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summerseeds's review against another edition
1.0
I couldn’t get past the writing style. It was choppy and odd. Whoever edited the edition I have kept putting commas in places commas do not belong. You could tell it was written by someone young with little writing experience. Honestly, I didn’t finish it, but what I did read was pretty bad.
nikkit_nzl's review against another edition
I just got more and more confused as it went on...didn't finish it
kristid's review against another edition
3.0
Fifteen-year-old Leo North lives in Malonia with his younger brother, Stirling and his grandmother. When Leo was five years old the monarchy was overthrown by the tyrant Lucien and his parents fled Malonia to save their lives.
One night on his way home, Leo finds a mysterious book. The pages of the book are blank. But soon the pages begin to fill, telling the story of two people in England, which is thought to be a fairy tale world. The pages only appear a few at a time, but Leo feels as though he already knows the story. Leo, however, has no idea how much the story will come to play in his own country of Malonia.
The Eyes of A King is a book filled with fantasy, mystery, heartache and love. Catherine Banner realistically depicts the thoughts and emotions of her teenage character, being as she is one herself. Leos’ story seems to consist of one main theme, loss. He is overcome with grief in much of the second half of the book, and is seemed as if empathy will continue to elude him. Banner cleverly intertwines the stories of Malonia and England. And readers will revel in delight as the two stories come together! The Eyes of A King looks to be the beginning of an enchanting trilogy!
One night on his way home, Leo finds a mysterious book. The pages of the book are blank. But soon the pages begin to fill, telling the story of two people in England, which is thought to be a fairy tale world. The pages only appear a few at a time, but Leo feels as though he already knows the story. Leo, however, has no idea how much the story will come to play in his own country of Malonia.
The Eyes of A King is a book filled with fantasy, mystery, heartache and love. Catherine Banner realistically depicts the thoughts and emotions of her teenage character, being as she is one herself. Leos’ story seems to consist of one main theme, loss. He is overcome with grief in much of the second half of the book, and is seemed as if empathy will continue to elude him. Banner cleverly intertwines the stories of Malonia and England. And readers will revel in delight as the two stories come together! The Eyes of A King looks to be the beginning of an enchanting trilogy!
micksland's review against another edition
4.0
I just randomly picked this book up from the public library. It didn't have a summary, but it did have a neat cover, so I decided that I'd try it out and see. It was a great decision! This is a very good book from a new author. Although there are some problems with plot development throughout the book, Banner has the ability to accurately portray emotions and develop characters well. Can't wait for her next book!
kelsis_book_nook's review against another edition
2.0
Ok...so I am only about halfway through the book but I don't think my thoughts are going to change between here and the end of the book so I am writing my review now.
For starters: I thoroughly detest this book and have pretty much since the first few pages. I am pretty much finishing out of pure stubbornness at this point (I have a thing about not abandoning books...) I am basically skimming just to get through it. Here is why I hate it so much:
The characters are flat and emotionless and there is nothing to draw me to any of them:
-Stirling: Whiny crybaby. I know he is supposed to be deathly ill but I really don't care because the character wasn't built up at all before the fact so I had no attachment and feel no sympathy for him or his illness. The constant back and forth between is he sick or is he not sick is getting really annoying too.
-Leo: Bratty teenager who doesn't seem to care about anyone but himself. Also the main character but seems to do very little of any importance.
-Grandma: Don't even get me started...all she does is yell. Her grandkids come home injured and she barely asks if they are ok, just digs into them for being home when they should be at school.
-Maria: Upstairs 15-year-old neighbour with a baby. Her and Leo have a love connection of some sort but there is no reason why he is interested other than she is pretty. Abandons her baby with her mother all the time but gets mad when her mother tells her she knows how to care for the baby better than Maria does.
-Aldebaran: Now this is a character I could be interested in. Too bad he only appears in a side story and barely seems to be connected in any significant way to the main storyline.
That leads me into my next point: where exactly is the plot in this book? There is a bit of storyline to do with the army and a war but that hasn't been made clear and doesn't seem significant. Stirling is sick with something called silent flu but nobody seems to know what that is so it isn't clear whether he actually has it or not. The kids appear to go to a military school but this also appears to be pretty unimportant other than the fact that one of their teachers is abusive except when it comes to his sickly daughter who has only been mentioned once. There is a lot of religious propaganda since Stirling wants to be a priest and apparently him and Grandma went to church everyday before he was sick. Finally, there is the sideplot of the magic book that Leo found which tells the story of Aldebaran. I think this would be a great plot if it were focused on but it seems to just be thrown in here and there. In conclusion: the main storyline is made up of numerous plots which don't really seem to connect enough to form a significant story. So far nothing interesting has happened (in 200 pages.)
Finally, the WRITING!! Oh man this girl needs a creative writing class. She seems to have something against using contractions. She constantly uses do not instead of don't, can not instead of can't, etc. This makes the dialogue feel wordy, awkward and extremely formal. I feel like I am reading an essay rather than a novel.
Overall, a complete waste of my time so far.
UPDATE: I have finally finished this book. There were some slight improvements in the second half but not enough to make this book surpass the two star mark. There were new characters introduced who had been mentioned before but I had to really work to make the connection. The side story was focused on more which I was happy about so I bumped it up a star for that.
For starters: I thoroughly detest this book and have pretty much since the first few pages. I am pretty much finishing out of pure stubbornness at this point (I have a thing about not abandoning books...) I am basically skimming just to get through it. Here is why I hate it so much:
The characters are flat and emotionless and there is nothing to draw me to any of them:
-Stirling: Whiny crybaby. I know he is supposed to be deathly ill but I really don't care because the character wasn't built up at all before the fact so I had no attachment and feel no sympathy for him or his illness. The constant back and forth between is he sick or is he not sick is getting really annoying too.
-Leo: Bratty teenager who doesn't seem to care about anyone but himself. Also the main character but seems to do very little of any importance.
-Grandma: Don't even get me started...all she does is yell. Her grandkids come home injured and she barely asks if they are ok, just digs into them for being home when they should be at school.
-Maria: Upstairs 15-year-old neighbour with a baby. Her and Leo have a love connection of some sort but there is no reason why he is interested other than she is pretty. Abandons her baby with her mother all the time but gets mad when her mother tells her she knows how to care for the baby better than Maria does.
-Aldebaran: Now this is a character I could be interested in. Too bad he only appears in a side story and barely seems to be connected in any significant way to the main storyline.
That leads me into my next point: where exactly is the plot in this book? There is a bit of storyline to do with the army and a war but that hasn't been made clear and doesn't seem significant. Stirling is sick with something called silent flu but nobody seems to know what that is so it isn't clear whether he actually has it or not. The kids appear to go to a military school but this also appears to be pretty unimportant other than the fact that one of their teachers is abusive except when it comes to his sickly daughter who has only been mentioned once. There is a lot of religious propaganda since Stirling wants to be a priest and apparently him and Grandma went to church everyday before he was sick. Finally, there is the sideplot of the magic book that Leo found which tells the story of Aldebaran. I think this would be a great plot if it were focused on but it seems to just be thrown in here and there. In conclusion: the main storyline is made up of numerous plots which don't really seem to connect enough to form a significant story. So far nothing interesting has happened (in 200 pages.)
Finally, the WRITING!! Oh man this girl needs a creative writing class. She seems to have something against using contractions. She constantly uses do not instead of don't, can not instead of can't, etc. This makes the dialogue feel wordy, awkward and extremely formal. I feel like I am reading an essay rather than a novel.
Overall, a complete waste of my time so far.
UPDATE: I have finally finished this book. There were some slight improvements in the second half but not enough to make this book surpass the two star mark. There were new characters introduced who had been mentioned before but I had to really work to make the connection. The side story was focused on more which I was happy about so I bumped it up a star for that.
iriswijshof's review
adventurous
mysterious
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
green_amaryllis's review against another edition
adventurous
emotional
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Child death and Terminal illness
travisp's review against another edition
3.0
This book isn't one of my favorites, but it's one of the only books to almost make me cry.
betty8's review against another edition
challenging
emotional
mysterious
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0