Ratings/Reviews

Mini Review: Life and Death by Stephenie Meyer

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So Meyer set out to make a gender-swap Twilight to disprove the allegations of sexism, but all she managed to do was emphasis the sexism and add some new different sexism. So that was… unenjoyable.

This book was actually really boring, so on that front the original is better; although, I still haven’t managed to put my finger on what it is that makes it so much more boring. It was actually hard to read though; I couldn’t keep my attention on it.

I will say, the ending is much better. Maybe just because it, you know, ends. Instead of dragging on for three more cringe-inducing novels. But I remember thinking all of that crap was so unnecessary when I read the original saga, so it’s nice to see the fat trimmed and the story summed up in a more efficient manner. Besides, Vampire!Bella was the only vaguely tolerable Bella. Vampire!Beau is still pretty boring, but at least it was done instead of three-and-a-half novels of “will they or won’t they” to read.

All in all, a pretty superfluous addition to an already not-good series, but not quite as bad as it could have been.

Mini-Review: The Goose Girl by Shannon Hale (Full Cast Audio version)

Lee3 Comments

This was at least my 5th time reading The Goose Girl, so we all know I love it, but I wanted to say something specifically about the Full Cast Audio version which I listened to this most recent time:

The experience of a full-cast audiobook was new to me, and I did enjoy it for the most part. However, I have to say that it was difficult some of the time because it seemed like they didn’t bother to check how to pronounce words. I don’t just mean the fantasy names which we all so often don’t know how to pronounce without a guide, but normal words were sometimes mispronounced. And the inflections of the readers were often stilted and didn’t communicate the meaning well. Those two things more than even the sometimes silly sounding voices used for the villains, were what pulled me out of the story and made it less enjoyable. If I had never read the book before and only listened to the Full Cast Audio version of the audiobook, I’m not sure I would have liked the book at all.

All told, I recommend trying a full-cast audiobook for sure, just not this one, and I recommend the novel of The Goose Girl to everyone, but especially fans of Fairytale Retellings and YA Fantasy.