Reviews

Skandar and the Unicorn Thief, by A. F. Steadman

shoroberts's review

adventurous fast-paced

5.0

eleanorlouise94's review

adventurous medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.75

faefolkreads's review against another edition

4.0

I read this to my children at bed times, and my 8yo absolutely LOVED it. I do think I might get him to solo read the second one though, because I feel the slower pace lost me as a reader a little bit though

booksnest's review

adventurous funny lighthearted mysterious fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.5

jenny_prince's review against another edition

5.0

Obsessed.

aran_ol's review

adventurous lighthearted mysterious medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.25

cam356's review

adventurous dark slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

0.75

I was given this book by Simon and Schuster in exchange for an honest review.

Skandar and the Unicorn Thief is a mediocre middle grade book. It felt like it was trying to hard to compete with other books such as The Lighting Thief and HP and many others. The plot moved at such a snail's pace that I just could not pay attention to what was happening.  It could have been 100 pages shorter and I would have been happy. The chosen one trope is something that is so overused in fiction and I'm sad that it's coming back so hard recently.  

Skandar wasn't that interesting of a main character and every other character seemed very one dimensional. The best thing about this was the unicorns. They were horrifying and blood thirsty. There were moments that it was actually kind of gory for a middle school book. But overall I just never really jived with the book unfortunately. Now I know I'm not the audience that this book is geared towards and who knows? Maybe there will be a kid out there that absolutely loves this book

fifth_magpie's review against another edition

adventurous emotional mysterious fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.0

naomiysl's review

adventurous emotional slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.5

A strong start for a new author. Leans a bit too heavily on familiar tropes to close the story arc, but there are bloodthirsty unicorns, so I'll forgive it.  

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence

Moderate: Death, Death of parent, and Animal death

Minor: Panic attacks/disorders

maxine_a's review against another edition

4.0

I enjoyed this and am glad that there will be more. It’s a nice action/fantasy for young readers and I think my class will find it quite exciting - especially the threat of the darker use of powers.
It is well written and reads easily.