Book Review: The Shadow Thieves (plus some fun search terms)
Well, I've been rooting around my blog, and I've found some of the top search terms that make my blog pop up. Here they are:
cato and clove the hunger games ~ Yes, Cato and Clove are in the Hunger Games...
i no longer feel quite so stupid!!! ~ Congratulations! I'm so happy that you no longer are wading through stupidity!
advice peeta ~ Hmm, perhaps Peeta does need some advice. Would you care to give him some?
funny peeta quotes ~ You'll have to ask Peeta for those, I haven't spoken with him recently.
hunger games background cato ~ Sorry, I don't make those. Perhaps you should look up a good muralist instead.
peeta looking out train window ~ Is he? Well! I'm so glad he knows how! Train windows can be devious things you know.
peeta looking out window ~ Oh ho! Now he's just looking out a window...perhaps the train window was too much for him.
peeta mellark gif ~ And what, pray tell, do you expect me to do about Peeta's "gif"?
peeta mellark painting his arm in the games ~ Does he now? Shall we give him a round of applause? *applause*
seana j vixen ~ That would be me. What can I do for you?
I had no idea I was such a popular Hunger Games site...of course this might have something to do with my one-month long HG obsession, but thankfully it ended after that one month. I don't know what came over me, but I was quite obsessed and not in my right mind, per se.
Now, onto the review.
The Shadow Thieves
Anne Ursu
Genre: Fantasy (with a touch of Greek mythology)
Summary:
Thoughts:
I simply loved the humor in this book. It was so ironic, and the author was able to place it just so to make it unexpected funny. Such as the door that when you go to open it, you suddenly are overwhelmed by the sudden urge to go buy a soft pretzel from the food court.
The plot had good suspense, so there was plenty for me to guess about. Usually the chapters would end with some sort of cliff-hanger, which the author did well to make me want to keep reading. There wasn't really a moment where I was bored, so this was good. There are some parts in the book that are important, such as the kitten, that have even more importance when you learn about their history (thus the epilogue) and I thought that this author did nicely fitting all the puzzle pieces together.
The characters were pretty well-thought out, and the author did well to make them individuals and not photocopies of each other. Well, some of them were very similar, but they were supposed to be, and that's not the point right now. The point is...well, actually I lost my train of thought. Pah, where ever that train has wandered off to, I'll find it later. There was, of course, one character that I absolutely loved above all others. It was the character of Phil (his full name is longer, but I don't want to give anything away) simply because he thinks he is quite wonderful, and he has an obsession with tuxedos and reading stories to his minions while playing his violin.
This book has little bits of Greek mythology sprinkled in (much like the Percy Jackson books and other Rick Riordin books) and it was an interesting take on it. The author made the Greek gods and goddesses much different than you read about in the RR books, so it's a refreshing take on it. I liked how she took real Greek myths and twisted them into her story. Like the ever regenerating liver and the river Styx ferryman who really likes grape Fruit Roll-Ups.
The book was somewhat cliche, what with the family who doesn't want their son so they send him away to America to live with some relatives. A lot of books have that family who is dysfunctional and therefore the hero goes off adventuring and slays the evil [insert whatever evil the hero is slaying]. So I had to lower the rating for that sake.
Rating: 4.4
cato and clove the hunger games ~ Yes, Cato and Clove are in the Hunger Games...
i no longer feel quite so stupid!!! ~ Congratulations! I'm so happy that you no longer are wading through stupidity!
advice peeta ~ Hmm, perhaps Peeta does need some advice. Would you care to give him some?
funny peeta quotes ~ You'll have to ask Peeta for those, I haven't spoken with him recently.
hunger games background cato ~ Sorry, I don't make those. Perhaps you should look up a good muralist instead.
peeta looking out train window ~ Is he? Well! I'm so glad he knows how! Train windows can be devious things you know.
peeta looking out window ~ Oh ho! Now he's just looking out a window...perhaps the train window was too much for him.
peeta mellark gif ~ And what, pray tell, do you expect me to do about Peeta's "gif"?
peeta mellark painting his arm in the games ~ Does he now? Shall we give him a round of applause? *applause*
seana j vixen ~ That would be me. What can I do for you?
I had no idea I was such a popular Hunger Games site...of course this might have something to do with my one-month long HG obsession, but thankfully it ended after that one month. I don't know what came over me, but I was quite obsessed and not in my right mind, per se.
Now, onto the review.
The Shadow Thieves
Anne Ursu
Genre: Fantasy (with a touch of Greek mythology)
Summary:
Something extraordinary is about to happen to Charlotte Mielswetzski.
It's not the very cute kitten that appears out of nowhere. It's not the arrival of her cousin Zee, who believes he's the cause of a mysterious sickness that has struck his friends back in England. And it's not the white-faced, yellow-eyed men in tuxedos who follow Charlotte everywhere. What's so extraordinary is not any one of these things. It's all of them.
When Charlotte's friends start to get sick, Charlotte and Zee set out to find a cure. Their quest leads them to a not-so-mythical Underworld, where they face Harpies that love to rhyme, gods with personnel problems, and ghosts with a thirst for blood.
Charlotte and Zee learn that in a world overrun by Nightmares, Pain, and Death, the really dangerous character is a guy named Phil. And then they discover that the fate of every person — living and dead — is in their hands.
Thoughts:
I simply loved the humor in this book. It was so ironic, and the author was able to place it just so to make it unexpected funny. Such as the door that when you go to open it, you suddenly are overwhelmed by the sudden urge to go buy a soft pretzel from the food court.
The plot had good suspense, so there was plenty for me to guess about. Usually the chapters would end with some sort of cliff-hanger, which the author did well to make me want to keep reading. There wasn't really a moment where I was bored, so this was good. There are some parts in the book that are important, such as the kitten, that have even more importance when you learn about their history (thus the epilogue) and I thought that this author did nicely fitting all the puzzle pieces together.
The characters were pretty well-thought out, and the author did well to make them individuals and not photocopies of each other. Well, some of them were very similar, but they were supposed to be, and that's not the point right now. The point is...well, actually I lost my train of thought. Pah, where ever that train has wandered off to, I'll find it later. There was, of course, one character that I absolutely loved above all others. It was the character of Phil (his full name is longer, but I don't want to give anything away) simply because he thinks he is quite wonderful, and he has an obsession with tuxedos and reading stories to his minions while playing his violin.
This book has little bits of Greek mythology sprinkled in (much like the Percy Jackson books and other Rick Riordin books) and it was an interesting take on it. The author made the Greek gods and goddesses much different than you read about in the RR books, so it's a refreshing take on it. I liked how she took real Greek myths and twisted them into her story. Like the ever regenerating liver and the river Styx ferryman who really likes grape Fruit Roll-Ups.
The book was somewhat cliche, what with the family who doesn't want their son so they send him away to America to live with some relatives. A lot of books have that family who is dysfunctional and therefore the hero goes off adventuring and slays the evil [insert whatever evil the hero is slaying]. So I had to lower the rating for that sake.
Rating: 4.4
A gif is kind of like a small movie that takes up as much space as a regular picture-- the only drawback is it repeats the same three-second clip for eternity, and doesn't have sound. Go to this site to see a Peeta gif: http://blondesworld.wordpress.com/
ReplyDeleteAnyway. Good review. It makes me want to read the book... after all of my other books that I must read. (You suggested half of them, so I'm wondering if I ought to just stop listening to you.) Phil sounds awesome.
Oh durr. I've heard of a gif. I'm not sure why my brain frizzled out on that, but oh well.
DeleteOh yes, Phil is quite the character. He just gets better and better throughout the three books, and it makes me wish he was a good guy, but sadly that is not the case. He's a brilliant villain though!
I suppose if you get sick of me you can stop listening to my book rants, but that's your choice of course.
I need to read about a brilliant hilarious villain right about now, so I'll go for this book.
DeleteI'm in the middle of this, and, ironically, not liking it as much as I should like. Phil is interesting, though not quite as evil as he could be. He's a little pathetic, though not so much that he's absolutely hilarious-- just minorly so. He's loony. And the other characters... I'd say this is a girl book, even with all of the Grecian mythology.
DeleteWhat is the suggested age range for this book? It sounds interesting.
ReplyDelete-D. Skye <3
I would say probably from age 10-14 about. Perhaps a year less or more, but about there. It's a really good book! (:
DeleteGreat, thanks!
ReplyDelete-D. Skye <3