So many books with this unoriginal title structure, but I didn’t hold that against the author as I read this book. Overall I liked the concept of the book – it is full of things that I’ve liked in other books – but the execution of the story wasn’t to my taste.
So we’ve got secret societies, doors to other worlds, books, loyal dogs and (possibly) vampires – lots of good stuff. But the main character’s voice was a little aggravating to me, and the book had an overall theme of breaking out from the white male dominating society and overcoming their systemic advantages. I like the idea of exploring this in a book but it seemed spoon-fed and overly-simplified.
Some characters were flat, villains unsurprising and doing monologues to explain their motivations, predictable turns in the story and just the feeling like you know what the character should do but you have to wait several chapters before they do it.
Finally, they have a book being read within this book, and the way it is levered into the main narrative felt awfully contrived. Couldn’t we get this information in a more organic way?
So it sounds like I didn’t really like the book, and before writing all this down I felt like I had enjoyed it overall – but now that I look at it maybe not.
Next I am reading Hatchet by Gary Paulsen.
