A review by ruth_miranda
Faelorehn by Jenna Elizabeth Johnson
3.0
2,5
Hmmm. I don't even know what to say. If there was ever one long cliché that I read, it was this book. All the tropes and clichés inside it. So let's all agree I did not enjoy this novel. I can see twelve, thirteen year old girls getting a bit of a buzz out of it, but even the girl I was at that age would have rolled her eyes a bit. Still, the tropes and clichés aren't the worst part - some readers will ship certain tropes to exhaustion and read all the books because of said tropes, so I understand there's a market for them that's far bigger than I can imagine. And I could do with that part of the novel, honestly. I could deal with the absolutely tall, leggy, stunning teenager who actually finds herself ugly and who the 'in crowd' bully and humiliate. I could do with that very same girl, who is so awkward and so clumsy, and oh, did I mention, so awkward and shy and always says the wrong thing - but the moment she does, she KNOWS she put her foot in her mouth - being a special creature from another world with special powers that mean she can either save or destroy well, WORLDS! I could go with this IF the book was well-written enough. But unfortunately the characters are wooden, they are empty, one dimensional. There's no development and no way for me to connect to them, they all feel so unbelievable and contrived. Then there's all the telling and absolutely no showing, we are guided throughout the entire novel into what it is the characters experience, and we never get to EXPERIENCE what they do through. I couldn't care less hounds from hell ravaged Meghan to pieces, because, honestly, there was no emotion on the scenes where something did actually happen to the characters. It was simply an exposition of facts, detailed to the utmost but bearing feeling. And then there's the stage-directing. How every single gesture and action gets explained and told to the utmost detail. As if the reader cannot imagine it in their heads. Honestly, this book was not for me.
Hmmm. I don't even know what to say. If there was ever one long cliché that I read, it was this book. All the tropes and clichés inside it. So let's all agree I did not enjoy this novel. I can see twelve, thirteen year old girls getting a bit of a buzz out of it, but even the girl I was at that age would have rolled her eyes a bit. Still, the tropes and clichés aren't the worst part - some readers will ship certain tropes to exhaustion and read all the books because of said tropes, so I understand there's a market for them that's far bigger than I can imagine. And I could do with that part of the novel, honestly. I could deal with the absolutely tall, leggy, stunning teenager who actually finds herself ugly and who the 'in crowd' bully and humiliate. I could do with that very same girl, who is so awkward and so clumsy, and oh, did I mention, so awkward and shy and always says the wrong thing - but the moment she does, she KNOWS she put her foot in her mouth - being a special creature from another world with special powers that mean she can either save or destroy well, WORLDS! I could go with this IF the book was well-written enough. But unfortunately the characters are wooden, they are empty, one dimensional. There's no development and no way for me to connect to them, they all feel so unbelievable and contrived. Then there's all the telling and absolutely no showing, we are guided throughout the entire novel into what it is the characters experience, and we never get to EXPERIENCE what they do through. I couldn't care less hounds from hell ravaged Meghan to pieces, because, honestly, there was no emotion on the scenes where something did actually happen to the characters. It was simply an exposition of facts, detailed to the utmost but bearing feeling. And then there's the stage-directing. How every single gesture and action gets explained and told to the utmost detail. As if the reader cannot imagine it in their heads. Honestly, this book was not for me.