jacquelinec's review against another edition
3.0
For a first novel from such a young author, Brightly Woven is a stellar debut. The world that Bracken built - with its elements of intrigue, religion and magic - was lovely. That said, it's not the best in YA fantasy. Although I was fascinated by the world that Bracken created, I was less than enamored of the characters. I don't always need to love main characters, but I do need to connect with them in order to care about their journey and I wasn't able to do that as much as I would have liked here. I also thought that too many ideas and elements were introduced that weren't explored enough.
davinakt's review against another edition
3.0
Brightly Woven is a fun shitty novel.
I think I might make a separate shelf for fun shitty books. I seem to be reading quite a lot of them lately. This was the type of book I perpetually looked for in seventh grade, cute, romance, fantasy, strong female character. Strong is of course, a relative term.
In terms of characters, they're fine. The book does okay on characters. They're all moderately believable, if catering to specific steryotypes, moderately interesting, and moderately shippable. If we are defining Mary Sue as a female character given tons of powers for no reason who isn't that interesting, I guess you could call Sydelle a Mary Sue. But she grew on me.
I forget what the guys name was (bad sign? possibly) but I remember sort of liking him.
The setting, as I have seen others commenting on, was really not all that great. There wasn't enough world building, not enough dimension. No cultures. Even the people who were supposed to be the opposite country weren't at all different. I don't even think they spoke a different language or had many different customs. There just needed to be more depth.
Plot-wise, I thought the book was acceptable. It was predictable, but had a few twists. You knew the entire time who Sydelle was going to get with, you knew pretty much where things were going. It was fine.
This book isn't revolutionary. It isn't going to touch you or ask you difficult questions. That's not it's purpose. It's a fun trashy seventh grade girl's fantasy. That's okay. For me, it accomplished its goal. All it wanted was to be a short fun read with characters relatable enough for daydreams.
The fact is that I think there is a place for books like this. It's where dreamer seventh graders wish they were in math class. It's fine. It's not great.
I also thought that it was REMARKABLY similar in tone and plot to "The Two Princesses Of Bamarre" by Gail Carson Levine. I actually thought that TPOB was a better book, but if you wanted an author to go to from this book, Levine would probably satisfy.
I think I might make a separate shelf for fun shitty books. I seem to be reading quite a lot of them lately. This was the type of book I perpetually looked for in seventh grade, cute, romance, fantasy, strong female character. Strong is of course, a relative term.
In terms of characters, they're fine. The book does okay on characters. They're all moderately believable, if catering to specific steryotypes, moderately interesting, and moderately shippable. If we are defining Mary Sue as a female character given tons of powers for no reason who isn't that interesting, I guess you could call Sydelle a Mary Sue. But she grew on me.
I forget what the guys name was (bad sign? possibly) but I remember sort of liking him.
The setting, as I have seen others commenting on, was really not all that great. There wasn't enough world building, not enough dimension. No cultures. Even the people who were supposed to be the opposite country weren't at all different. I don't even think they spoke a different language or had many different customs. There just needed to be more depth.
Plot-wise, I thought the book was acceptable. It was predictable, but had a few twists. You knew the entire time who Sydelle was going to get with, you knew pretty much where things were going. It was fine.
This book isn't revolutionary. It isn't going to touch you or ask you difficult questions. That's not it's purpose. It's a fun trashy seventh grade girl's fantasy. That's okay. For me, it accomplished its goal. All it wanted was to be a short fun read with characters relatable enough for daydreams.
The fact is that I think there is a place for books like this. It's where dreamer seventh graders wish they were in math class. It's fine. It's not great.
I also thought that it was REMARKABLY similar in tone and plot to "The Two Princesses Of Bamarre" by Gail Carson Levine. I actually thought that TPOB was a better book, but if you wanted an author to go to from this book, Levine would probably satisfy.
octagonal's review against another edition
2.0
Everything moved too fast in this book, yet there wasn't enough actually happening.
Sydelle goes from "YOU KIDNAPPED ME!" to "YOU INTRIGUE ME!" to "YOU ARE A SEXY BEAST." far too quickly. She goes from missing Henry to thinking he's a small-town dork in like two scenes! And for a girl who would obviously not be messing around with elixirs, due to her village having a terrible drought, she sure picked up that wizardy skill quickly.
Her powers were neat, but it was so sudden. I mean, we guess as soon as jinxes are mentioned that she is one, but all of a sudden it's, "YOU HAVE MAGIC AND IT'S HIDDEN. KIDNAPPED AGAIN, YAY!"
Bleh.
Really, all you need to sum up this book is two words: MAGIC CLOAKS. I mean, wtf, kids. I get that North wanted multiple talismans to give him multiple sources of magic, but couldn't he have tied multi-colored thread onto some weapon like a respectable wizard? Why must the dork wear like five cloaks? Ugh. It just gives me this mental image of him getting all tangled up in his cloaks and setting himself on fire accidentally. Idk.
Sydelle goes from "YOU KIDNAPPED ME!" to "YOU INTRIGUE ME!" to "YOU ARE A SEXY BEAST." far too quickly. She goes from missing Henry to thinking he's a small-town dork in like two scenes! And for a girl who would obviously not be messing around with elixirs, due to her village having a terrible drought, she sure picked up that wizardy skill quickly.
Her powers were neat, but it was so sudden. I mean, we guess as soon as jinxes are mentioned that she is one, but all of a sudden it's, "YOU HAVE MAGIC AND IT'S HIDDEN. KIDNAPPED AGAIN, YAY!"
Bleh.
Really, all you need to sum up this book is two words: MAGIC CLOAKS. I mean, wtf, kids. I get that North wanted multiple talismans to give him multiple sources of magic, but couldn't he have tied multi-colored thread onto some weapon like a respectable wizard? Why must the dork wear like five cloaks? Ugh. It just gives me this mental image of him getting all tangled up in his cloaks and setting himself on fire accidentally. Idk.
paradoxically's review against another edition
2.0
Brightly Woven starts off quickly and hardly lets you catch your breath in the meantime. Sydelle, the main character, is a seemingly ordinary girl living in a village that hasn't seen rain in ten years, with a talent at weaving. She's young, fairly ignorant of politics and the state of her country, though she soon finds herself caught up in a giant mess as North, a wizard, spirits her off. This is against her will, but for good reason, as her village is soon to be occupied by an enemy country, and North needs Sydelle's help in getting the word out to the queen and Wizard Guard.
The first problem I had with the book was how jerky it was. You get Sydelle and her somewhat boring life, then you suddenly read about North blowing in and soldiers right at the doorstep. Then it hops and skips to North getting Syd to repair his cloak, then pretty much grabbing her and running (with her parent's blessings). You get Syd throwing a fit (though as North is pretty much saving her from the terror of occupancy by the enemy, I had little tolerance for it), then she suddenly settles in, takes off, and is ducking and weaving around like a pro. Then she's back to being irrational.
Which I try to tolerate because it is understandable, considering the circumstances, but the way she goes about it is still highly annoying.
None of the characters are endearing. Syd is argumentative and makes me want to tear out my hair and North is just as bad if not worse. I hold no tolerance for idiotic inscrutableness when they would all be better off if North just told Syd a few bits of information. Withholding information for no good reason other than the author wanting the male lead to be somewhat mysterious just makes me mad. Then again, I have less tolerance for a person who expects people to do things just because they have the power (or she thinks they do, when she really has no idea). It's easy to say it's someone else's obligation to clean a mess up when you're not the one people are looking to. And let's not forget about how one can die in the meantime and whatnot. It's infuriating.
The details are sparse if not nonexistent in parts. The world is very thinly fleshed out and everything just rings shallow. On the upside, the latter half of the book was better than the first half, but you can't have one crappy half of a book and one almost decent half of a book and expect a person to like it. Everything is rather predictable and shallow.
It wasn't completely horrible, even if I made it out to be so in my review. The latter half was a lot better than the beginning half. If it had been like that throughout the entire book, I would have thought a lot better of it. Still. There were a lot of missed opportunities and chances to flesh things out a bit. 2 stars.
The first problem I had with the book was how jerky it was. You get Sydelle and her somewhat boring life, then you suddenly read about North blowing in and soldiers right at the doorstep. Then it hops and skips to North getting Syd to repair his cloak, then pretty much grabbing her and running (with her parent's blessings). You get Syd throwing a fit (though as North is pretty much saving her from the terror of occupancy by the enemy, I had little tolerance for it), then she suddenly settles in, takes off, and is ducking and weaving around like a pro. Then she's back to being irrational.
Which I try to tolerate because it is understandable, considering the circumstances, but the way she goes about it is still highly annoying.
None of the characters are endearing. Syd is argumentative and makes me want to tear out my hair and North is just as bad if not worse. I hold no tolerance for idiotic inscrutableness when they would all be better off if North just told Syd a few bits of information. Withholding information for no good reason other than the author wanting the male lead to be somewhat mysterious just makes me mad. Then again, I have less tolerance for a person who expects people to do things just because they have the power (or she thinks they do, when she really has no idea). It's easy to say it's someone else's obligation to clean a mess up when you're not the one people are looking to. And let's not forget about how one can die in the meantime and whatnot. It's infuriating.
The details are sparse if not nonexistent in parts. The world is very thinly fleshed out and everything just rings shallow. On the upside, the latter half of the book was better than the first half, but you can't have one crappy half of a book and one almost decent half of a book and expect a person to like it. Everything is rather predictable and shallow.
It wasn't completely horrible, even if I made it out to be so in my review. The latter half was a lot better than the beginning half. If it had been like that throughout the entire book, I would have thought a lot better of it. Still. There were a lot of missed opportunities and chances to flesh things out a bit. 2 stars.
samantha_89's review against another edition
5.0
Usually I like to leave more coherent reviews, however for this one all I can say is WHY IS THERE NO SEQUEL YET?
If you have been wanting to get in to reading fantasies this would be a great book to start.
If you have been wanting to get in to reading fantasies this would be a great book to start.
krissasaur's review against another edition
I decided that I would drop this book after reading 100 pages and... still having no idea what was going on. It was just really really terrible. I mean, the idea of the book was really nice, but the execution? Terrible. And it is sad because I really loved the whole opening, and the idea.
Basically what got to me what that there were so many instances, more than I can count, were something would happen, out of nowhere, and I was CONVINCED I skipped PAGES or even WHOLE CHAPTERS. Things would just happened with no explanation and... I... did not... understand. Here are some reviews I found that summed up my thoughts:
"Even though much of it was overwritten, it seemed to leave out important details and was so confusing that 100 pages in, I still had no idea where they were going or why. " - Liz
"I liked the first chapter okay, but sixty pages in this book is a lost cause. Nothing is making any sense -- plot, characterization, dialogue, magic. It just isn't good." - Emily
"I just kept saying "What?" "Where the hell did THAT come from" "What? What? What?" "O, Srsly!" Had to stop before I broke my brain & shot my mood even further. Just not working for me. At all." - Simba
Anyway, yea. Definitely dropping. I am not having good luck with books it seems.
Basically what got to me what that there were so many instances, more than I can count, were something would happen, out of nowhere, and I was CONVINCED I skipped PAGES or even WHOLE CHAPTERS. Things would just happened with no explanation and... I... did not... understand. Here are some reviews I found that summed up my thoughts:
"Even though much of it was overwritten, it seemed to leave out important details and was so confusing that 100 pages in, I still had no idea where they were going or why. " - Liz
"I liked the first chapter okay, but sixty pages in this book is a lost cause. Nothing is making any sense -- plot, characterization, dialogue, magic. It just isn't good." - Emily
"I just kept saying "What?" "Where the hell did THAT come from" "What? What? What?" "O, Srsly!" Had to stop before I broke my brain & shot my mood even further. Just not working for me. At all." - Simba
Anyway, yea. Definitely dropping. I am not having good luck with books it seems.
lassarina's review against another edition
3.0
I am not quite sure how I feel about this book. Sometimes I felt like it was a slog to keep reading. (I wanted to punch North an awful lot, too.) I loved Sydelle and her weaving, and I really liked the contrasts between Salvalan and Astraean living styles (as well as the synchronicity in beliefs.)
I do have to say that the obligatory YA love triangle felt rather tacked-on, though.
I do have to say that the obligatory YA love triangle felt rather tacked-on, though.
alyram4's review against another edition
1.0
Once again I'm clearly in the minority, but this just did not intrigue me in the slightest. I was bored...oh so very bored. Main character was super generic and one-dimensional. Romance was very...lackluster in development. The plot and world building just left way too much to be desired. I seriously disliked this book. I didn't hate it, but I really didn't like it at all. I've had this book for a while and wanted to read it before any of the author's other books. It definitely seems like a generic 2000s YA novel that got lost in the bunch.
ianthe_the_unicorn's review against another edition
5.0
I bought this book on my ereader about 3 months ago, halfway through I realised I HAD to add this to my physical collection. Since then I've read it 5 times, no lie!
mmchampion's review against another edition
3.0
A good book for girls. A bit of wizardry and magic that does not come close to Harry Potter, but it's a good story about strength, courage and loyalty.