Book Review: "Lawless" by Jeffrey Salane

SPOIL-FREE SUMMARY

M Freeman has spent her young life rather sheltered as she has been homeschooled and raised by her mother. But she knows she wants to get into a special school called “Lawless” where her father went as a child. Now that her father has passed on, it means more than ever.

CAST OF CHARACTERS

M is smart and eager to learn but slightly naive. She seems to be rather singleminded, as she has put all her hopes going to a school she knows nothing about.

Zara is M's guardian. The older girl is sarcastic and cynical. For the most part, she doesn't seem to really care about M.

Merlyn is a young man who starts school the same time as M. He meets her on the ride to the airport and is rather geeky. He is good with tech.

Cal is a handsome blonde boy whom M seems to have a slight crush on. But revelations cause her not to know how to feel about him.

Mrs. Watts is a teacher and ends up being on M's final exam quest.

PACING

The pacing of the story is good. We get M's interview and then her trip home. We may not jump right into the action but there is enough mystery to move the story along and make the reader curious. Even when M gets home there are twists. By the time she makes it to the airport and the action starts, I was kept interested.

THE FULBRIGHTS

A shadowy organization called the Fulbrights are a threat to the Lawless school. M meets them in the beginning at the airport. Oddly enough, M sees them seem to shimmer. Not much is told to M about them until near the end of the book.

WHY ME?-SPOILERS

From the plane ride M ends up asleep and then awakes in the cock pit. She has to land the plane because there is no pilot. Although she thought she saw someone.

I was surprised that M didn't go crazy to Zara or at least to the first adult she met off the plane. I would have been furious. She is just a child, and this is the kind of organization that they're running?

It wasn't even Lawless involved in this madness. She is told someone think's she is special (and perhaps worth testing...) so they just look incompetent. And when M points out she saw a man they blow her off and call her crazy. They just snarkily tell her they landed the plane remotely.

I would be thinking this had all been a mistake and I needed to get out of there the first opportunity. Or at least I would second guess myself. But M only seems annoyed. Not furious.

THAT WAS LUCKY-SPOILERS

When M is required to go to Orientation she loses her ID so she sneaks her way in. This involves getting creative and ending up in the ceiling. I suppose it would make sense if all she needed to do was hear the information given and not be seen as present. But she ends up crashing through the ceiling.

Instead of falling to her death she ends up getting caught in some wires. I found it rather silly that she only escaped death by being lucky. I get that the ending was clever, when the head of the school introduces her. But it felt rather stupid.

They knew her ID would have been stolen since she was the mark, and should would have to risk her life. What would have happened if there had been no wires? Oops, I guess we're having a funeral after orientation, guys.

M'S MOTHER

M admits her relationship with her mother isn't really good. It's very formal and when M leaves home, she doesn't even get to talk to her mother alone.

Then it's revealed she has gone missing while M is at school. But she makes a return while M is on her final exam quest. I actually liked this scene.

For once, M shows some emotion, arguing and yelling at her mom. She rightly gets mad at not being told what's going on and explains how worried she was. But this is all cut short and we don't learn anything more about her mother.

M'S FATHER

M's father died in a plane crash, leaving M with a moonrock necklace. She learns that he was very smart and actually invented a cypher used at the school.

SECRETS REVEALED-SPOILERS

In the beginning, M believes both of her parents are art historians. All she really knows about her dad was he attended a school called Lawless. But when she arrives at the school she learns the truth: her father was a master art thief and her mother a con artist. Turns out only a graduate of the school can speak about it, so her mother could not. Only her father, and he passed away.

Eventually M learns that her father was killed, his death wasn't an accident.

SEND HER HOME-SPOILERS

There is a scene halfway though the story where M is threatened to be sent home. I didn't really think she would be sent away, but perhaps the scene had to happen so we could see Zara defending M. And perhaps to see how ruthless and uncaring people like Mrs. Watts were.

Later, Zara reveals that Ronin are those who fail at Lawless. They spend the rest of their life on a watch list, being kept on lock down. Perhaps Zara was thinking about how bad this would be for M, although I don't really understand why she cared.

MYSTERIES GALORE

Various mysteries are presented throughout the story, which helps with the pacing. We start with an empty envelope and meet Zara, who is obviously not what she seems. And when M arrives at the school, it she learns the truth about her parents, all the while her witnessing an adult on the plane is brushed off. No one seems honest. Eventually she even gets a map that has secret information on it. It's the story's strong point.

THE PROBLEM WITH M

I think the main problem with M is that she never doubts her decision to come to lawless. She never thinks, what am I doing here? Or, these people are crazy, I can't trust them. Instead she stays rather naive, assuming that Lawless are the good guys and Fulbrights are the bad ones.

After all, they just steal stuff. No big deal. I was annoyed at her shallowness. Did she ever stop and think that maybe stealing was bad? Maybe it was motivated by greed? What if when stealing, someone got in the way? What if you had to hurt them, or kill them in order to complete the theft? Could she do that? Should she? But M never thinks of these very likely scenarios.

SCHOOL LIFE-SPOILERS

I thought some of the ideas were interesting. Like M being made a mark on her first day and losing all of her items.

Also the idea of “the Box” as some super scifi place where you coud be transported anyway was unique. I just thought M's reaction to it should have been more awed. I felt like I had been transported to Star Trek. How on earth did they get such technology? The room wasn't all an illusion as it actually transformed physically. But I didn't understand how it worked at all.

The jacket with the bells on it was interesting as well, and I liked having to watch M and her teammates work together to get their target.

WE'RE FRIENDS NOW

M admits early on that she is a loner. As such, I would have expected her to have a hard time making friends. But there are no awkward moments. No misunderstandings, no lack of social skills. I wanted to see her form a same-sex relationship and then try one with a boy and realize it's not the same at all.

But there was no friendship process exactly. She has teammates when they have to tag a student, but besides some sarcasm traded there wasn't any sense of relationships developing and the difficulties involved.

I suppose the bulk of the story is focused on the separate tasks and adding mystery. So the relationship angle is completely neglected. It's unfortunate.

TRUST NO ONE?

M gets betrayed by one character who isn't a friend. Then she starts to almost like a character even though she was told not to trust them. In the end she gets betrayed but this character comes back and helps her.

M thinks things are not black and white. But I just didn't care about the betrayal because I barely knew the character who did the betraying. And I was starting to get annoyed at the excuses being made for them.

CAL'S MISTAKE-SPOILERS

During their team mission, Cal ends up using the jacket of bells on their target, which electrocutes them. He does this all with ease, smiling when it happens. This creeps out the other kids, especially M, who doesn't understand who he is.

Cal gets reprimanded and the whole school shuns him for a bit. Because thieves steal, but they never hurt anyone. Ever. As illogical as that seems.

In reality it's not hard to believe a school that specializes in breaking laws would have a subset of students who would laugh at the idea of some sort of moral code.

THE MASTERS

M learns about a group of leaders in Lawless called the Masters. Turns out her father was a member and so was Mrs. Watts, who seemed to have a history with him.

A BLACK HOLE

In the 1600s, a man named Jonathan Wild was known as the king of thieves. When finally imprisoned he read science books that lead him to the idea of black holes. When M asks why, Zara says that Wild was crazy.

His followers eventually divided into the fulbrights and the lawless. It felt rather vague and unnecessary. As if the author felt that the story needed a bigger threat than two criminal institutions fighting each other. He he had to throw in a way to threaten the whole universe.

CLIMAX

M ends up returning to Lawless where she discovers everyone is on break. There she meets Fox Lawless and retrieves her painting. But it turns out everyone is evil (big surprise) but M gets help from a surprising source to escape.

CONCLUSION

The story itself is an intesting idea that's not executed well. A secret school where kids learn to be criminals. And yet it somehow falls flat.

It's strong points are in the pacing and the suspense. But the pay off isn't always fulfilling and often times, the reaction feels overblown.

As for the weak points...firstly, the character of M is shallow and lacks any depth. She wants to go to a school she knows nothing about and when she gets there, never once doubts her goal. Even with suspicous behavior around her. Perhaps this story would have been better told as a YA, where the reality of immoral behavior could have been addressed, and not ignored.

Secondly, the relationships or lack of them. All other characters are just outlines with vague characteristics (Merlyn the geek, Cal the mysterious cute guy) without any history. And yet I was supposed to believe they were all friends with M.

M doesn't even have a relationship with her own mother. You would think this would affect her own social skills. Because I didn't know any of the characters I never cared about them. Not even when one is kidnapped and another betrays M.

I give “Lawless” two and half stars.

Book Review: "The Night Dance" by Suzanne Weyn

SPOIL-FREE SUMMARY

Based on the fairy tale “the twelve dancing princesses”, Rowena and her sisters live a sheltered life thanks to their father. Rowena dreams of freedom and her mother. The girls eventually find a secret tunnel under their room but their father is determined to discover why every night their slippers are ruined, even though they are locked in their rooms.

CAST OF CHARACTERS

Rowena is the main character and the only sister we get to know. She dreams of a normal life, and starts having visions throughout the story.

Sir Bedivere is a knight that followed King Arthur and ends up having to return excalibur to a lake. But he doesn't know where to start. One of his hands is paralyzed. He is rather self conscious about it. Not much about his life is known before the scene, except his love for his king.

Morgan Le Fey is actually a side character throughout the story. She has taken place where she can watch over who she sees a threat to her power.

Sir Ethan is an overprotective father of twelve daughters. After his wife went off and vanished he kind of goes crazy and builds a huge wall so he daughters can never leave home.

Vivianne is a great sorcerer who spends the most of her story trapped. But we do get her history revealed to us. She loves her husband and daughters dearly.

TRUE LOVE OR LIES?-SPOILERS

When Sir Ethan was younger, he got lost in the woods and met a beautiful woman. So he married her and never left the woods.

Vivienne admits it was all manipulation, as she cast a spell to bring her an ideal lover. Sir Ethan had no say in the matter and we are not told much of his life before then. Did he have a family? Perhaps a woman he was courting? It says he was in the military, was he taking part in a war?

Apparently Vivianne doesn't care about free will. And yet she says that eventually their relationship becomes real love. How would she know? Does the spell have a release date? Did Sir Ethan eventually get to return to his old life instead of living as a hermit in the woods? Don't think so. This whole relationship feels obsessive and a perversion.

Ethan even reveals he doesn't know if its real love or not, but he doesn't care.

VIVIENNE'S HISTORY

Turns out that Vivienne was a great Sorcerer who worked close with Merlin. People became jealous because of this and her life was threatened so she ran off into the woods. But she didn't want to be alone so she made Sir Ethan come to her.

But she is so important that every so often she goes off without telling her husband a thing so she can still be useful to King Arthur. I don't know why Merlin wouldn't be more important and why she is even necessary. She gave him the sword and asked that after he dies that it was returned to her.

Eventually Morgan le Fey traps her under a lake, because I guess she isn't powerful enough to kill her.

LOVE AT FIRST SIGHT

Rowena shares the gift of her mother and has visions. She sees Bedivere and immediately falls in love. Unfortunately it comes across as a shallow relationship based on nothing more than sexual attraction. Him noting how beautiful and graceful she is; Her noting how handsome and brave he is, ect.

I understand that most romantice relationships start this way but they have to evolve into something more. But this one never does. Even when Rowena and Bedivere actually meet. They don't learn much about each other and it seems obvious that Rowena is merely starved for affection.

The dialogue between them is particularly awful as it's not realistic, instead they speak as though they are reciting bad poetry. The majority of their relationship is spent talking about how much they love each other, not actually getting to know each other or developing their relationship.

NORMAL GIRLS

When the daughters learn that there father is putting locks on their doors (because of their ruined slippers) they decided to complain. They wonder why they can't be normal girls who go to parties and meet men. Shouldn't some of them already by married?

I kept wondering, why hadn't any of them asked this before? They weren't children anymore and yet they never thought to ask why they were kept as slaves behind a wall? This cetainly isn't treated as an argument that they have had before. Especially considering where it leads.

Ethan finally admits they are right and says perhaps he needs to find them matches.

If the girls had been sheltered their entire lives, shouldn't they have been happy to be able to marry and leave? Their father may be kind of crazy, but I doubt he would force them to marry someone they completely hated.

MORGAN LE FEY

After sensing Vivienne's power, Morgan thinks that she is trying to contact her daughters. So she goes there in disguise, hoping to find out if they girls know anything. She wants to prevent Vivienne from getting Excalbur because it went missing in battle because she wants it for herself.

Unfortunately I found her more annoying than threatening. I certainly never hated her. She never considers killing off any of the girls, and if she had I think she might have came across more menacing.

The final and first real encounter with her near the end was lacking. And I thought it was odd that in the history lesson we learn she seduced a knight and used him to trap Vivienne. But he is never mentioned again.

MORGAN'S SPELL-SPOILERS

Morgan casts a spell to distract the girls when she decides they are too much of a threat. They might actually discover where Vivienne is, because she spoke to them through a scrying bowl and led them underground to a secret tunnel. So she makes the tunnel take them to a magical place that leads to dresses and music. Not to mention men with stag's heads. The girls dance with them all night, every night, forgetting about their mother.

THE GIRLS MEET A MAN

After spending all of their youth and adulthood away from any men, when they first get to meet one, they immediately start flirting. I thought this was unrealistic.

In reality they would have treated him rather oddly, perhaps like they would treat a girl. After all, they are sheltered like children. They have never been courted and never met a man to flirt with. And besides being forbidden to be around any men, they haven't been taught any boundaries or had any expectations put on them.

By all accounts this scene should have been silly. And yet the girls come across as femme fatals who are eager to seduce a man.

WE CAN TRUST THE STAG MEN

I understand that there is a spell that makes the girls rather docile and tempts them to keep returning even though they have no idea what this place is. But When I learned that the girls' asked one of the stag men for a sleeping potion I was left stunned.

Did the spell also make the girls not just docile, but stupid as well? I expect they got this idea while back in their room, not under the spell. So when the potion nearly kills the man I couldn't believe how stupid they were. Didn't any of them think this might be a bad idea?

VIVIENNE AND HER DAUGHTERS

When it comes to their mother, the Rowena and Eleanore have different feelings. Eleanore is mad because she thinks her mother abandoned them. I didn't get to know any of the girls besides Rowena and her. But Twelve girls are a lot, so I wouldn't expect to get to know all of them. After all, we still have Bedivere, Vivienne and Morgan Le Fey with their own stories. Even so, I wish there had been a way to at least make them more distinct characters.

SIR ETHAN'S INSANITY

It's obvious that Ethan isn't emotionally stable. And yet the girls never discuss this. They complain that they don't get to meet men and marry but never seriously admit that their father is nuts. They also complain that one will be handed over as a prize (when in reality a story taken in this time period would not put romantic love before all, as arranged marriages were the norm throughout most of history.)

I get that the point was to show that Ethan felt betrayed by a woman he married for love (even though he didn't, he was under a spell that was never taken off as far as we know). But nothing works because it's never acknowledged what screwed him up, not just being abandoned to raise twelve girls, but to have had no choice to the marriage to a woman who had many secrets in the first place.

FACE OFF?

The problem is that there is no real fight between Morgan and Vivienne. Morgan uses vines of trees to attack Sir Bedivere and Rowena. Besides her rock monster and using a man's form to attack Bedivere (earlier on) she isn't really threatening. It's all very anticlimatic.

VIVIENNE AND HER HUSBAND

When Vivienne returns it's a shock to Ethan. But they reconcile rather easily which I feel was unrealistic. Maybe this was due to the lack of time left in the book. But I feel like Ethan has had a long time to think about his relationship with Vivienne and how it was obviously a perversion. And yet he never seems to realize that. I guess he was just mad that she left.

But when she explains why, all is forgiven. It annoyed me that the whole thing Ethan is a submissive man unless it comes to his daughters, then he is just an irrational jerk. This could be made sense of, but only if his past relationship was considered to be immoral.

CLIMAX

Rowena pretends to give Bedivere the sleeping potion and he follows them underground. Morgan Le Fey follows them. Eventually Vivienne is freed, there is a brief fight with Morgan and they return home.

CONCLUSION

“The Twelve Dancing princesses” doesn't give you too much to go of off, so there is plenty of opportunity for creativity. And this take does try to be original, mainly because it occurs during the reign of King Arthur and incorporates Excalibur and the Lady of the Lake.

Unfortunately I found myself rather indifferent to characters that were either portrayed as shallow or were barely portrayed at all, like Eleanore.

The romance between Sir Bedivere and Rowena dominates the story, even though they don't actually meet until halfway through. They fall in love in a matter of minutes and their romance is portrayed as flowery, shallow and in the manner of a bad romance novel.

Morgan le Fey is a rather underwhelming character and Vivienne comes across as selfish, while Ethan is an unacknowledged victim. He never got a choice in his marriage and seems traumatized by it. I felt bad for him but he doesn't get any redemption since his trauma isn't really acknowledged.

It's not the worst adaption I have read of this fairy tale, but it's also not good. The story itself had potentional but the characters didn't help.

I give “The Night Dance” two stars.

Book Review: "The Candle Man" by Glenn Dakin

SPOIL-FREE SUMMARY

Theo spends his life in a huge mansion, with only a few individuals to keep him company. A dangerous illness keeps him from a life until one day he gets a message for a secret meeting. This meeting changes everything and suddenly he realizes nothing is what he thought it was, not even himself.

CAST OF CHARACTERS

Theo is a sheltered young man, rather meek with only his curiosity pushing him. His knowledge of life is limited, which sometimes leads to silly observations. I found this aspect of him charming.

Dr. Saint is a supposed doctor who is in charge of Theo, making sure he gets treatment for his illness.

Mr. Nicely is the butler. He is rather subservient to Dr. Saint.

Tristus is a garghoul that seems to have his own agenda, while he watches over Theo.

Magnus is an older man who has been watching over Theo from afar.

Sam is Magnus' grandson. He is enthusiastic and eager for adventure.

Chloe is a young women who is sarcastic, bold, and cynical.

PACING

We get an introduction chapter where we see how sheltered and strange Theo's life is. On the second chapter things get more interesting, as Theo learns his caretakers have secrets and by the third chapter, Theo learn's that something really is wrong with him. So the story doesn't wait long to get started.

From then one we get plenty of action including multiple chase scenes. So the story isn't slow by any means. And there are some good cliffhanger chapter endings.

USE OF HUMOR

There are some very silly moments, more in the first portion of the book. Although some of jokes are hit or miss for me. Some of Theo's observations are disturbing while other succeed at being funny.

I had to smile when he thought of coffee as "the brown death". While his spouting that happiness was dangerous was disturbing. But I think the latter was supposed to express the more important teachings of his guardians.

TWO SOCIETIES

The story is about the fight between two groups, the Society of Good Works and the Society of Unrelenting Vigilance. The latter made to watch the former.

I found most of the scenes were Dr. Saint ranted about doing good deeds to be kind of silly. I didn't take him serious as a villain because I couldn't believe that he believed what he was saying. And sadly, I think it could have been done well, because what they want to do is take peoples freedoms to make a better world. They see individualism as dangerous. So their collectivists. No different then communists, socialists and marxists. Seeing how there is so much material to go off of, I was let down that it felt so cheesy.

And the idea is genius, even if its an exaggeration of what politicans already do. Call yourself the Society of Good Deeds. Use buzzwords that the masses have already been trained to respond to. Equality. Justice. Antiracist. Antibigotry. Who can be against those things? No one. And the fact that those who are using these words don't care about anyone but themselves and manipulating others' emotions to gain power, well, most people are too dumb to notice.

THE MERCY TUBE

We learn pretty fast that there is a mechanical device called the mercy tube that Theo has to use every night. It's for his illness. But he doesn't know exactly what his illness is and we aren't told why he believes he is ill. I guess he has just been told his whole life so he believes it.

Regardless, we do eventually learn what the real purpose of the tube is but there isn't any detail given to how it is supposed to work.

THEO & CHLOE

There interactions are funny at first, because Chloe knows all about him. She makes fun of the fact that all he knows are silly fairy tales as well as the fact that he thinks that Sam is dangerous because he wants to be happy and thows jelly beans into his mouth. That line made me laugh but in reality I wish Chloe had realized how screwed up that Theo was.

His reasoning skills are that of a child much younger than him. I eventually expected her to take him more seriously. But she only does that when she sees him use his skill to melt someone.

Theo is often confused by Chloe's behavior but he soon grows to respect her. He realizes the fact that she has been putting her life on the line and continues to do so, is amazing. But instead of this being a gradual process where he sees her actions and he expresses awe through his own he expresses it awkwardly, through his thoughts. And it felt kind of cheesy and overdone.

RELATIONSHIPS

I think one thing that is severely lacking in the story is relationships. The only real relationship that Theo has with anyone is Chloe. He has no real relationship with Dr. Saint, certainly there isn't any trust. Theo just goes along because he is naive and has no reason not to trust him.

Mr. Nicely could be considered more well intentioned, or at least more friendly. But still, not much of an actual relationship.

I guess what I am saying is that Theo can't be crushed about Dr. Saint lying, because Dr. Saint isn't a mentor or protector character. Theo is mad because of the lie of his life, not because he trusted anything Dr. Saint said or did specifically.

I wanted him to recall a moment of kindess between them, so he could feel betrayed. I understand that in order for the story to jump right in, there was time to form any deep relationship. But we could have flashed back a few times, making the truth all the more hard to bear for Theo.

It would have also been nice if Magnus had become a sort of mentor character as well. But he is barely in the story. Also i would have liked it if Sam had become a friend, and perhaps we could see the contrast between an opposite sex friendship and a same sex friendship. And how Theo handled these differences which he had never encountered before.

AWKWARD WRITING

The first time we meet Tristus, we don't actually meet him. Theo tries to get out a window only to be swept up into the air. The chapter ends, and in the next chapter, Theo is placed back on the ground. The writing it rather strange, as he gets about two seconds to think about the terrifying incident that just occured and that some sort of monster just swooped in.

And then he is busy being greeted by two strangers. And that's it for Tristus.

The lack of attention spent on this amazing incident baffled me. I wanted Theo to freak out, to scream, to faint, to do something. To speculate about what just happened to him and who or what just appeared and vanished. Because I wanted to do those things too. The importance of this scene was completly underplayed.

WHAT HAPPENED TO WICKLAND?-SPOILERS

We first learn about the previous candlman when Theo finds a secret room. One thing I found strange was that the photograph looked just like Theo. I get that it's later revealed that the previous candleman is an ancestor of Theo's, but wouldn't they merely have a slight resemblance, or none at all? How many of us look nothing like our grandparents?

After that, he and Chloe track down one of the burglars. He has information about the Candle man (it was mentioned when they first met Theo). Turns out his grandpa had a series of novels based opon the Candleman. It was as popular as Sherlock holmes. Then suddenly they stopped publishing them and all the old ones disappeared. Then the government made up some garbage and seized the books.

I found this explanation partly interesting, and partly vague. I kept thinking, that's nice. But where is the important part? Turns out it's a map they end up being given by the burglar.

THE ASCENDENCY

No one knows what the ascendency is. Eventually we learn it is merely Theo. I thought it was underwhelming and had hoped for more mystery.

A DECEPTIVE DEATH-SPOILERS

Turns out that a character supposedly died. I say supposedly because this character has a copy of her...so I didn't really believe they had died. So it ellicted no shock or anxiety from me.

NICELY'S CHANGE-SPOILERS

Near the end of the story Mr. Nicely turns against Dr. Saint, and tries to kill him. There are few hints that this may happen. But mostly its just Dr. Saint mistreating Mr. Nicely. But I kind of assume he has done this all of Theo's life. He doesn't exactly come off as a nice guy. I could understand someone realizing they had been brainwashed but the effort isn't done with Nicely. We just don't know him well enough or see this development.

THE MYSTERY OF TRISTUS-SPOILERS

We eventually learn that Tristus is a ghargoul that has been summoned by Dr. Saint. Tristus refuses to speak to the doctor and does his bidding begrudgingly. But we are not sure why. We get a few scenes here and there as Tristus hunts down Theo. And eventually Tristus becomes an ally and we get a short scene where he and Theo have a discussion near the end of the story.

But I felt the author was assuming they had some sort of relationship by that point. I mean Tristus does save Theo's life. But they don't even know each other. I feel the story was demanding to elicit emotions it wasn't entitled to because it hadn't been earned.

THE TRUTH ABOUT WICKLAND-SPOILERS

Dr. Saint reveals that the ghosts that Theo met earlier were people killed by the candleman. Turns out he killed innocent people quite often. So maybe he wasn't the hero he was made out to be in the books. But Theo realizes this doesn't mean he shouldn't stop Dr. Saint. But it might have caused him to realize he needs help with his abilities. And an unlikley person may be of assistance.

CLIMAX

Theo has to face Dr. Saint and overcome his fear. Throught most of the story he admits to himself that he terrified of facing him again. And when he merely hears the man's voice earlier in the story it terrifies him. So by doing so it's the end of his arc. He faces the dodo as well, and makes a bold move.

REDEMPTION-SPOILERS

Theo ends up asking for the Dodo to help him learn about his abilities since this man knows all about it. I honestly didn't know if Theo could help kill him. He killed others, but it always happened by accident or when he had little chance to stop and think about it. There wasn't any real debate about if he should kill him or if it was moral. That kind of bothered me.

Also as much as I had seen of the Dodo, I had little sympathy for him. So I honestly didn't care that he was spared. I wanted to be upset if he died or relieved if he wasn't. But I didn't feel much of anything. I think the point was that Theo had matured and after learning about the truth about his ancestor feared turning out like him.

CONCLUSION

I liked both Chloe and Theo, but was indifferent to the other characters because I learned next to nothing about them.

I felt the world held potentional with creatures like garghouls and smoglodytes exisiting, but not enough detail was given to exactly what they were. Or perhaps what was given was just dull. I only cared about Tristus because I was curious about him. And I never had my curiosity rewarded with answers. Although I get this was only the first in the series, I wanted something to reward my time.

The same goes for the dodo and the candleman.

As for the two societies, it would have been interesting to delve into their beliefs in a more serious manner, but they were both kind of jokes. And I understand this is a childrens' novel but I think it could have been handled with enough seriousness to make the villain threatening without being dull to kids.

The story isn't dull or slow paced, so I wasn't ever bored.

I give the Candleman" two and a half stars.

Book Review: "The Death Collector" by Justin Richards

SPOIL-FREE SUMMARY

Three Londoners get involved with a mystery after a man is killed at a museum. Eventually they are all brought together because of a piece of paper in a wallet. But they don't all get along, especially when one claims to have seen a monster.

CAST OF CHARACTERS

Eddie is a fourteen year old pick-pocket with no friends and no family.

Liz Oldfield is a young woman who lives and takes care of her elderly father, the reverend. She loves the theater and dreams of acting.

George Archer is a nineteen year old man who works at a museum.

Sir William Protheroe is an older man who works with George at the museum.

PACING

The main characters are George, Liz and Eddie. Each character gets in introductory scene and then slowly each character runs into another until all of them confide in each other about their events. Even so the pacing isn't as fast as you would expect.

Usually when the narrator goes back and forth between characters, it really helps. I found it interesting in the beginning, but it doesn't keep shooting strange scenes like the opening. By page eighty-four the characters are all together out of a three-hundred and twenty page book.

TRUSTING LIZ

When George meets Liz its revealed that he can't help but trust her. He seems infatuated but it's not portrayed like that, instead it's revealed that he feels that “Liz has a keen intelligence and obvious beauty”. But why would that make her trustworthy?

It's as though the author is forcing these characters together, when in reality George would just take the wallet and leave. Or the more obvious answer, that he would see how pretty she was and would want her to stay and would share something about himself. But revealing that he witnessed a murder would come off as showing off and lacking sincerity. It would make George unlikable. Perhaps he would mention a vague summary of events without revealing the murder.

I feel as though the scene was meant to show how amazing Liz is. After all, George imagined a middle aged spinster and got a beautiful and smart young woman. Even so, he comes off as naive and slightly sexist while she comes off as far superior.

OPPRESSED LIZ?

Eventually we see that Liz lives with her elderly father and helps take care of him.

At first, I sensed no negative feelings towards her father. Simply respect and perhaps a slight affection. But later it's revealed that Liz loves acting and has argued with her father about the theater, which he sees as frivolous and evil. This seems like a cartoonish portrayal of a puritanical patriarch. Luckily it's only mentioned in passing (though that alone is odd, because it makes it hard to feel bad for Liz).

It would be believable if perhaps we saw a good side of her father. But we barely see him at all. And even his so called ignorant attitude is simply spoken of as something that happened in the past. So we never see Liz being abused in any way, nor do we see her being kind to her father and loving him even though she thinks she is wrong. Instead we get the idea that she believes herself to be oppressed, when in reality she seems treated well. To be fair, it could be a lot worse. Liz could have been called a feminist and her father could have been portrayed far worse.

THE SEANCE & JOKESTER LIZ

George and Liz end up going to séance in an attempt to contact the dead man Albert Wilkes. Neither of them believe in such a thing and were roped into going. Turns out the whole things is scam, and Liz being the smarter of the two (we kind of figured this out before as it seems the author's intent for Liz to be the smart one) realizes this right away.

Anyway, Liz decides to play along and seems to be enjoying herself. But I was instantly confused. Her character didn't seem like a jokster at all, she didn't even seem to have that much of a sense of humor. It was as though the author was suddenly inserting a new personality. It never came back by the way. Liz never makes any jokes after this or reveals any history of pranks.

Also, it turns out a ghost actually shows up and spells out 'ORIMO'. I don't know why it didn't start at the beginning of the name at least. But it's kind of obvious who it was spelling considering the death at the beginning of the book.

USELESS GEORGE-SPOILERS

The problem is that George kind of looks dumb in a few scenes. In fact, he kind of has to be dumb. When he witnesses someone die and say a name, he assumes that person is supposed to be able to help. Sir William has to point out that he was probably saying who killed him. And later Liz points out the importance of the paper and is mad that he didn't say that all the other pages of the diary were blank. She sounds annoyed at his stupidity and he submissivly takes her insult.

Now George does prove he is not an idiot as he helps make a plan to rescue two characters. It's just that he seems kind of dumb before this. And I think it was unnecessary to make him dumb in order to elevate Liz and for the plot (so we don't learn the obvious about last words and a death).

RELATIONSHIPS

George seems to have a crush on Liz but this is never explored.

Eddie points out that Liz is close to his age but her relationship seems more motherly towards him. A few times she worries about him when he is left behind or in trouble.

Sir William is a mentor character to all the characters.

Eddie doesn't like George when he first meets him and later I guess they get on okay. George just tells him in one scene that he likes him, but doesn't explain why and I didn't understand why either. He barely knew him. If anything, all he could feel was sympathy.

The real problem these relationships feel so shallow and never develop is because these characters don't really have a history.

HISTORY-SPOILERS

Eddie vaguely mentions he has no family or home. His mom died and then he left home and came back to find his dad gone and taken his sister. There is no more mention of it after that. I wish it had been explored more.

Liz takes care of her father but should probably be married or courting someone. Why isn't she? She is described as being beautiful and smart so young men must have tried to court her. How long has she been her father's sole caretaker? Did her mother recently pass?

George has even less of a history. I can't really tell you anything about him.

ROLES-SPOILERS

When it comes to character roles each character has a different one to play.

Eddie is streetsmart and ends up being a help. He causes a distraction for George and Liz to escape. He distracts the lackies for them on another occasion. He is the one who ropes them into a séance which ends up being helpful (kinda). He also sneaks around and finds out about tunnels that help them run and hide.

George works at a museum so he has access to it as well as being interesting in machines and this skill comes into play in the finale. Liz ends up finding about the dead body and the dinosaur bone because her father the reverend is contacted when the body is discovered and she is allowed to tag along.

Sir William is the the smartest and just tends to know things. Also he finds out about a traitor in the museum and leads them to the foundry where he speculates about their villain.

OUR VILLAINS

It's eventually revealed who our villain is but we mostly see his lackies thoughout the story. In fact there is only one scene with our villain before it is revealed that he is the villian. But it's not really shocking seeing how a character died.

I didn't really develop hatred nor did I feel like the villain was interesting. I get that he's power hungry and kind of crazy but I wish I had seen it slightly more before the finale.

DEAD MEN, DINOSAURS AND SCIFI-SPOILERS

There are interesting moments throughout the book that really make you curious. For instance, in the opening we see a dead man come home for tea and to take the dog for a walk.

Later we dig up said dead man and learn that his legs are broken and his bones replaced with some dinosaur bones. Things like this really caught my attention. Unfortunately none of it comes together like I would have hoped, that is, as puzzle pieces.

WILL EXPLAINS IT ALL-SPOILERS

Sir William ends up helping the characters alot, like when he explains about the Crystal Palace. This is important because we get a fragment of paper that says something about a crystal. He notes that word Crystal is capitalized like a name.

Near the climax, Sir William explains just what Lorimore has been up to. The fact is...I felt like I never would have understood if he hadn't. I didn't feel like there were nearly enough clues to figure it out. I couldn't have an “aha!” moment because I wasn't coming up with crazy ideas for the finale.

ALBERT & GEORGE-SPOILERS

There are a few scenes where George tries to get through to Albert. But it's hard to feel anything seeing how the reader never gets to see any relationship between them. Albert is dead to begin with and we don't get any flashbacks.

CLIMAX

Two characters end up getting caught by the villain while the others plan to rescue them. We finally meet the villain and here about his plan which is quite dramatic. Eventually they all manage to stop his evil plan.

CONCLUSION

The story idea itself is decent. It's just the characters are so lackluster that I found I didn't care about them. How could I, when I knew next to nothing about them? And sometimes they weren't even portrayed consistently, like Liz.

I found most of the ideas original and interesting. I just never felt like things came together well. The story kind of felt like it was best when it tried to be a mystery while the scifi element was kind of tacked on, inserted in certain parts without much detail.

I give "The Death Collector" two and half stars.

Book Review: "Capt. Hook" by J.V. Hart

SPOIL-FREE SUMMARY

Before Captain Hook was the character we all know, he was a young man attending Eton. There he faces bullying and falls in love with a beautiful young women. While eventually learning about life at sea.

CAST OF CHARACTERS

James is the bastard son of a wealthy man. He has never been close to anyone but his Aunt Emily. He makes no attempt to fit in and is portrayed as a victim rather fast.

Roger is a fellow student who ends up friends with James. There isn't any particular reason why they become friends. Roger doesn't see James as normal but he doesn't seem intimidated by him, like everyone else. But we don't know why because we never learn anything about Roger. There is no process of developing friendship and they are just instantly friends.

Ananova is the daughter of a sultan. She is beautiful and smart as well as athletic and graceful. We get the feeling that she has been oppressed most of her life. But we don't go into any details about it and how difficult it must have been for her to have been raised in the middle east.

Arthur Darling is an upperclassmen who sets himself up as the villain from the beginning, when he is rude to James' aunt. James overreacts but Arthur still comes across worse. He abuses James through most of the story through the legal system of upperclassmen disciplining lowerclassmen.

PACING

Pacing is slower some parts and faster in others. Mainly faster during the sports match, when James attempts a rescue, and near the climax. But the slower pacing isn't slow to the point where it bothered me. There were enough interesting things going on in between these action scenes.

STRUCTURE-SPOILERS

The story is set up like this, the first part is James introduction to school life, Arthur and Ananova.

Eventually we get a reprieve from school life when James attempts to rescue Ananova. Then we go back to school, James ends up having a climax with Arthur.

After that, James is sent to work as a cabin boy as punishment. This slowly leads to the realization about the cargo and a climax.

JAMES' FATHER

James father is mentioned briefly and appears in the the story about two times I think. He is set up not necessarily as bad, but as neglectful. James doesn't seem to know him well enough to hate him but he does seem to resent him.

The only moment where he laments his lack of a relationship is when he wins a game, and he wonders why his father wasn't there. Or it might have just been the narrators comments. Hard to tell.

ANANOVA & JAMES

James and Ananova as both portrayed rather shallowly. James is a victim, brought up in a world of wealth that he doesn't belong in and Ananova is forced to leave England against her will and forbidden to ever talk to James (because his father is so famous that even the Queen knows who James is).

Add this to the fact that they fall in love almost instantly and yet spend such little time together. So the reader can only assume they find each other physically attractive, and that's basically it.

Also, as far as we know, James has never had any real relationships with anyone his own age before Roger. But just like his friendship just happens, so does this romance. Is he prone to falling head over heels for pretty girls? Because there seems no precedence for this sudden sentimentality (unless you count his love for his aunt, which we never learn about).

Their relationship often doesn't make sense either, like Ananova magically knowing that James has come after her on her ship to rescue her...because they had one conversation. And only because She sees a small boat from far away and just knows its him.

So much of their so called relationship is James and Ananova telling us about it, instead of actually watching it happen.

THE FAILED RESCUE-SPOILERS

James and Roger go to see Ananova. James says he will kidnap her (I don't know why). There is no discussion about what will happen afterwards. Not with Roger or Ananova herself. So they get off the ship on a horse (I am assuming the water is shallow...even though the ship probably wouldn't be) and get to shore, and get arrested.

So there was no point to anything. And James doesn't even seem to think of it as a failure. He thinks Ananova must adore him and never apologize for his failed rescue.

Sounds more like a saint then a real person. If Ananova was as bold as they portrayed her, she would have roundly scolded James for getting her hopes up and then having no actual plan.

ANANOVA

The problem with Ananova is similar to James, we learn so little about her. And yet we are told by the author that she is a goddess. That's how the Queen thinks of her. That's how James thinks of her. It's kind of cheesy to have two different characters think the same thing (James might be lovestruck but a Queen would most likely not call a girl a goddess even if she knew her well).

Her main reason of existance is so that James can rescue her, even though he fails at that. So it would explain why she has no real personality or history to speak of.

WHO IS JAMES?

I found myself confused about who exactly James was. At first he was a victim, with a neglectful father and no real relationships to speak of his whole life, except for his aunt. But I never got to see his mistreatments as a child, so I was kind of taken aback at how out of proportion his reaction was to being slighted by Arthur in the beginning. I expected to learn more of his past and was disappointed not to.

Sometimes I think the author got that James might be slightly crazy (like when he bites arthur) but it was never really expanded upon. Why did he wish to plan the deaths of those who hurt him? Was he joking or serious? I didn't want to think he was serious, so he had to be mentally unstable. When he looked at the names on the bookshelf while being hit, I kept thinking that this was a coping mechanism that he must have always had, which meant he must have been abused before. But the author never reveals this.

For the most part this insane aspect of his personality was ignored, until it came out in full force when he fought Arthur. During this event, James comes off as sadistic and creepy. I might have not understood his motivations throughout the book but I always felt bad for him. But suddenly I didn't feel bad at all, I thought he was quite evil and Arthur was the one who was being abused far worse than he had ever abused James.

JAMES THE SADIST

There is bit about James telling Arthur to squeal like a pig that was extremly disturbing. I suddenly wondered who else James may have abused in his childhood. But the author is so oblivious he just kept pouring it on, as though the reader should have taken pleasure from the pain and humiliation that Arthur suffered. And that sadism was fine for James, so it should be fine for you too.

We all love seeing villains we hate receive their due, but the hero seldom enjoys having to kill the villain or hurt him. He just sees it as a necessary evil. And sometimes the villain is the one who ends up hurting or killing himself through his own anger and hatred.

THE SPIDER

James likes science and spends time in school laboratory. There he meets a spider who for some reason obeys him like a dog. And he later uses her spider web to make a vest that is nearly indestructable.

I think it was supposed to add some allure to his character but it didn't really make any sense to me. How on earth did he know how to make a vest, seeing as how he was brought up in wealth? It just felt like a clumsily put together concept designed to make James seem mysterious.

JAMES THE HERO-SPOILERS

In the last part of the book, James learns the truth, that the ship he is working on is picking up and delivering slaves from Africa (even though Slavery is banned in England). James is furious and seriously shaken to learn that his father is a slaver.

First of all, James shouldn't have been surprised, as far he knows, his dad could be the devil, because he never knew him. And he seemed to have little delusion that his father was moral. Perhaps it would have been surprising, but not earth shattering.

Even so, James seems to have no real moral convictions throughout the entire book, unless you count him being mad at Arthur for being rude to Aunt Emily. And that felt more like James being emotionally unstable than any real convictions.

He says “bad form” throughout the book but it has no real meaning, perhaps merely pertaining to appearing to have manners. After all, he thinks cheating is fine and even says so. And it's clear from the way he treats Arthur in the climax that he thinks he should do whatever he wants in retaliation if he feels abused.

JAMES' BELIEFS

Another confusing aspect is James' religious beliefs. He says in one breath that he believes Adam and Eve literally happened, but so did every other manner of mythology, including Greek myths. He doesn't seem to get the contradiction which is silly, seeing how he he lives in a culturally christian society.

And when the captain on his ship starts spouting scripture to justify slavery (never mind that it's illegal in his country of origin) James vows that no man should ever justify evil in the name of religion. This comes so out of the blue and feels so unlike James. He is not self righteous, certainly not in a religious sense.

SETTING UP NEVERLAND

There is no real explanation in how James discovers a magical island in the future, he just dreams about it a few times in the book. I kinda get that he felt victimized and wanted a place of all his own, so perhaps he could make up a place. Maybe coming from his mental instability (but that's never expounded upon, remember?).

So instead we are led to believe him wanting a magical place will lead him one day to finding not just any island, but the specific one he made up. So him and Ananova could live happily ever after or something.

It's vague and feels like it was thrown in last minute, as if the author forgot that this James should have a connection to neverland. So he went back in and inserted a few lines about daydreams that occurred.

CLIMAX

James ends up facing a new enemy at sea and becomse a hero and a captain. The story ends with hints that someday he will find a magical island. But no real idea how.

CONCLUSION

The story of James before he became a captain could be interesting. Unfortunately the author doesn't seem to know who James really is and never goes into his past. We only get a two dimensional view, and the same goes for his love interest, Ananova.

They have no real relationship, but fall in love in a matter of seconds. Nor does James have any real relationship with his only friend, Roger.

The story seems to meander around, not knowing where its going and events sometimes feel disconnected. Not that it's boring, it's not. I just kept waiting for pieces to come together, and they never did.

I give “Capt. Hook” one and half stars.

Book Review: "The Chosen Prince" by Diane Stanley

SPOIL-FREE SUMMARY

Alexos is first in line for the throne, but when an incident leads to disappointing his father, he does the unthinkable. Years later he has kept it a secret and attempts to fill the shoes of his father. With the help of his friends, he hopes to defeat an invading King.

CAST OF CHARACTERS

Alexos is rather unsure of himself and wants more than anything to please his father. Although he also longs to fit in with other boys. He loves his little brother dearly.

Teo is spoiled and has lived a life unlike his older brother. But he is rather sweet and adores Alexos.

Leander is a fellow student of Alexos who is rather outgoing and confident.

Aria is a young girl who is in the second half of the story. She is close to Teo.

Peles is a country boy that ends up competing in the same race as Alexos.

PACING

The pacing is slower for the most part. Although there was one scene that was quite fast paced, where Peles has to help Alexos escape while an invasion is going on. Unfortunately, portions of the book are slowed down by long bouts of exposition by Alexos, Teo and even Aria.

STRUCTURE

The story takes place in two parts, when Alexos is younger and still a prince and when he is older. There is a seven year gap, perhaps to imply that both brothers grew up apart from each other. I am not sure why it was necessary.

ALEXOS AND HIS FATHER-SPOILERS

Alexos struggles to please his father in the beginning of the book. He has a hard time standing up for himself. But they barely have any scenes together. We get one more scene with the two of them in the second part of the story, when Alexos is much older and more confident in himself.

But their relationship seems to have been transformed from bad to worse. And we didn't get to see it gradually transform. Instead it came as a complete surprise to me when Alexos was sarcastic and bold. I wondered where this came from.

But then his father is killed, and we get told about it. Alexos reaction is surprising, he starts sobbing for the man he never knew and the relationship he never got to repair. But I never felt he attempted to repair the relationship so the loss felt hollow to me.

ALL GROWN UP?

After healing Alexos suddenly shows wisdom and maturity when he meets a woman who disrespects him. But this feels unearned. When did he gain this wisdom and from who did he gain it from? It's as though he aged five years instead of a few months.

ALEXO'S FRIENDS

After Teo's disappearance, Alexos has to gradually heal and work to make himself stronger. I assumed that he became friends with the boys during this time as we got a quick scene showing them together, explaining they wanted to help.

So when they go off to find Peles, suddenly they are all the best of friends. I wish I had got to see it develop. Although only Leander is given any real attention. And I still knew nothing about him except for what I was told by Alexos, that he was likable and easygoing. There is one or two scenes where they are sarcastic to each other but it feels forced.

Also, when Alexos sees his father he says he has friends, and his father is surprised. But we never got to see these friendships form, so it all falls flat.

SINS OF THE PAST

While traveling to see Peles, Leander and Alexos discuss the past. Alexos said he was upset at being mistreated and Leander apoligizes. The problem with this bit of exposition as that the reader never got to see any of this mistreatment and has to imagine this relationship is evolving into something new. When they never got to see what it was before.

PELES AND EQUALITY

After Alexos' teacher tells him about povery, he decides to visit Peles once he is healed. And once he finds Peles he convinces his father to let him leave the army. I guess he realizes his father's injustices and thinks he is doing a good deed.

Anyway, when they tell Peles this both him and Leander give him a talk about equality which I found kind of out of the blue. As it had no place in Alexos' world as far as I could see. I think the idea was to show he could be better than his father.

Also, Alexos praises Peles but he barely knows him. Yes, he knows he used the praise money for roads, but it's all very surface level stuff. And saying he has a “good heart” seems strange and unearned.

VISIONS OF TEO-SPOILERS

Alexos gets visions of his brother, who he believes to be in the afterlife. Maybe this was supposed to add suspense but it seemed obvious that Teo wasn't really dead. But Alexos thinks it's the goddess Athene being kind showing him this. Even though he basically murdered his brother. But this is supposed to help heal him of his guilt.

THE GODDESS INTERVENES-SPOILERS

A big problem in the story is that the goddess Athene steps in twice to move the plot along. She does the work the characters don't have to, which unfortunately just makes them look weak and pointless.

The first time is when Aria is found in the King's camp and a vision magically appears, revealing the King is a liar and a murderer. So all of his men turn on him and eventually execute him.

Another time is when Aria won't forgive Alexos for what he did to Teo. You can't really blame her. Luckily the goddess steps in again and shows her a vision of Alexo's entire life and throws in some other revelations as well. So Aria doesn't have to learn to forgive and trust Alexos which would actually take some character development. But she does get to give Alexos a message.

NOT HIS FAULT-SPOILERS

So it turns out that the terrible thing that Alexos did to Teo...wasn't Alexos at all. It was Athene, who controlled him and made him do it. After all, Alexos did explain to his teacher that he didn't know why he did what he did. He had no explanation for his own actions.

Now, that might sound awful and horrible as it caused Alexos a lifetime of regret and self-hatred, but she was just being merciful. Aria explains it was all about love and forgiveness and it definitely wasn't abusive and controlling. So Alexos feels all better.

CLAUDIO'S STORY

The man who raised Aria and Teo was brother to King Pyrato's father. But he had to run away with his daughter and ended up on an island. Turns out the goddess was using him too. I feel this was kind of forced in at the second half of the story and no real effort was made to make the pieces fit together.

FORGIVING ALEXOS

Teo has to forgive Alexos so he does so...in a long, drawn out scene of exposition similar to the one Aria later gives. But why couldn't Teo just forgive him for a real sin? Why couldn't he struggle with this forgiveness? Everything seems swept aside by the goddess to the point where the characters feel like puppets in their own story.

ARIA & ALEXOS

Aria sees Alexos and immediately falls in love with him. It feels forced and the many flowery, romantic descriptions of her emotions don't help.

CLIMAX

Alexos and his friends end up on a strange island where they meet a girl. There Alexos learns the truth about his brother but unfortunately stands by for the majority of the climax. We learn the truth about King Pyratos, our supposed villain.

CONCLUSION

The story isn't a bad idea, it's just full of flaws.

Alexos never has a real character arc that the reader sees, instead we jump from one Alexos to the next, where he is suddenly calm, wise and composed with a stranger and then bold and sarcastic with his father.

The relationships are weak as well. Teo and Alexos barely get any time together so it's hard to feel invested in their relationship. Aria meets Alexos and falls in love in a matter of minutes. We never see the hardships between Leander and Alexos, so when they discuss their past I was left wondering why I didn't get to see this relationship when it happened.

But the biggest problem is the deus ex machina element. The goddess steps in mulitiple times to solve the characters' problems, not just once, but twice. This makes them look useless as well as making it so no characters have to develop.

Alexos doesn't have to face the fact he hurt his brother, because he never did, it was the Goddess. Aria doesn't have to trust and forgive Alexos, because the Goddess steps in and explains that the prince is just a victim. And Teo doesn't have to let go of his hatred at a past sin, because the sin never occurred.

I give “The Chosen King” one and half stars.

Book Review: "Silver Boy" by N.M. Browne

SPOIL-FREE SUMMARY

Tommo escapes his life as a slave and meets Akenna, a young woman with her own problems. They end up together trying to escape trouble.

CAST OF CHARACTERS

Tommo is resigned to the fact that he is going to die from his disease. He has no family ties and only wants to be free.

Akenna is a young girl who is rather rough around the edges. She is used to being independent and is skilled when it comes to catching and deboning fish. She can lose her temper quite often.

Fallon is the Protector of the land, which is basically like a king (and the villain). He fears those with special gifts called Inward Power. The only one he loves is Vevena.

Kalen is the chief spellstone wielder for Fallen. But he is rather weak willed and fearful. He spends some of his time with Vevena.

Haversnatcher is the father of Vevena. When he was younger he used to hunt down those with inward power.

Vevena is a young woman married to Fallon against her will. She has a spell on her that causes her to have little control over her own thoughts.

PACING

The story starts with Tommo on the run, which is great. But we get some explanation about priests and such, that kinda slows things down. We meet Akenna quite fast, so that's good as well. Then Tommo recalls something from his past, revealing how difficult it was to be a spellgrinder.

Basically information is peppered throughout, but I was never dying to know more. Perhaps because Tommo himself had no real relationship with anyone before Akenna. So the story doesn't usually feel fast, even if there is action in it.

TOMMO'S DECEPTION

Since Tommo worked with spellstones (which allow people to cast their own spells) Akenna assumes that he can use what's called Thaumaturgy. He never corrects her, because he has to rely on her for food and a ride. Akenna is annoyed when she finds out the truth but it didn't feel very important. I kind of expected it to snowball and all come to a head.

TOMMO'S GIFTS

Tommo isn't aware of any gifts if he has any. But he does find a dead dolphin who speaks to him and says only he can free the dolphn. Also, later he turns invisible. But he seems to have no real control over these gifts and they are kind of confusing. I feel like the only reason they are there is to make the reader think that Tommo is the real threat, when it turns out to be someone else.

THE WORLD

In this story the world has something called Thaumaturgy and Inward Power. The first is more common and less powerful and the second is more dangerous.

They worship a goddess called Urtha who had priestesses who claimed inward power was good and not to be condemned. I admit, most of this went over my head, as I had no idea what this had to do with Tommo. He does go to her temple to claim sanctuary, but it still seems to have nothing to do with him.

There is a mention about equilibrium of thaumaturgy but I found it quite confusing.

We get other hints of history, like the Blue pox, which killed all the priests, as well as someone called Gildea.

I don't know quite why I found it all vague. Perhaps because a lot of information was given at once, or if it was given it was such a small hint that I didn't even notice, like the birds with faces. The first time they were noted, I didn't think they important. And when they mentioned one protecting Akenna, I still had no idea why. I think the fact that Fallon hated birds went completely past me.

THE PRISONER-SPOILERS

An old powerful man named Gildea was once kept in Fallon's prison. He introduced thaumaturgy to the Island. He also said that spellstones were living beings and not to be ground and used casually. Although he died Fallon still feels like he is threat.

PERSPECTIVES

We first meet Tommo, and get the story from his perspective. Then we meet Fallon and see some of his story. Eventually Vevena and Haversnatcher, and Akenna.

I expected to get to know both Vevena and Haversnatcher better then I did. And I thought it was odd that the villain had his own stories. I didn't really feel like there was much too him, certainly not enough to get into his head.

I found Vevena mainly played the part of victim with not much else to her character. And I never really got to know Haversnatcher. I felt like I was meeting these characters long after I should have. Like they had a story before this one with a firm relationship that had been shattered. Since her and her father were never really together, I just had to take their word that they cared deeply for each other.

Not that they are not important to the plot, it's Vevena who finds out that Gildea isn't even dead. Although he supposedly dies anyway. And Haversnatcher is the one who has to hunt down Sibeal.

OUR VILLAIN

Fallon came across as two dimensional for someone whose head the reader gets into. He loves Vevena, I guess because she is pretty. But he also married her so her father could do as he wills.

He put a spell on Vevena so she can't control her thoughts completely and he has zero chance to win her over. He doesn't even try (then again he is described as being ugly so maybe he knows he hasn't a chance).

And yet Vevena notes he has never laid a finger on her, so he does respect her in some sense. Perhaps realizing he has turned her into a childlike doll. Although this is never expressed.

SIBEAL

I suppose Sibeal is a type of mentor character, although she barely spends any time with Akenna and Tommo. She was important because of the necklace she gave Akenna, and the fact that she is really the only person that Akenna knows of to run to when in trouble.

HEALING VEVENA

When Tommo finally meets Vevena he tells her to take off all of her jewelry. Turns out that they were what was keeping her enchanted. I thought it was strange that Vevena had never taken all of her jewelry off. It might have kept her from knowing, but how would Tommo merely telling her to do something make her do it? I don't think the spell made her obedient, just stupid. Perhaps Tommo should have been the one to remove the jewelry, making it clear that Vevena had not power to do so herself.

AKENNA & TOMMO

I thought the two of them played well off of each other. Tommo is quite willing to give up many times, and you can't really blame him. And yet Akenna is so stubborn that she just won't let him do it.

What starts out as a relationship of convenience (Akenna gives him food and a ride but expects payment) gradually turns into a friendship. It becomes clear that Akenna needs someone to care for and that Tommo needs to be cared for.

Both characters are victims, Tommo from his slavery and Akenna from her abusive father. And yet for the most part, they don't bring it up. Neither deny their abuse, but they don't whine about it and make it their whole lives. Although Akenna does get revenge on her father.

THE BIRDS-SPOILERS

All throughout the story there are these strange birds with human heads on them. They are not just creepy but mysterious. At first Tommo assumes people made them with spellstones but later they keep showing up. Once they even defend Akenna, like they know her.

I didnt think much of them, I admit. And when they turned out to be crucial to the climax, I shouldn't have been surprised.

After all, Vevena notes that Fallon hates birds and is always killing them. She just doesn't know why. And later Haversnatcher sees a bird with the face of Gildea on it.

THE TRUTH ABOUT AKENNA-SPOILERS

Turns out that it's Akenna who has inward power. There are hints, like the fact that while she was rejected by Sibeal, she was given a necklace for some unknown reason. Also she says spellstones feel wrong and Tommo agrees but notes that none of the other spell grinders seemed to notice.

THE TRUTH ABOUT KALEN-SPOILERS

Turns out that Kalen is Tommo's father. He thought his son was dead. The thing was, I didn't really expect Tommo to find his father, because there weren't any hints about it. We just learn that he is.

AKENNA'S DECEPTION-SPOILERS

When Akenna disappears, she later shows up with her father. She says she never liked Akenna and it was all a lie. Tommo believes her and feels miserable. But I didn't really buy it, as it was obvious that her father was abusive. Why would she side with him over Tommo, who has done nothing bad to her? I kind of wish I had hesitated, and really wondered if it had all been an act.

CLIMAX

All of the main characters end up together. The birds with faces are brought together along with the last part, an eagle. The birds have to pick a body for Gildea, the savior, to return to. Eventually it chooses a body but everyone is confused at the outcome. Tommo is healed from his affliction.

ASLEEP AT THE WHEEL

I was kind of disappointed that Tommo was unconscious at the climax. He gets carried around and finally is healed near the end.

EPILOGUE-SPOILERS

We learn that Akenna and Tommo are married, which is sweet, but I don't think it was completely obvious that they had romantic feelings. They were just so alone and needed a friend.

CONCLUSION

Both Akenna and Tommo are likable characters who, while both being victims, don't act like the world revolves around them. They compliment each other nicely and both rely on each other and this reliance develops into a friendship.

But I didn't really care much about the other characters, Vevena and Haversnatcher. And Fallon was rather a dull villain who seemed to love Vevena just because she was pretty.

The world itself had potentional and I do feel like effort was made. But it just never went deep enough. I would learn something about it, and instead of jumping out at me, I kinda just skimmed past it, not seeing the relevance to what was currently happening.

Certain aspects of the plot didn't fell well put together, like Tommo's father being alive. Or the idea of the birds being so important.

I give “Silver Boy” two and half stars.