A review by aotora
City of Secrets by Mary Hoffman
2.0
I wanted to love this book as much as I liked the previous ones but I just... couldn't.
Matt just wasn't as interesting as a protagonist as the rest of them were- including Sky. His problem was that he had dyslexia and girlfriend issues- the problem was that dyslexia is mentioned here and there but by the end of the book it's barely even mentioned or there and it's not even a key thing in his adventures in Talia. He ends up at an university in the city of words- Padavia, working as a pressman - printing books and whatnot- but, it turns out that he can read just fine in Talia - I wish that instead he couldn't and he'd have to overcome his struggles and learn how to pretend to be able to read just fine so he could pretend to be the press worker. Ayesha was also one of the most obnoxious characters ever and whilst I at least somewhat rooted for Sky and Alice in the previous book I didn't care for either of these two in this book.
There were also hexes in this book - which would be fine... if they weren't used precisely once and never again. It felt just tacked on and didn't contribute much to the story. Same with having the old main characters making cameos- they were fine and all but the story would've been fine without them because they barely do anything.
There is also this constant comparison between Matt and Luciano which annoyed me, yes the other characters mentioned not being able to live in Talia for good and not wanting to leave the modern world behind... but he does it so much that it becomes annoying to see.
The one interesting and bright spot in this book was Enrico though - which I didn't expect because I didn't care for him through the first three books, but seeing him become somewhat good and seeing him help out the stravaganti made me smile - I can't wait to see where his story goes from here and if he appears in the last two books.
Other than that this was my least favourite book in the series so far and I truly hope that I like the last two because the idea about time and space travel is so interesting if it's well executed. And this one just wasn't.
Matt just wasn't as interesting as a protagonist as the rest of them were- including Sky. His problem was that he had dyslexia and girlfriend issues- the problem was that dyslexia is mentioned here and there but by the end of the book it's barely even mentioned or there and it's not even a key thing in his adventures in Talia. He ends up at an university in the city of words- Padavia, working as a pressman - printing books and whatnot- but, it turns out that he can read just fine in Talia - I wish that instead he couldn't and he'd have to overcome his struggles and learn how to pretend to be able to read just fine so he could pretend to be the press worker. Ayesha was also one of the most obnoxious characters ever and whilst I at least somewhat rooted for Sky and Alice in the previous book I didn't care for either of these two in this book.
There were also hexes in this book - which would be fine... if they weren't used precisely once and never again. It felt just tacked on and didn't contribute much to the story. Same with having the old main characters making cameos- they were fine and all but the story would've been fine without them because they barely do anything.
There is also this constant comparison between Matt and Luciano which annoyed me, yes the other characters mentioned not being able to live in Talia for good and not wanting to leave the modern world behind... but he does it so much that it becomes annoying to see.
The one interesting and bright spot in this book was Enrico though - which I didn't expect because I didn't care for him through the first three books, but seeing him become somewhat good and seeing him help out the stravaganti made me smile - I can't wait to see where his story goes from here and if he appears in the last two books.
Other than that this was my least favourite book in the series so far and I truly hope that I like the last two because the idea about time and space travel is so interesting if it's well executed. And this one just wasn't.