Mini Reviews: Two Books I Was Ready To Love (The One Memory Of Flora Banks and A Shadow Bright And Burning)
AFTER THE HOUR IT TOOK TO READ THAT LONG AS POST TITLE, LET'S GET STARTED!
Hey lovelies! Today I am here to share with you another round of mini reviews! I just started these recently and I can't help but love them! I hope you don't mind that they're a bit briefer than my other book reviews BUT I have a good reason for that!
I don't feel like I would have enough to talk about if I wrote these as seperate book reviews so instead of wasting time publishing two different posts, I thought I'd just put these two together because they both have one thing in common: they disappointed me.
THIS IS GOING TO BE SPOILER FREE, BUT BEWARE, IT CAN GET A LITTLE RANTY.
THE ONE MEMORY OF FLORA BANKS BY EMILY BARR
Before we begin, can I just tell you all how excited I was for this one? I had originally requested this on NetGalley and was pretty disappointed when my request was declined. So when Penguin sent it to me, I was pretty ecstatic!
The premise for this is so unique and unlike anything I've ever read before, so naturally, I was intrigued! I expected it to be a little like Everything Everything by Nicola Yoon and let me just tell you this, it was nothing like that.
THE POSITIVES
THE POSITIVES
As mentioned before, the premise for this book was really, really great. I wanted to know how Flora couldn't remember things, how she remembered the kiss, what she was going to do know. It made me question a lot of things, which is exactly what a book blurb should do.
I also thought the disability was well researched (although I can't say for sure as I do not have it and don't know anyone else that does so if you do know and think it wasn't well researched, please let me know in the comments!) according to me and I learnt a bit from Flora's disability.
I thought it was quite admirable how she managed to live a normal life with that kind of disability (even if it bordered on slightly unrealistic but once again, I can't say for sure as I don't know anyone that has it and therefore I do not have first hand knowledge) using her sticky notes and the notes she wrote on her hand including a journal. It opened my eyes to how difficult memory loss is, on the person and their loved ones.
It didn't occur to me before this book what kind of person I'd be like if I didn't remember my childhood memories, memories of conversations I've had and laughter I've shared and all those good, joyous moments that have lead up to now.
I thought Flora was a pretty strong character, even though I didn't like her very much. She was calm and kind.
THE NEGATIVES
I tried so hard to get into it but I just couldn't.
The writing was awfully dry and there wasn't a consistent pace. Everything happened so suddenly. There'd be moments where the plot would be completely flat and then there'd be lots of action and then it'd go back to being flat again. There was no build up or proper explanation for the plot as well, in terms of the backstory of Flora and the revelations made throughout the book. They were meant to shock you and I think Barr expected the readers to be shocked but it honestly did nothing for me.
Also, I understand the constant repetition of the events in the book was meant to illustrate how Flora was remembering everything that had happened so far and how she was dealing with her memory loss but after a while it just got repetitive and boring.
It was also highly unrealistic at times. I don't understand how a girl could have just gone to the Arctic all by herself. I don't understand how no one would question that, I don't understand how she survived without having proper food or clothing or anything. I don't understand why she would remember a kiss, of all things. It just frustrated me above and beyond.
I couldn't connect to the characters. AT ALL. I have never felt more dispassionate towards a character as I have towards Flora. She was not at all interesting, I found her extremely annoying at times and there was absolutely no connection with the readers. The whole 'chasing after a boy' thing does not work well with me and I feel that is where the problem began.
There were times where I felt the book was trying too hard as well, if you know what I mean? It tried to focus too much on the whole 'go out and live your life' and 'be brave' which is a great message, don't get me wrong, and I loved how it encouraged those with disabilities and mental illnesses to not let it hinder them, but the way Barr went about doing it didn't really work for me. It got too cheesy at times and not in a good way.
Unfortunately for this book the negatives are more prominent than the positives, which I am quite sad to admit as I did really want to like this book, especially after hearing positive reviews from a few of my friends!
This was not for me and we'll just leave it at that!
OVERALL RATING:
★★
A SHADOW BRIGHT AND BURNING BY JESSICA CLUESS
This was another book that I was excited for. I hadn't heard too much about the book and didn't know what it was really about other than it was a fantasy but what I had heard of it had been positive so imagine my surprise when I started to read it and didn't enjoy it at all.
Just a disclaimer, this was a DNF for me. I did not finish this book but I got to more than half way before I gave up because of how boring it was. I was dragging through it and while I may pick it up in the future to finish it off because I hate leaving things unfinished, this review will be based off what I have read. And unless the book magically get's better by the end (in which case, please do let me know) these are my thoughts on it.
THE POSITIVES
Rook is such a sweet heart! I loved him from the very beginning and I wish he was a bigger part of the book. I wanted him to literally be in every scene and it made me really sad that he was barely in the book!
I liked how it was set in the real world with Victorian London. It is rare to find fantasy and dystopian in the real world so it was pretty cool and a little bit different from the others.
Also, the cover is totally gorgeous! The designer should get a pat on the back for the amazing job they've done!
THE NEGATIVES
I feel this world is SO overdone these days! The whole society being divided, things depending on your blood etc is what most fantasy/dystopian novels are in YA these days so by the time I got to this, I wasn't really interested or surprised.
The blurb also gave away a major part of the book which only happened about half way through the book and it made me really roll my eyes at the poor planning because who does that? An event that happens half way through the book is considered part of the plot and should NOT have been on the blurb. If it had not been on the blurb, it would have been 538214659% more exciting and intriguing!
The writing was dry. BOY WAS IT DRY. It didn't pull me in. There was nothing exciting about it. It didn't develop the world, the plot and the characters at all.
There was no explanation for any of the backstory of the world. I didn't understand any of the magic systems or the society. I didn't understand what was happening in the plot and who the characters were really were and why they were there. I couldn't understand the variety of powers or the whole 'shadow bright and burning part'. Like yes, I get the 'burning' part but where is the 'shadow' part???
I didn't like the main character very much but I didn't hate her either. The only character I feel I did love was Rook and that is in the negatives because HE WAS BARELY IN THE BOOK! The only thing that got me to more than half way was the hope that I'd get another glimpse of Rook but he is in the book for literally 0.000000000000001 seconds before disappearing to god knows where.
Maybe someone else will like this better than me but there wasn't much in it for me.
OVERALL RATING:
★
Thank you to Penguin Random House for sending these two books for me to review. However, all thoughts and opinions are my own and this is an honest review.
I am sorry these two reviews have been fairly negative. I don't like being so rambly and it makes me feel really guilty for dumping all this on my blog and on the authors. I am sure these two books will be enjoyed by other people but I, unfortunately, did not enjoy these two so I really don't have many positives to talk about!
Hopefully the next review will be much more positive! Fingers crossed.
Have you read these books? What did you think?
4 happy thoughts
oh no, I'm sorry both books were such a huge disappointment ;/ especially if its one you were so looking forward to, it does suck when it falls so dry
ReplyDeleteyeah unfortunately it was disappointing but what can you do, right? anyway, thanks for reading and commenting lily!
DeleteAgh I have Flora Banks from netgalley right now and I'm a bit scared!! I was taking a risk on it anyway because amnesia books can get so confusing to read. And I DID want to read Shadow Bright and Burning but I heard it was really cliche...and omg what is it with so many YA fantasies being super cliche these days?!? I WANT NEW FRESH THINGS. *flails* Aaaanyway sadness that these were disappointing. But it sounds like I'd have the same opinions if I read them so I loved the reviews! :P
ReplyDeleteAWW CAIT YOU ARE THE SWEETEST! And yes, unfortunately they were disappointing but what can you do?
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