A review by farhanac
The Forever Girl by Rebecca Hamilton
5.0
How much I enjoyed the book: 10/10
How well I think it was written: 9/10
The fantasy genre has become a host to an increasingly large number of novels with tired clichés, predictable characters and recycled plots. Yet, Rebecca Hamilton separates The Forever Girl from the rest: she thrusts the characters, their emotions and the world they live in firmly into an everlasting fragment of your heart.
The story begins and ends with Sophia, who (to my absolute pleasure) is not only strong and independent but also perfectly imperfect. Sophia has clear flaws, such as her insecure nature, allowing the average reader to relate to her.
I love the fact that Sophia doesn't mindlessly follow the instructions of others and isn't quick to trust strangers. It's something I've never understood with other writers - what kind of impression does blind faith in a stranger make on children/teenagers in this day and age? There have been too many real life horror stories circulating and too many impressionable people in the world for writers to continue to allow their characters to have this mentality. It's great that Sophia is also an educated adult - she went to University, got her degree and is of the appropriate age to make her own decisions. Another aspect I love about Sophia is that she didn't completely abandon her previous lifestyle for her new life. Instead, both she and Charles try to embrace the best of both by inviting Sophia's non-elemental friend (forgot her name) to visit. I can't tell you how much I despise teens that just run away from their lives to seek something new and dangerous and forget everything and everyone they've left!
On the other hand of the spectrum - at no point did I feel fully invested in Charles' life as a single character without Sophia around. It's a shame because I always love to imagine what the male protagonist was like before he met the love of his life but the lack of attention and detail about his family prevented me from connecting with him as a character. In fact, I'm hoping for some more competition in Sophia's love life - a threat to the canon pair always helps the couple get that much closer! Speaking of which - the chapter on Ivory's memories held me captivated beyond any other. Not only was my mind blown by the sudden twist (that I wouldn't have expected even if it was dancing around in a Hello Kitty costume, playing music using a giant lollypop stick, with a line of bunnies following behind it) the very emotions Hamilton described had me needing to pause my reading after the chapter just to calm my mind and get my breathing back to normalcy.
I can't even begin to tell you how desperately to see more of the supernatural world by the time I had finished reading. It both upset me and had me itching for more that we'd only been given a taste of the awesome. Most of the loose ends are tied in a neat bow but the lack of the supernatural world, plus a couple of other question marks prevent The Forever Girl from passing as a standalone book. Otherwise if you're a reader unlike me - who doesn't jump into the book and it's world and then suffer from the dreaded Book Hangover - you could read it alone and feel quite satisfied with the ending.
How well I think it was written: 9/10
The fantasy genre has become a host to an increasingly large number of novels with tired clichés, predictable characters and recycled plots. Yet, Rebecca Hamilton separates The Forever Girl from the rest: she thrusts the characters, their emotions and the world they live in firmly into an everlasting fragment of your heart.
The story begins and ends with Sophia, who (to my absolute pleasure) is not only strong and independent but also perfectly imperfect. Sophia has clear flaws, such as her insecure nature, allowing the average reader to relate to her.
I love the fact that Sophia doesn't mindlessly follow the instructions of others and isn't quick to trust strangers. It's something I've never understood with other writers - what kind of impression does blind faith in a stranger make on children/teenagers in this day and age? There have been too many real life horror stories circulating and too many impressionable people in the world for writers to continue to allow their characters to have this mentality. It's great that Sophia is also an educated adult - she went to University, got her degree and is of the appropriate age to make her own decisions. Another aspect I love about Sophia is that she didn't completely abandon her previous lifestyle for her new life. Instead, both she and Charles try to embrace the best of both by inviting Sophia's non-elemental friend (forgot her name) to visit. I can't tell you how much I despise teens that just run away from their lives to seek something new and dangerous and forget everything and everyone they've left!
On the other hand of the spectrum - at no point did I feel fully invested in Charles' life as a single character without Sophia around. It's a shame because I always love to imagine what the male protagonist was like before he met the love of his life but the lack of attention and detail about his family prevented me from connecting with him as a character. In fact, I'm hoping for some more competition in Sophia's love life - a threat to the canon pair always helps the couple get that much closer! Speaking of which - the chapter on Ivory's memories held me captivated beyond any other. Not only was my mind blown by the sudden twist (that I wouldn't have expected even if it was dancing around in a Hello Kitty costume, playing music using a giant lollypop stick, with a line of bunnies following behind it) the very emotions Hamilton described had me needing to pause my reading after the chapter just to calm my mind and get my breathing back to normalcy.
I can't even begin to tell you how desperately to see more of the supernatural world by the time I had finished reading. It both upset me and had me itching for more that we'd only been given a taste of the awesome. Most of the loose ends are tied in a neat bow but the lack of the supernatural world, plus a couple of other question marks prevent The Forever Girl from passing as a standalone book. Otherwise if you're a reader unlike me - who doesn't jump into the book and it's world and then suffer from the dreaded Book Hangover - you could read it alone and feel quite satisfied with the ending.