4 stars
YF (though possibly not the most accessible YF)
A fun and entertaining beginning to a new fantasy series. For kids... more or less.
Honestly, I'm not sure how accessible it is for kids, but it may be one of those books where kids get more out of it rereading it when they're a little older. Lots of references that younger readers will miss.
(I was actually a little relieved when Boo decided she didn't want to read it. I think she may have gotten frustrated.)
I found it a little confusing... partly because I always find Jasper Fforde a little confusing (it's like existential poetry... and the book of Isaiah... both make far more sense if I don't think about them too much), and probably partly from sleep deprivation, but it seemed to also be partly due to bad editing. I hate bad editing. When your characters do A and then go to sleep and then in the course of doing B refer back to A... you need to say it was yesterday, not that morning. And when a character suddenly starts responding to things with no antecedent (I think that's the word I want... sleep deprivation, remember?) well... that's a problem.
Overall, though, enjoyable and recommended for probably middle school readers. I look forward to book 2 making it to the states.
Jasper Fforde does have a tendency toward confusing anyway. I usually love his stuff so I will have to get around to this one one day.
ReplyDeleteI'm glad it's not just me, lol.
ReplyDelete