A review by agoldendear
The False Prince by Jennifer A. Nielsen

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

3.0

I read this two times--once in eighth grade, and now as an adult. I liked it significantly more when I was younger, unfortunately.

I think what I liked most about it was the tense plot of this book. You're always aware that the protagonist, Sage, is in a dangerous situation, and one wrong move could end his life. There was also an element of mystery. (minor spoiler)
At various times, random plot points would show up for a little while without being resolved and then just go away for a while. For example: Sage lost a rock at one point, but he didn't share why he cared so much about it. I was wondering what the point of it all was, but everything tied together pretty well in the end. (I still think the big plot twist advertised on the back cover was decently interesting, although a bit info-dumpy.)
Overall, I loved this book so much that I got the sequel as soon as it came out.

That being said, there was a lot I didn't like in my second reading. First, the writing frustrated me because nothing the teenagers said sounded like how teens talk in the real world. Everyone speaks a bit too unnaturally to convince me that they are real people. Even if you just read the first page of Sage's inner thoughts, you'll get what I mean.

Second, I didn't particularly like the characters. Sage was annoying and reminded me of this guy I knew in high school who would argue with our teachers constantly for no good reason. I didn't particularly want him to be chosen as the king for most of the book. The other two boys were also pretty bad. They didn't even START to like each other, or at least develop some sense of camaraderie from being stuck together in a terrible situation. But nope, they were always jerks. There wasn't even a point to (major spoiler)
Sage saving their lives, since one was only nice due to blackmail, and the other tried to murder him in the end.
The female characters, of which there were only two important ones, were quite underdeveloped. Imogen, who I guess was the love interest, was wishy-washy with whether she was on Sage's side for no reason I could tell. And it really annoyed me that (early spoiler)
Sage insisted on being involved with her, even after it was clear that he was actively causing her trouble.
Conner was wishy-washy as well, it was always like "oh maybe he'll pick Sage, jk maybe he'll pick Tobias." It all seemed random. Also, I had to roll my eyes at his punny name.

Oh, and speaking of the women--Sage always started his descriptions of them by mentioning how good-looking they are. The only part of him accurate to a real teenager, I guess. Gross.

The one character I did like was Mott. He was the only potential POC in the book (mentioned as "dark-skinned"), and he was one of the smartest and most reasonable characters. He was also not treated any differently due to having darker skin in this fictional world, hooray.

Overall, good book for middle-grade readers. Not so sure I would recommend it to adults.
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