ANIMAL FARM by George Orwell 144 pp. Penguin Group. £8.99. (Ages 13 and up) ISBN 9780141182704 Rating: ? Stars This book is set in a future when animals are much cleverer than now. And because of their cleverness, the pigs started a revolution against the humans. Pigs could speak fluently in English unlike the other animals, and that gave them the power to be leaders. But, the story that follows only happened a few years after that... Their first leader, Old Major, was kind and fair who knew animals should be equal. But when Napoleon became the leader it was very unpleasant. He made a rule that allowed the pigs to have better food and that forced all of the other animals to work crazily hard every day and night. That wasn’t enough, Napoleon wanted more power. He decided to kill his brother, Snowball, so that he would be the only leader. Snowball was admired because he came up with a clever idea to build windmill. Sn...
Release Date: May 28, 2013
Pages: 256
From Goodreads: "In this sequel to OF POSEIDON, Emma has just learned that her mother is a long-lost Poseidon princess, and now struggles with an identity crisis: As a Half-Breed, she’s a freak in the human world and an abomination in the Syrena realm below. Syrena law states that all Half- Breeds should be put to death.
As if that’s not bad enough, her mother’s reappearance among the Syrena turns the two kingdoms—Poseidon and Triton—against one another. Which leaves Emma with a decision to make: Should she comply with Galen’s request to keep herself safe and just hope for the best? Or should she risk it all and reveal herself—and her Gift—to save a people she’s never known?"
"Of Triton" by Anna Banks was one of my best reads of 2012, in fact, in my review of it I described it as being "flawless" and stated that I couldn't contain my fan-girl SQUEEing. As such, I was obviously beyond excited for this book, however, after finishing it I must admit that it is one of the most disappointing sequels that I have ever read before.
My largest complaint about this book is that I felt that it read like a first draft- I understand that I did read an ARC and therefore there may be changes made between it and the final draft, but I feel that I would only enjoy the book if extensive changes were made. I felt that the book was so flat and one-dimensional, not once while reading it did I experience any real emotion (also, I didn't once swoon for Galen, something essentially unheard of for me). Additionally, I found that a number of characters grated on my nerves in this book, Emma's mom especially. While I did like that she rediscovered her long-lost love I felt that overall she was quite inconsiderate when it came to Emma's feelings- especially when she dropped the bombshell about Emma's parentage onto her, informing her that her life was even more so, if possible, a lie. I felt that she acted more immature than the teenagers actually did. Furthermore, I was not a fan of the way in which the POVs were written in this book- Emma's in first person and Galen's in third (I noticed this much more in this book than I had in the previous book, it felt mush more jarring and obvious). I feel like we don't truly get a sense of who Galen is as a person (Errrr... Syrena) with his POV being written in third person. He comes off as being quite superficial and juvenile.
I actually think that this book could have benefited from being longer- 100 pages or so. I think that if it was longer that the characters and plot would be better developed and more complex. It felt that very little happened in this book, as if it suffered from "second book syndrome", and what did happen (ie. the conflicts) were resolved far too easily.
All in all, in my opinion, "Of Triton" lost a lot of the magic that was in "Of Poseidon". That being said, while I personally was not a fan of this book I do think that die-hard fans will be more than happy with it. Furthermore, despite my complaints I do intend to continue on with this series, if only to see how to wraps up.
Rating: 2/5
I received this book from the publisher to read and review. I was not compensated in any way for said review.
Nhận xét
Đăng nhận xét