Tag: show

Review: Good Omens by Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett

Anna and AlexisLeave a comment

Alexis:

Good Omens is a satirical book about the Apocalypse. When a demon named Crowley realizes he’s misplaced the Antichrist, an eleven-year-old boy named Adam, he teams up with his old enemy turned friend, an angel named Aziraphale. Together, they try to find Adam so that they can save Earth before the Apocalypse starts.

While I really enjoyed this book, I didn’t love it. I did love the beginning. The writing is brilliant and satirical, and it makes fun of everything. The book is full of religious scripture and religious references. Every line is witty, out there, and full of British humor.

I really enjoyed reading about Crowley and Aziraphale, and I wish that the majority of the book was from their point of view. I did like reading about the Four Horsemen, but some of the other characters were tedious to read about. My biggest complaint with the book is that there is a huge cast of characters, and the book jumps around a lot. It’s also a little too slow-paced.

If you like Supernatural, the two share a lot of names and qualities. I’m excited to watch the Good Omens show on Amazon Prime, however; I think it will come across really well on screen!

VERDICT: 3.5 stars

Review: Nocturna by Maya Motayne

Anna and AlexisLeave a comment

Alexis:

I hate to say this, but I didn’t love Nocturna by Maya Motayne. However, Nocturna gave me a great writing idea, and Motayne even responded to me on Twitter! She’s super sweet and I think she has a lot of promise.

Nocturna has a great set up: a prince and a girl who can steal faces team together in a Latin-inspired world.

But here’s the thing: I’ve read this book before. Maybe not specifically this book, but all of the elements that tie it together. I found the magic system to be pretty generic: a mix of bending from Avatar: The Last Airbender and the magic from Harry Potter, only with Spanish verbs instead of Latin.

I’ve also read this plot over and over. Alfie, the prince, releases a darkness in order to save his best friend and vows to fix his wrongdoing to save his kingdom from destruction. He and Finn, the face stealer, team up in order to break a girl out of prison to help them.

My other biggest issue with the book is that it’s too “tell-y.” You know, the “show don’t tell rule.” Well, unfortunately, the first half of the book tells way too much. The dialogue sounds stilted because every character talks in chunks of exposition. While the beginning of the book was promising, the book starts to drag pretty quickly. At least 100 pages could’ve been cut from the book to make the plot flow faster.

The dialogue got better as the book went on, but it still wasn’t great. I think “quipped” is now my least favorite dialogue tag.

I also think that “maldito,” or “damned” in Spanish, was really overused.

I liked Alfie as a character, but other than that, I had a really hard time caring about the characters. For that reason, I found myself skimming the last ¼ of the book.

Unfortunately, this book wasn’t for me. But I have high hopes for Motayne, and I hope she grows as a writer for the next book in the series.

VERDICT: 2 stars