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A review by mackle13
House of Dark Shadows by Robert Liparulo
2.0
This was an ok read, though I was expecting more horror, which it sort of started out as, but kind of turned into more of a dark-fantasy-adventure thing.
The biggest issues with the book are as follows:
1) The characters didn't feel fully developed and/or particularly realistic. Part of this might've been dialogue, but a lot of it was just interactions and things that just didn't feel real.
2) This book is mostly set-up for the series at large. It has no resolution and ends in a giant cliff-hanger. I read something which said this series is more like one long story broken into bits - and that's fine, and I've read series like that before, but there's usually at least a little bit of resolution per series, which bits dangling for continuation. It's annoying that you have to continue the series to get any resolution and, from what I gather, you sort of have to read all 8, because you're not going to get any kind of wrap up in the next book, either.
3) The writing was ok, but lacked any real style. I'd put it on the younger scale of YA, mostly because of the aforementioned lack of character depth, but also because the writing is a bit simplistic.
I didn't hate it, but I was never really wrapped up in it, either. Even when I had to put the book down in the middle of a moment which was meant to be suspenseful, I didn't feel particularly rushed about picking it back up.
Currently I'd say that I would continue the series, if I could find it at the library or something... but it's one of those ones I could see myself forgetting about entirely after a few months.
The biggest issues with the book are as follows:
1) The characters didn't feel fully developed and/or particularly realistic. Part of this might've been dialogue, but a lot of it was just interactions and things that just didn't feel real.
2) This book is mostly set-up for the series at large. It has no resolution and ends in a giant cliff-hanger. I read something which said this series is more like one long story broken into bits - and that's fine, and I've read series like that before, but there's usually at least a little bit of resolution per series, which bits dangling for continuation. It's annoying that you have to continue the series to get any resolution and, from what I gather, you sort of have to read all 8, because you're not going to get any kind of wrap up in the next book, either.
3) The writing was ok, but lacked any real style. I'd put it on the younger scale of YA, mostly because of the aforementioned lack of character depth, but also because the writing is a bit simplistic.
I didn't hate it, but I was never really wrapped up in it, either. Even when I had to put the book down in the middle of a moment which was meant to be suspenseful, I didn't feel particularly rushed about picking it back up.
Currently I'd say that I would continue the series, if I could find it at the library or something... but it's one of those ones I could see myself forgetting about entirely after a few months.