A review by reanne
Ghost in the H.A.T.B.O.X. by Frank Beddor, Adrienne Kress
Did not finish book.
Imagine if instead of going to wizard school, Harry Potter went to a magical pottery school--and then proceeded to suck at absolutely everything including making pots. And also Moaning Myrtle and the house ghosts possessed first years and turned them into blank-eyed zombies and none of the teachers cared or noticed.
This book wants very badly to be Harry Potter and falls far, far short. There's no whimsy, no compelling characters, no wonder and enchantment, and not even any actual teaching. All lessons are completely glossed over. Besides which, they're totally boring anyway. While Harry Potter is learning how to turn animals into objects and back, to fly on a broom, and to do helpful charms like fixing broken things with a wave of his wand, Hatter is learning things like: how to make a hat (not a magical one; just a normal hat--apparently the magic comes through some offscreen process where the hat is 'imbued with White Imagination'), fist-fighting a holographic boy for an entire semester with no instruction (in a room which, while supposedly some sort of holodeck/Danger Room that can create anything, is used as basically your standard gymnasium--i.e. for P.E. and assemblies), and 'learning' about magical thread (the only lesson of this class that's actually described consists of the teacher telling the students to stare at the thread until they can get it to do something). And Hatter isn't as likable as Harry; at least Harry had the smarts not to shake the bully's hand and agree to be his friend.
At first, this was an easy read. But the farther along it went, the worse the book got and the harder it was to slog through. I really, really tried hard to finish this because I'd backed it on Kickstarter, but by about 3/4 of the way through I simply couldn't stand it anymore. Just no. I simply can't with this book anymore. I have a feeling Frank Beddor is one of those people who, rather than being an actual writer, is someone who had one good story in him (the LGW trilogy) and henceforth has spent his time marketing and milking that one idea to death. The jacket cover for this book says he's working on a LGW Broadway musical. I have serious doubts that this supposed Hatter series will ever be complete.
I could write several pages of criticism on this book, but really, I'd rather just wash my hands of it and the author. This was so very, very not worth the $40 I spent to support the Kickstarter, especially since we didn't get it until it was basically in stores (for far cheaper) anyway. The only good part of this book was Newton, the blind cadet, who I did quite like and would have preferred as the protagonist.
BTW, if you're interested in this book because of the connection to Alice In Wonderland, don't be. Any references to that story are extremely superficial and meaningless.
This book wants very badly to be Harry Potter and falls far, far short. There's no whimsy, no compelling characters, no wonder and enchantment, and not even any actual teaching. All lessons are completely glossed over. Besides which, they're totally boring anyway. While Harry Potter is learning how to turn animals into objects and back, to fly on a broom, and to do helpful charms like fixing broken things with a wave of his wand, Hatter is learning things like: how to make a hat (not a magical one; just a normal hat--apparently the magic comes through some offscreen process where the hat is 'imbued with White Imagination'), fist-fighting a holographic boy for an entire semester with no instruction (in a room which, while supposedly some sort of holodeck/Danger Room that can create anything, is used as basically your standard gymnasium--i.e. for P.E. and assemblies), and 'learning' about magical thread (the only lesson of this class that's actually described consists of the teacher telling the students to stare at the thread until they can get it to do something). And Hatter isn't as likable as Harry; at least Harry had the smarts not to shake the bully's hand and agree to be his friend.
At first, this was an easy read. But the farther along it went, the worse the book got and the harder it was to slog through. I really, really tried hard to finish this because I'd backed it on Kickstarter, but by about 3/4 of the way through I simply couldn't stand it anymore. Just no. I simply can't with this book anymore. I have a feeling Frank Beddor is one of those people who, rather than being an actual writer, is someone who had one good story in him (the LGW trilogy) and henceforth has spent his time marketing and milking that one idea to death. The jacket cover for this book says he's working on a LGW Broadway musical. I have serious doubts that this supposed Hatter series will ever be complete.
I could write several pages of criticism on this book, but really, I'd rather just wash my hands of it and the author. This was so very, very not worth the $40 I spent to support the Kickstarter, especially since we didn't get it until it was basically in stores (for far cheaper) anyway. The only good part of this book was Newton, the blind cadet, who I did quite like and would have preferred as the protagonist.
BTW, if you're interested in this book because of the connection to Alice In Wonderland, don't be. Any references to that story are extremely superficial and meaningless.