Showing posts with label julie kagawa. Show all posts
Showing posts with label julie kagawa. Show all posts

Tuesday, August 28, 2012

The Lost Prince by Julie Kagawa

The Lost Prince




Goodreads summary: Don’t look at Them. Never let Them know you can see Them.

That is Ethan Chase’s unbreakable rule. Until the fey he avoids at all costs—including his reputation—begin to disappear, and Ethan is attacked. Now he must change the rules to protect his family. To save a girl he never thought he’s dare to fall for.

Ethan thought he had protected himself from his older sister’s world—the land of Faery. His previous time in the Iron Realm left him with nothing but fear and disgust for the world Meghan Chase has made her home, a land of myths and talking cats, of magic and seductive enemies. But when destiny comes for Ethan, there is no escape from a danger long, long forgotten.

My name is Ethan Chase. And I may not live to see my eighteenth birthday.

Review


An eARC of this book was provided to me through Netgalley.

Every time I read one of Julie Kagawa's books it always feels like a challenge to me. It's a face off always! And I know one of us is going down!



Sigh... The Lost Prince just lost me. Again, just like The Iron King, this book is just a blend of popular books and cliche characters. There is nothing unique about this book.

It's a shame that Kagawa did not really hold my interest long enough. I really do think the first fifteen pages or so of the novel was interesting. I liked how she introduced Ethan to the readers. For a moment, I thought Ethan was going to be a unique character. But I was DEAD WRONG!

Ethan Chase

If I were to meet him, the first thing I will tell him is to piss off and be emo somewhere else. Don't contaminate me with your broody, emo vibes, you leech!

He is your typical, mysterious "bad boy". Just imagine him as Ash, only he is human and immature. And, what do we expect that happens to bad boy? He falls in love! HE EFFIN FALLS IN LOVE ALMOST INSTANTLY! Oh my glob! Isn't that the most unexpected thing, like, since ever? I didn't see that coming!

From broody, distant bad boy to I-can't-be-without-you, I'm-your-knight-in-shining-armor dude. Yep, totally unique, un-cliche, and unexpected. This was a major, major bombshell!

Kenzie

The polar opposite of Ethan Chase. She is popular, rich, and a good girl, who is bored in life and just wants to live. Yep, so far it's the most special and one-of-a-kind novel I have ever read.

I WANT THIS CHARACTER TO DIE!! 

She is almost as useful as the gunk between my toes! For me, she is a character that can't really make a story move. I think Kagawa just added this character to represent and remind the readers that there is romance in this book. I say Kagawa should throw this character away and use that other chick, Samantha, as Ethan's love interest.

Why?

I think I just made a story within this story :D Ethan said that he had a friend, Samantha, who got injured while riding a phouka when they were younger. He claimed that the phouka was after him and not his friend. The girl couldn't walk after that, though, and moved away somewhere else. I would have loved the romance of the novel more if the circumstances were like this: Ethan unexpectedly meets Samantha again in his new high school, and is surprised to see her walking again! Then, he learns that the girl bargained with the fey to have the ability to walk again. It's now up to him to save her from the crazy she just entered and find out why she can see the fey.

I think there's more gravity there than with Kenzie's. The girl can't even fight for herself!

By the way, Kenzie, your confession to Ethan wasn't a blow to me. I think Kagawa just wrote your confession without even planning it and wrote it in the spur of the moment.

Keirran and Annwyl

Useless characters. Throw them away. Please!

The Forgotten

Let me guess, Kagawa imagined you in the spur of the moment as well. Typical! Just like Stephanie Meyer. Oh well.

Brow Raising Lines

I will say it again. I. HATE. KAGAWA'S. WRITING. STYLE. I wrote like her when I was fourteen. When I presented a short story to four award-winning authors of my country with the style same as Kagawa's, you know what they said? They all agreed I had no talent! One said to me, "I'm sorry. Don't get offended, alright? But I don't like how you wrote this. This is fanfiction!" And another one said, "This is crap!" And one more said, "I think the author should read more."

- "The fairy laced his hands behind his skull." SERIOUSLY? Is this how an adult should write? Laced his hands behind his skull. Hah! What? Was he a skeleton? Did he have no hair and scalp?

- "He blew out a noisy breath." I'm sorry, but what does this mean? What do you mean by noisy? Did his breath sound like static?

- "I looked up, and she gave me a fierce smile."; "...staring at me with blackest hate.";" ...her eyes suspiciously bright." THIS IS CRAP! I can't imagine or see this fierce smile or blackest hate or eyes suspiciously bright!

Final Thoughts

This is a novel I would love to chop into pieces and then burn into ashes if I had a paperback copy of it. The plot and characters are as bad as the author's writing style. This is horribly draggy with so many unnecessary scenes to make it even more draggier. There are so many scenes here I think should be deleted because they are not significant enough and don't make the story move. One example is Ethan's fight scene with a snake-like fey. And, yes, Kagawa used another character again, Todd, to make Ethan move. Very much like how she used Ethan in the Iron King to force Meghan to go into the fey world.

To this novel, I give it the finger. And to make everything short, I shall describe this book in two words: It SUCKS.

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Wednesday, August 15, 2012

Stacking the Shelves #1



Stacking the Shelves is a new meme hosted by Tynga’s Reviews, which is all about sharing the books you are adding to your shelves, may it be physical or virtual. This means you can include books you buy in physical store or online, books you borrow from friends or the library, review books, gifts and of course ebooks!

Month of August sure is awesome for me. I received some great books from Netgalley for review.



The Lost Prince by Julie Kagawa (ebook)



Dearly, Beloved by Lia Habel (ebook)



Frozen by Mary Casanova (ebook)



Rape Girl by Alina Klein (ebook)


And one more book I had to have, but I received this around July. Just wanted to show it off.



The Girl With Borrowed Wings by Rinsai Rossetti (ebook)


So, what's new in your bookshelves?

Sunday, July 29, 2012

The Iron King by Julie Kagawa



Goodreads summary: Meghan Chase has a secret destiny; one she could never have imagined.

Something has always felt slightly off in Meghan's life, ever since her father disappeared before her eyes when she was six. She has never quite fit in at school or at home.

When a dark stranger begins watching her from afar, and her prankster best friend becomes strangely protective of her, Meghan senses that everything she's known is about to change.

But she could never have guessed the truth - that she is the daughter of a mythical faery king and is a pawn in a deadly war. Now Meghan will learn just how far she'll go to save someone she cares about, to stop a mysterious evil no faery creature dare face; and to find love with a young prince who might rather see her dead than let her touch his icy heart.

Review: Ah, the first book of the Iron Fey series. I've read so many reviews about this book saying that it was an awesome and fun read. But I would like to contradict this. The problem with books like The Iron King is that they are too predictable - too predictable that reading through every twist and revelation gets ridiculous!

List of predictable predictables in this book:

1.) Ordinary girl isn't ordinary after all. She learns that she is something powerful.

2.) Hot, mysterious(?), cold, snobby guy appears.

3.) Main character falls deeply and irrevocably in love with hot guy.

4.) Main character learns 'dark' past of hot guy.

Or probably numbers 1 to 4 are part of a formula you need to write a "fantastic" YA novel.

I have plenty of issues with this book. First, the writing style! My golly-lolly! I am sick and tired with styles like this, this Twilight-y, novice-ish style! I am not an idiot who needs to be told on what every damn movement the character makes or what that character looks like. I don't need to know that Ash has a great body, that his face is just superbly-perfectly-astonishingly-beautiful, and that his eyes are blue-azure-'ice cold'-'dark swirling'-(insert useless adjective here)! But I understand that not all people can write like Stephen King or Ian Mcewan or Vladimir Nabokov. I just wish authors won't treat their readers as morons and write in very unhelpful and useless detail what the shizzum the character is doing. Please go straight to the point, or else I will have to skip this part of the book.

Second issue, the characters. Meghan, Ash, Grimalkin and everybody else are your typical characters. They are cliche, Mary Sue-ish. There is nothing unique or original about them that can really stick to my mind, or make me remember them by heart. At least if you will use a cliche character add something about that character - a skill only that character has, an experience only that character has experienced, or anything so that character won't be tagged as 'cliche'. And please, please, PLEASE authors! If 'hot guy' has a secret past, don't make it cliche as well!

Third and last, the villain. The villain is supposed to be hateful, spiteful, 'cool', has awesome powers, omnipotent! But why did Julie Kagawa give us a pedophile for a villain? I think the Iron King just gave us one of the most pathetic and lamest reasons why he kidnapped Ethan, Meghan's half-brother, and why he needed Meghan. How do you spell Iron King? L-A-M-E!

This book is just a blend of popular books, mixed with cliche characters, and topped with been-there-done-that elements to make it seem 'unique' and 'one of a kind'.

BUT! yes,thereisabut Although, I definitely think that this book kind of sucks, there are some elements I can consider as interesting.

1.) The Iron fey. It's something I haven't heard of before.

2.) Puck. Enough said.

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