Red Rose, White Rose

Book Title: Red Rose, White Rose

Author: Joanna Hickson

Date Started: November 8th 2014

Date Completed: November 30th 2014

Genres: Historical, Romance

Rating: Four stars

Review:

Thank you to HarperFiction for providing me with this copy to review.

Because I wasn't really aware of the actual history of The War of the Roses, I didn't really know what was going on outside of the narration - which probably meant I missed out on a quite a lot of the story. Even so, I did enjoy most of this book, despite not being completely aware of consequences not witnessed by the narrators.

Cicely Neville is the youngest daughter of the Ralph Neville, and has been betrothed to Richard, Duke of York. And as power shifts in the years following her marriage, Cicely could become the most powerful woman England. But on top of the conflict between the White Roses of York and the Red Roses of Lancaster, Cicely has a dark secret which will cause her dire consequences in the future.

At first, I found Hickson's writing a little bit jerky and hard to get along with, but after I'd moved further into the story and was comfortable with the characters and their positions, I found that actually I really enjoyed the dual narrative. The only issue I really had with the writing was the vast amount of historical detail - which isn't a bad thing thing at all - but the fact that it was dumped onto the reader as facts throughout the entire book. I would've much preferred to have perhaps a little less detail communicated through the narrative or speech rather than just stated on the page.

The story arcs, in my opinion, are the best thing about this book. Because the story spans over such a huge amount of time (something I'll get to in a second), we see the characters develop an awful lot. This made things more exciting for me, because I didn't know how events would affect the people and therefore who they would react. The downside of this massive time span was that everything just wasn't focused on enough. Far too much was tried to be packed into a 500 page book so I didn't understand how certain things impacted overall. Again, I might have understood this better if I knew the history, but since I didn't, I struggled to appreciate the storyline.

Another thing I really would've liked to read about would be the politics; there's so much history packed into the story, but perhaps due to the situation the characters are in, the politics aren't really looked at - or I just didn't understand them when they were put in with everything else. This again made it really hard to understand the story because I didn't know the history.

However, towards the middle of the novel, I really started to enjoy it: I knew the characters, I was vaguely aware of the story and consequences and I had gotten used to the writing style. When things got complicated towards the end, I got lost again, but I appreciated the last few chapters despite not really knowing why things were happening. Basically, if you know the history, I think you'll really enjoy it. If you don't, you're going to have a bit of trouble with the understanding.

The characters were the element that I think people that didn't know the history could really get invested in, because you can follow their whole journey and understand where they're coming from.

Cicely was a brilliant character I think, especially because of her arc and development throughout the story. She wasn't really a very nice person, and because of this I felt that her actions were a lot more realistic and understandable, and I also assume it's true to the history.

Cuthbert narraters the other half of the book, and I have to say I was more interested in Cicely's half-brother's story. This was due to the fact he's involved in a lot more action rather than the household, and that interests me more. Hilda, who's featured in both but I think is more impactful on Cuthbert's story, was my favourite character because it's clear she knows a lot more than she lets on.

I think the pacing of this book depends on how much the reader knows and understands about The War of the Roses. Being pretty much entirely unaware of the events of the 1400s, I think I found chapters that were explaining key points fairly boring just because I didn't know what was going on. But, if I'd already known a little more about the circumstances I probably could've appreciated the deal more.

Red Rose, White Rose is a great novel about The War of the Roses, but it'd probably be a good idea to brush up on your history before you try diving into the story to avoid confusion. I would say that patience is needed and younger readers probably wouldn't get along and/or find it appropriate at times.

Stay tuned for a very special Q&A with Joanna, coming December 11th!

Image Sources: HarperFiction

The Sham

Book Title: The Sham

Author: Ellen Allen

Date Started: October 10th 2014

Date Completed: November 18th 2014

Genres: Contemporary, Mystery

Rating: Three stars

Review:

Thanks to Ellen Allen for approaching me to review this book.

The Sham started off really interestingly, but as more and more parts of the story were added it just became too confusing and strange for me. However, this isn't necessarily a bad thing, and I think some other people might have a different reaction to the book, but personally I found it very hard to follow and I ultimately couldn't end up enjoying it as much as I'd hoped. It's also an important point to mention that this book is not for younger readers as there is some disturbing material included.

Emily has moved to the Sham, where the people are as boring and uneventful as the place is. Until they aren't. When Jack first turns up and girls start to go missing, things seem to be getting a little more exciting. Until fingers are turned towards her new boyfriend, and she discovers Jack has more things to hide than living in the wood.

I was quite impressed by Allen's writing, and right from the first page the flow of the words jumped out at me. Even with complex writing styles, authors sometimes struggle with the way their sentences flow off the tongue, but Allen's narrative really worked nicely for me. The chronological jumps were also interesting, though I think they dwindled slightly more after the middle of the book.

However, though I enjoyed parts of Allen's writing, the style was too informal for me to be comfortable with. The text it littered with culture references and riddled with slang and it just hit one of my pet peeves. But honestly the biggest issue I had with the writing was the fact that a lot of emotions were directly stated to the reader, rather than being implied through the actions and atmosphere: we were told people were angry, but I just didn't feel it in the atmosphere and would have liked to make my own deduction from the way the characters acted and spoke to each other.

I'm pretty sure that the pretty much only - though really big - reason that I didn't get along with The Sham was because there was just too much going on. Too many names to remember; too many issues being addressed; too many little stories conflicting with the main one; too many relationships to keep track of. In such a short book, to have so many things pushed into an actually long duration of time it just meant that nothing was developed or explained enough for me to understand or follow anything. I didn't know what was happening for the majority of the book because I couldn't remember who this person was, or what kind of relationship these people had. And for a murder mystery, it's extremely important that the storyline is clear, because what the characters are investigating is deliberately the opposite. I also wasn't a huge fan of the lack of build up for the character's relationship and the instant trust felt between them without any reason for the whole story.

I do honestly think there's some really good ideas and story lines in this book, but they're lost somewhere in the middle of everything else going on and it's hard to invest yourself in either a whole story patched together through little things, or a tiny section of the book that lasts for a very short amount of time.

This book has a lot of characters, and while I might be able to name around six of them, the majority are just lost to me, and I don't think I could really differentiate any from each other.

Emily's narration was definitely one of the strongest I've ever read and she's undeniably the one character that stands out among the rest. But, unfortunately, I just didn't like her very much and found it very hard to sympathise with her because of this. I'm not even sure what it was about Emily that made me dislike her, but I found it very hard to look at anything in the same way as her.

There isn't much to say about Jack's character because he was very unbelievable to me. His relationship with Emily happened far too quickly and from then on Jack's character seemed to constantly be changing without any real consequence and just added to the confusion of the story for me.

The pacing was just too fast with too much happening. I can't personally tell if it's the fast pace to blame or the fact that there's too much going on, but everything was very hard to follow for me and the book was just too short for things to be developed or explored how I would like.

So, though The Sham really wasn't for me, I don't think everyone's responses would be the same as mine, so I'd encourage readers to have a go if they're interested in more unusual contemporary mystery stories. I do understand that the book is intended to be a little strange, but it just was a bit too much for me. I would recommend devoting attention to this book, since there is so much going on at the same time.

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The Traitor Queen

Book Title: The Traitor Queen

Author: Trudi Canavan

Series: The Traitor Spy Trilogy #3

Date Started: October 26th 2014

Date Completed: November 1st 2014

Genres: Fantasy, Adventure, Mystery

Rating: Four stars

Review:

This novel was a great end to the Traitor Spy Trilogy and I really enjoyed it, but it definitely isn't as good as its prequel series - the Black Magician Trilogy. Though this series is much more focused on the political side of the world, since the characters are all older, I think the threat lacks a little bit and there's a restricted sense of adventure. But it was still great.

Tensions between Sachaka and Kyralia are higher than ever, and with the revolt between the Traitors and Ashaki across the sea, and the battle for power in the city's underworld, Sonea feels another war approaching. She must travel to Sachaka to try and bring peace, or at least a promise of safety for her people, as well as her son who has decided to join the revolution and consequently has strained the ties between the Guild, the Traitors and the king.

Canavan was one of the first high fantasy authors I ever read, and I've adored her writing ever since. She's got an amazing talent at wrapping numerous stories together into one big story, but still letting each have its own personal significance. I also love the personalities and experience put into the narrative even though it's told through 3rd person. To have such a complex world and variety of beliefs and cultures, you've got to be able to support it with a complex narrative - and Canavan does this and more.

From the previous books right up the beginning of this one, you can tell that something serious is building up in Canavan's world. The characters are tense and wary, the ties between the Guild and the foreign countries is weakening, Skellin's reign of power over Kyralia's underworld is becoming stronger. This was brilliant because no time had to be wasted really to build anything up - events could start happening right away.

I have to admit, this didn't happen quite as I expected it to, as it still took quite a while for things to pick up, and consequences were considerably less impactful than I thought. However, there was still a background of tension and implications throughout the whole thing. Especially in the political portion of the book. I absolutely love the politics for Canavan's world. While it's still complex and echoes both the corruption and success of existing or past governments, it's shown from quite a few different angles, as each character's position is explored.

This is another thing that's just amazing about these books: the intertwining stories. It's not as rare as it used to be, but I've read very few books that master the knack of switching between narratives so smoothly and in a way that the reader can click back to the different people and their situations. The way each story usually quite forcefully impacts the others definitely helps to keep track of things.

The ending, as you've probably already gathered, was a bit anticlimactic for me. I still thought it concluded everything very nicely and had enough action to keep me happy, but it just didn't reach the same scale as I've seen Canavan achieve before.

My favourite thing about this sequel trilogy has to be seeing all the old characters again, and where they've progressed from. I really wish some of the older friendships were included more (especially Sonea and Rothen's) but I appreciate that the story does make this hard.

Sonea continues to be my absolute favourite character, and she's such a great heroine. I've loved reading how she's matured since the last trilogy, but also how, due to her background, she does tend to look at everything around her in a very different way, and at times still seems quite young. But, particularly in this novel, we really see her take on her responsibility and protectiveness over Lorkin. (Slight spoiler ahead) I also really loved her growing relationship with Regin. It was so nice to see how they'd grown as people into liking each other after their past, and having a romance that wasn't from a teenage perspective, but also wasn't driven by sex or situation.

Lorkin is another character I have a fondness for. Though I admit I didn't find his chapters too interesting most of the time, he's a great character and watching his methodical mind working all the time wherever he is is a great link to his parents.

I was really happy that Dannyl was included in more than just the politics this time, as well as not just with his lovers. He was forced into a few situations that were out of his comfort zone as the war started, and I think the way he dealt with them, and with both Tayend and Achati was really interesting. And he's just a lovely, lovely person.

Lilia and Anyi's parts of the book were, unfortunately, the most boring to me. I think the biggest problem I had was the rest of the book is very serious with much older characters, so when we jumped back to an equally serious situation, but with younger characters, I just found it slightly hard to adjust fast enough. I did, of course, love Rothen and Cery's inclusions in these parts however, and I think I would've got along with their story earlier on had they both been featured more.

Being a high fantasy novel, Canavan's stories rely a lot on background knowledge and the gradual understanding of the world. So, at times, the pacing can maybe seem a little slow, but as you progress on you realise that actually everything's very important. And, personally, I love the depth of the world in this story so I'd happily just read about it for a whole novel without much need for anything else.

The Traitor Queen didn't disappoint me, but it was slightly underwhelming considering what I've read before from Canavan. However, I still enjoyed it enormously, and it did conclude the trilogy nicely. If you like fantasy, world-building, intertwining stories, fictional politics, magic, a little bit of action and light romance then the Traitor Spy Trilogy is brilliant. But 100% read the other books first, particularly the Black Magician Trilogy (the series this is a sequel to) or I think it'd be quite hard to understand and you'd get less out of it.

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The Scorch Trials

Book Title: The Scorch Trials

Author: James Dashner

Series: The Maze Runner #2

Date Started: October 11th 2014

Date Completed: October 17th 2014

Genres: Dystopian, Thriller, Action, Adventure, Sci-Fi, Mystery

Rating: Three stars

Review:

I did enjoy The Scorch Trials, but after being told the series definitely picked up after the first book, I was quite disappointed in the end. I expected something that would explain the previous book, as well as introducing new conflicts and mysteries to conclude the series, but it seemed less eventful that The Maze Runner. I preferred the previous book, personally, but even so I'm looking forward to the last instalment in the series.

After surviving the Maze Trials, Thomas and the Gladers think they're finally found safety, but when they wake up from their haven to an empty building and a new addition to their group, it seems that perhaps their fight for their freedom isn't quite over. Now they must face the Scorch and its monsters if they want to finally be out of the clutches of WICKED.

Dashner has never been my favourite writer, and the style isn't really overwhelming improved for the second book. The main problem I had was both the overuse of slang that made the narration just seem childish, and the rushed plot. It seemed like everything is made up as it goes along and so there's a lot of little bits that don't get cleared up and it's very disjointing as a reader. (Admittedly this does compliment atmosphere of the book obviously, but it becomes very frustrating after a bit.)

I really enjoyed the start and end of the book, but the middle was quite hard for me to go along with. I really like having either drastic mystery or quite plausible events, and for me The Scorch Trials just didn't have enough sense made from what happened, and not enough unknown for it to be exciting. (I also found the set-up of the 'experiment' quite questionable and not really developed enough to end up getting results anyway.) The continuous problem from this was really that none of what happened was really significant to the overall story, and we ended up in a very similar place at the end as we were at the beginning.

In addition, I forgot that there was a threat for most of the story, as everything was quite conveniently worked out. The boys either got something wrong and gave up to move onto something else, or solved problems very quickly and events moved on too quickly. The Scorch didn't have any lasting affects on the Gladers; the Cranks weren't really that much of an issue, and WICKED itself seemed very detached from the overall story. I think a lot of this happened because things weren't explained or featured enough for me to understand the impact they could possibly have on the characters.

climax was good, but the ending annoyed me

For me, the best parts - and the main thing that keeps bringing me back to the stories - are the characters. Though of course they kill have their flaws, their personalities are interesting, and their development arcs are what really drive the book.

Thomas, though a good protagonist, can sometimes be an idiot. On the other hand, I do actually enjoy a hero that doesn't ever really know what he's doing, and genuinely acts on his instincts and often gets things wrong. It's become quite common to have heroes that are unsure and mess up, but Dashner makes Thomas really seem he's only going on what he guess.

Newt is definitely my favourite character of the book. Though he isn't in it much, I think he's made to stand out from the rest of the characters and his attitude to the others is a nice relief from the typical doomed conversations. Minho's definitely another of my favourites, but I did feel he was a bit neglected and dismissed as the leader.

I was also a bit underwhelmed with Teresa's inclusion, as I didn't really see the point of it. This went for the new inclusions of Brenda and Jorge: I think they'll become more key to the story in the future, but at the moment we aren't given enough information or time around them to know what they're like.

I was able to get through this book very quickly, mainly due to the writing, but the fast-paced story definitely helped. On the other hand, I didn't really think anything was focused on for long enough to really get into the moment and appreciate the events, so by the end it didn't feel like a whole lot had happened.

Even though I'm not a huge fan of Dashner's writing or the plot lines of this series, the characters really draw the interest back in for me. Even so, there's a nice different kind of concept for dystopians and adventure than to what I think we're used to these days. This isn't the kind of series you can read in any order, and it's the kind of thing where, even if you don't particularly enjoy the main duration, you still really want to know what happens next.

Image Source: https://www.goodreads.com/book/

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Heir of Fire

Book Title: Heir of Fire

Author: Sarah J. Maas

Series: Throne of Glass #3

Date Started: September 11th 2014

Date Completed: October 10th 2014

Genres: Fantasy, Action, Adventure, Romance

Rating: Five stars

Review:

Heir of Fire hasn't been my favourite instalment in the Throne of Glass series so far, but I still loved it. For me, it was a filler book, which is something I am not a fan of, but Maas managed to create enough plot to get the characters where they needed to be so it was still entertaining to read.

Celaena Sardothien has to finally stop running from her past, and face the responsibility resting on her shoulders as her birthright. As instability ravages the world and the assassin hides across the sea it becomes clear that Celaena must fight for her life and her people to prevent the King from overtaking everything. While Chaol and Dorian struggle with the balance of power in Adarlan, Celaena must learn to control her powers to unveil the secrets hidden around her.

I still love Maas' writing, and there isn't much I can say that I haven't praised before. There's a brilliant perception of characters and human nature in these books which allows Celaena's character to become even more realistic and dark, setting it apart from the majority of Young Adult novels on offer in my opinion. But there's always something more going on than just the main story for the characters; politics is a driving influence, and smaller issues play on their minds and change the way they think. The world just comes to life when Maas describes or orchestrates anything.

Heir of Fire was not my favourite book in the series because it was a filler book. If you read my reviews you know that I hate the idea of books being there mainly for the purpose of putting characters into places for future events - any reader should be able to pick up any novel and entertained at least without knowing all the little details around it. However, though I was conflicted on the rating for this book, I believe that Maas did honestly create an engaging story in the process of getting the story where she wanted it to be. I will also forgive it because you can tell the next book is going to be groundbreaking for Young Adult.

One of the things that didn't really work for me was the fact that there were various little stories running through the novel to show where each character was, but sometimes they just weren't necessary. Others also felt neglected and underdeveloped to focus on the main plot lines. It also because a predictable at times.

On the other hand, once I made it through the first part of the novel, things really kicked off and I started reading very quickly just to know what happened next. This was what I was used to from the Throne of Glass story, and it was just a shame I hadn't still been as excited as I was when I first picked the book up.

Finally, the ending of the book was far more dramatic than I could have imagined, even though I saw some of it coming. Though the climaxes were weirdly structured (with one story's climax finished, then another one, followed by the last one when more tension could have been made by having them simultaneously) it definitely left an impact on me and completely changed the direction of the books.

The characters were the one thing that really secured the five star rating for me. I was disappointed in most other areas, and though there were still a few little holes for me in this department, the people of this book are still the shining element to the series.

If it's possible, I think I grew to love Celaena even more in this book. Her character arc becomes so complex and dark, and for some reason that let me connect with her even more. How she develops with her experiences, how she acts with new characters, how she struggles with her past and future - it's all just so interesting to me and it's so nice for there to be a female character that has so many sides and such depth and isn't actually a 'good' person.

Rowan is definitely one of my new favourite characters. Right from the beginning I knew he was going to be fascinating and have a huge impact on the plot. But my absolute highlight for him would have to be his relationship with Celaena. Again, I adore there being such a close, intimate relationship between the two without it having to be romantic, or have the awkward 'do you like me?' moment.

I was a little disappointed about how Chaol's story slowed way down compared to most of the others, but I still was interested in how he progressed and affected the story.

Aedion is the character that I'm most looking forward to in the future. When he was first introduced I wasn't sure whether to trust him, and there's still that danger around him now. But I think he's going to be a big part in future story lines and I'm very curious as to how he changes the other characters.

My least favourite characters this time had to be Dorian and Sorscha. I wasn't really a fan of Sorscha when she was first introduced, but I appreciated the diversity of characters. But when Dorian's story started to become only about their relationship I got more annoyed and I was disappointed that Maas didn't twist my predictions and catch me by surprise like she usually does.

This book took me forever to read, mainly because of the fact I started college and the workload is quite frankly terrifying. However, I do think that because of the very slow start at the beginning of the book until around halfway through, I wasn't unable to put it down. While the whole book was a filler, the first part was even more of a filler for the second part - so all in all it became a lot of information you needed to remember given in not the most interesting way.

However, Throne of Glass remains one of my favourite book series' of all times. It combines all my favourite genres (fantasy, action, adventure, mystery) with amazing characters that go through some really impressive story arcs. I can tell the next book is going to be absolutely amazing now that everyone's in their carefully placed positions. If you haven't started this series yet, do, because it's only going to get better.

Image Source: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/20617636-heir-of-fire

The Young World

Book Title: The Young World

Author: Chris Weitz

Series: The Young World #1

Date Started: September 7th 2014

Date Completed: September 9th 2014

Genres: Dystopian, Thriller, Action, Adventure

Rating: Two stars

Review:

I wasn’t expecting The Young World to blow me away, but I thought it would be entertaining and slightly more series to the typical dystopian setting with kids running around in groups. Unfortunately, I was wrong. This book ended up feeling actually quite childish in most aspects and I just had to put it down because I was getting so caught up in everything but the story.

Jefferson is the leader of one of the teenage gangs roaming New York after the illness took out all the younger and older people. No one knows why it happened, but Jefferson and his tribe are too busy protecting themselves and the people they love from the gun cults and mock-militia ready to threaten them around every corner to have time to work it out.

The main reason I wasn’t able to stick with this novel was the writing style. There were far too many bad habits in the narrative and it felt both like the author was being lazy and was trying too hard.

The little bits of script just tampered with the flow of the writing too much for me, and I don’t understand how it contributed anything to the overall voice. Furthermore, the narrative was trying too hard to mimic that of a teenager: it was just the stupid things they thought about in their situation, but also the overuse of slang words; jumping back and forth between various things; italics representing the character's thoughts when you’re already reading from their direct perspective! It came to the point where the narrators just became unbelievable, childish and frankly annoying.

As far as I read, I couldn’t find any direction in the story. There was an awful lot of information dumping - with no real explanations for the important stuff, and the incompetent character relaying it - and no threat or fear that I connected with. There was basically no build up, if any, to events so even when something that I assume would be significant in the grand scheme of things happened, it gave no more impact than the rambling explanations.

The continuity was also a little all over the place (I’d like to know how they can use this vast collection of weapons) and quite honestly the romance was ridiculous - if you could even qualify blurting out love with a mechanical nature within the first couple of chapters romance.

I’m sad to say I didn’t connect with any of the characters, and due to the number of strange nicknames in quick recession most of the people just blended into one since I couldn’t see any defining qualities.

My one big moan about this book was the very typically male portrayal of the girls. I loved the fact that the main - and pretty much only female lead - was kick ass, but that doesn’t mean that that’s all she’s worth as a character and person. I’m not really happy with her being the ‘slightly unhinged girl-power chick’ and then all the others girls being practically non-existent. (And I’m not convinced that the protagonist disapproving of girls being sold for livestock makes up for the fact that it’s never mentioned again and he does nothing about it.)

I started skim reading very quickly, and like I said, eventually gave up on the book. Pace-wise it wasn’t that nothing was happening, it was just that the things that did happen weren’t thrilling or exciting and the plot didn’t seem to be progressing.

It’s a shame that I didn’t enjoy The Young World. I think I was expecting it to be much more mature Young Adult reading than it ended up being. So perhaps if you’re just getting into YA fiction, or are a fan of Gone (which I also didn’t like, but would compare this to) you might get along with it better than I did.

Image Source: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/22078263-the-young-world

Wonderstruck

Book Title: Wonderstruck

Author: Brian Selznick

Date Started: August 26th 2014

Date Completed: September 1st 2014

Genres: Adventure, Mystery

Rating: Four stars

Review:

Wonderstruck is another brilliant story from the mind of Mr Selznick, and though it wasn't as engaging as I'd expected, it was still a lovely story accompanied with stunning illustrations.

Ben dreams of the wolves coming to get him, every night. But when he finds a book in his old house, with a mysterious inscription to a father he has never known, and a bookmark with an address all the way in New York, his desire to piece together his past grows. And when he's struck by lightning and loses his hearing, it's the final push he needs to run away and solve the mysteries around his childhood, and why the wolves are always waiting for him when he closes his eyes.

I adore Selznick's writing style, for nothing more than the pure passion for what's writing about. It's so clear when you read any of his work that he has a deep interest in film, history and museums, and an even bigger love for books. This comes through in their involvement in the story, as well as how they're described. It's not often I read a book and I find such a similar person to myself telling me the story.

Another thing that must be mentioned are the illustrations. Whilst being completely and utterly stunning, and portraying an extremely vivid story all by themselves, the pictures are used very cleverly in this book. The character being followed is deaf, and therefore through the drawings we see what life is like for her: you can't hear pictures, and so this allows the reader to relate very closely with the character when they previously wouldn't have had a similar perspective on the story.

I thought the plot line in Wonderstruck was very nice, but not amazing. Essentially, two different stories are being told: Ben's story through the narrative, and then Rose's through the illustrations. The combination of these two stories prevented either one from becoming slow and boring, and the time jumps were particularly interesting to me. Finally, I loved how the two stories drew together at the end and ended up impacting one another quite a bit.

Another element that really impressed me was the inclusion of deafness. It's not something I see a lot of these days, and the way it was included was extremely clever and thorough: little obstacles weren't ignored but the whole story wasn't centered around the fact the characters were deaf. It was just another part of them that was readily accepted by the writer and therefore reader.

Pretty much every character in this story is wonderfully endearing and they each contribute their own little things to the story. However, I felt quite distant and detached from all of them: they didn't show a huge variety of sides and emotions that I picked up on. I think this is probably one of the reasons I didn't enjoy Wonderstruck quite as much as I expected.

Wonderstruck was quick and easy to get through (though I did end up putting it on hold for a few days due to a new release). Since half of it is illustrations, you can choose to fly through it or slow down and appreciate the drawings more. Either way, the story wasn't rushed and actually seemed quite short to me.

I would recommend Wonderstruck to anyone who has a passion for museums, art and writing. While the story is lovely, it's the words and illustrations that makes Selznick's books so wonderful. However, I would recommend reading The Invention of Hugo Cabret to get into his novels first, as his portrayals can be richer than this.

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