Mini Book Reviews (January 2019)

This is a weird post because I usually only post about books that I love or at least really like. But this is just a random post of a few books I wrote a short review of, and it just so happens, I didn't really care for any of them very much...

Coraline by Neil Gaiman
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

I keep really wanting to like Neil Gaiman's books, and so I keep reading them, and then I don't like them very much. When will I learn my lesson? My favorite book of his that I have read was The Graveyard Book. But Coraline is much creepier and more disturbing somehow. It is classified as a "dark fantasy", some even label it as "horror", and I already know that is not my thing. But it's also categorized as a children's novella? This would have terrified me as a child! I still find it disturbing! Sewing on button eyes??? Disappearing parents? Other kidnapped kids who have had their souls stolen???

I suppose it's not that much stranger than Alice's Adventures in Wonderland... but still.

I do always enjoy stories that play with the ideas of parallel worlds or alternate realities, so there's that. Plus the other world has toys that fly and a sarcastic talking cat, so that's fun.

Other thought I had: The way the Other Mother is unable to actually create, but can only copy, twist and change things from the real world, reminds me of something the evil witch says in The Silver Chair by C. S. Lewis. (Where she is trying to convince the protagonists that the land they speak of with the sun in the sky is only a projection/copy of what they have in the underworld, and their image of Aslan in their minds is something they made up from thinking about a very big cat.) I wonder if that served as inspiration at all for this part.


The Fairy-Tale Detectives by Michael Buckley
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

Two stars because "it was ok" pretty much sums up my feelings about this book. I really thought I would enjoy it more than I did. I love the premise, that fairy tales are true. The stories written down by The Brothers Grimm were real accounts. I like that the fairy tale creatures are called "Everafters". There were several things that reminded me of the TV show, "Once Upon a Time", which I also loved (at least for the first few seasons). I even like that Buckley pulls in other fictional characters from The Wizard of Oz and Alice in Wonderland.

So if my lack of enjoyment is due to the fact that it's really written (down) to younger audiences or what. Another reviewer commented that the first chapter reminded her of The Series of Unfortunate Events by Lemony Snicket, which I really didn't like, so maybe that has something to do with it. And Sabrina, the older sister, was a really annoying character for at least the first half of the book.

I might have enjoyed this series when I was in elementary school. But since I'm not, I don't know if I will read the next book in the series. I know there are several more of them that are also available on audio through my library (which is how I read this one). So we shall see. It's certainly not a high priority though.


The Raven Boys by Maggie Stiefvater
My rating: 1 of 5 stars

I don't give many 1 star ratings, but I really didn't like this, at all. I know a lot of people love this series, that's why I gave it a try. Plus it was available on audio from my library. But it was PAINFULLY slow and boring, and way too dark for my taste. I think I don’t like urban fantasy as a general rule. I didn’t care for the writing style either. So I do not plan on reading any of the other books in this series.

Also, why does this have 4.06 average rating on Goodreads??? I really don’t get it. I would have DNF’ed this one if I could ever bring myself to do that…

*****

So have you read any of these? Did you like them more than I did? Why?

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