Warning Cry

Book Title: Warning Cry

Author: Kris Humphrey

Date Started: June 27th 2015

Date Completed: June 30th 2015

Genres: Adventure, Fantasy
Quality Rating: Three Stars
Enjoyment Rating: Three Stars

Final Rating: Three stars

Review:

◆ Thanks to NetGalley for this eBook copy for review ◆

Warning Cry was a fun, quick read, and has a nice concept perfect for younger readers. Personally, I thought it was good but it failed to blow me away. It felt like the series had to be read as a whole to be really enjoyable, and there were some other small things that prevented the book from being able to span over to older readers.

The writing didn't exactly flow for me, and there wasn't much of an atmosphere for most of the book. I personally don't think this is a big problem for a children's book as the story is far more important to engage and excite readers. That's also why I really love the setting of African-like plains (not sure if this world is supposed to be our reality or a high fantasy creation - there's a few grey areas around the world building). From what I know about the first book we get a different culture to explore for each book which is a really nice feature - especially since a lot of children's fantasy is either set in the US or high fantasy worlds.

The big disappointment with Warning Cry for me was that the amazing world hinted at isn't really explored. Sure, the characters wander around and travel a lot in the book, but just going through new locations isn't the same as learning about them so that they come to life in your imagination. For a kids book following magical characters, it was surprisingly bare in depth both in the characters and the world building. I wasn't expecting huge backstory about the political history of the kingdom, but I would've liked a little more explanation to really get into the story.

I liked the incorporation of the previous in this story, if it was only brief, but I expect those will become more common in the later books. But the biggest issue was that Warning Cry didn't stand on its own two feet. I understand that the book can get away with this because children aren't so concerned with continuity and long running storylines, but I think this made it really hard for me as an older reader to get into the book.

While I'm all for female heroines, I'm not sure I can recall any male named characters, in a book with quite a hoard of primary and secondary characters. I have a feeling that only women can be Whisperers - something that may have been explained in the first book, but again that comes to the point where it's not very easy to read as a stand alone.

Nara was a good protagonist because she acted like the voice of reason and courage. You usually get main characters that are reckless and need taming, with a wise sidekick; Warning Cry tells this sort of story from the wise perspective, and I felt like Nara did a good job of being a mentor. However, sometimes her actions didn't quite add up - she was the 'experienced' one, yet she was often helpless or made mistakes (of course, people can be scared and make mistakes, but the characterisation of it didn't feel consistent).

Though there always seems to be something happening in this book I wasn't gripped by a lot of it, and so it felt a lot longer than I'm sure it was. Because the plot line doesn't really follow a conventional storyline (not necessarily a bad thing) you can't really tell what's coming and so I found it a bit hard to motivate myself for long periods of time. However, the book was still very quick to read and engaging enough.

Warning Cry is a nice and fun read, but I honestly feel that there are better fantasy adventures for children out there. The concept is definitely the strong point, and I think younger readers will enjoy the the series as a whole - I think reading all the books when they come out back-to-back would make them a lot more enjoyable. While Warning Cry doesn't provide that appeal to slightly older readers, I think it's an entertaining children's series.

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