anyway) no one really develops. It would have been nice if they had managed to make a new friend, and expand their group. But all of the new characters seemed expendable.

LINDY'S TRUTH-SPOILERS

So Lindy does eventually figure out the truth. But I was disappointed in the reaction. Yes, she was mad that no one told her, and upset, wondering if she could become that person again. It's clear everyone else feared that. But she seems to get over it surprisingly fast.

Perhaps we develop her more in another sequel. Only that would make her underwhelming reaction make sense. Near the end, Nate is told to keep an eye on her.

NATE'S TRICK-SPOILERS

There is a scene in the final mission where all of the characters are frozen, unable to move, their simulacrum's being used against them. But Nate is the only one it doesn't affect. Is if because of peak performance gum? We are never told. It kind of bothered me.

CLIMAX

Only Nate and Lindy are on the final mission team. There in an interesting finale of that mission, involving a huge globe. It's rather original, although some may find it confusing. I may have had to reread the explanation of what it did.

CONCLUSION

There are many similarities to the first book, but there is a larger component that is action based which makes it different. I wish the characters had developed more and we had seen more interaction between them. I felt they should have been seen discussing Lindy's secret and maybe had opposing ideas if they should ever reveal the truth. I give "Arcade Catsatrophe" three and a half stars.

Book Review: "Of Two Minds" by Carol Matas & Perry Nodelman

SPOIL-FREE SUMMARY

Lenora the princess is about to be forced into a marriage she wants nothing to do with. The independently minded young woman makes it her goal to run away, but things go awry. Instead she ends up where she never planned. It feels like a dream come true when she meets the charismatic leader named Havek. But what ever happened to that prince she supposed to marry?

OUR CAST OF CHARACTERS

Lenora is princess of Gepeth, a land where everyone has the ability to alter reality and make anything real. But it has been agreed upon not to change the current reality. But Lenora finds is dull and loves to create people, places and all sorts of different things. This often gets her into trouble.

Coren is a prince of Andilla, a country where everyone is telepathic and make others see illusions by altering their thoughts. Coren hates it, and feels like everything is fake. He makes it a goal to never invade the privacy of another's thoughts.

Havek is the leader of Gragia. He is charismatic, handsome, and a great speaker. He speaks of creating a Utopian land with no strife or inequality. But he never quite explains how he will do so.

PACING

The pacing is average. The story is not really based around action. It's more around suspense and mystery. Like how is Lenora going to get out of this marriage? Then is she going to stay in Gragia forever? Who is Havek really? How did he get all of this power?

STRUCTURE

We switch between Coren's perspective and Lenora's, although Lenora gets the bulk of the book, when something happens to Coren.

LIKABILITY

We all know the stereotype, the female character who lives in a fairy tale world, with medieval, old world views on women. Or a historic story. And she is the only one who sees that the everyone is sexist and wrong.

Basically a twenty-first century (or late twentieth century) character, in any other time period. I get it, it's hard for modern readers to look at ancient views with any sympathy. If a character is royal, they may have their views entertained because they are rather spoiled and privileged.

The problem is not with Coren, but Lenora. The whole world may be wrong about magic, as she thinks, but even so, it doesn't justify her instant hatred towards Coren. Even if this has to do with magic, it goes on too long and I found it hard to tolerate her. She isn't just selfish, dramatic and loud, she also comes across as dumb as time goes on. I would have enjoyed seeing the story from Coren's perspective instead. We are supposed to be rooting for them as a couple, but I couldn't help but think, he really deserved better.

ORIGINALITY

The idea of two different lands, where the entire population is born with one unique magical ability, is actually original. I went in seeing this as a strong point of the story. But since we spend little time in this world, instead going to another, we only get a glimpse of the problems these abilities create.

I had a lot of questions. For Andilla, how do you live in a world with no privacy? Is everyone really close? Or not at all? How often do you think things you know are dumb, selfish, or just ignorant? Imagine everyone hearing it? How would a marriage last if you glanced at another person, nothing their attractiveness?

For Gepeth, when was "The Balance" (the rule that no one could create things) come into place? What was it like before then? What about people who thought they knew better than others? How did they get their minds changed to follow along and suppress their powers? It sounds rich and complex, but unfortunately we simply skim over it.

FORESHADOWING

There is a few mysteries presented in the first chapter with Lenora. She is creating an illusion and suddenly cannot control it. Not to spoil anything else, but there is another scene that presents another mystery about her. You could count her revealing his childhood and the problems she made as foreshadowing as well, although I just thought it was painting her as an oddball.

TWIST ENDING

There is a twist ending, when it is revealed who Havek actually is. I felt it came out of left field. I tried to think of any hints that were given beforehand. And there actually is some foreshadowing, but it feels minuscule.

Yes, Lenora later says that Havek seems familiar and there are not a lot of other characters in the story before we go to Gragia. Just the two sets of Rulers, and her nanny, Lufa. So that narrows it down to who it can be. But I just felt like the foreshadowing was done badly.

I honestly didn't care who Havek was and didn't expect a twist. The story didn't seem built for it. More like Lenora would have to do her own research and find out herself.

AFTERMATH

When Lenora learns the shocking truth, Coren doesn't want her to freak out. So she relaxes and tries to realize she doesn't have to stop doing magic. This whole reaction felt out of place. It should have been much more somber and dramatic. Instead it's played down, even joked about. While at the same time pointing to other unintended consequences.

My suspension of disbelief snapped by this point. The authors seemed to flounder, not knowing what they wanted. Perhaps they wanted to end the story on a happy note. It just comes across awkward.

CONCLUSION

The idea of magical lands where the people all share one ability is quite interesting. I would have liked to learn more. Instead though, we leave the land and get led around by Havek, a man who is obviously a liar. Lenora looks like a fool by then, and before then she seemed entitled, dramatic and selfish. Unfortunately, the twist ending doesn't save this book. I give “Of Two Minds” two stars.