And for the next and last installment of Mark This Book Monday of this week, a review of a middle grade story that releases tomorrow!
The Whatnot by Stefan Bachmann
My rating: 3 of 5 stars
When I requested The Whatnot I had expected I would have had the time to read The Peculiar already, but I had almost all but forgotten about my request when I was approved for the eARC on NetGalley last Friday, which left me shuffling my reading schedule to read The Whatnot before release date!
Thankfully it is not really necessary to have read The Peculiar to read The Whatnot since it's a companion book and not a sequel or prequel exactly. Some of the main characters are common and of course they take place in the same world, but I could follow the events and understand the world without having read The Peculiar.
Stefan creates a wonderful world, with very many unique and intriguing and creepy characters, with unlikely heroes and heroines, and quite a bit of character growth during the story. Pikey starts as a guy that only thinks of going on and candied apples and ends up being a key part on holding the others together. Hettie starts scared and completely doubting herself and through all her not very pleasant experiences at The Old Country, she ends up finding bravery in herself to face the battle. Barthy, her brother and the main character in The Peculiar is also still here, looking for Hettie and unexpectedly ends up pairing with Pikey for it, he's more motivation than hero in this book though.
The plot is a bit dark and a bit creepy, with a few surprises and ugly revelations but also contain some great lessons that not only the MG readers might need, but all of us could do with a reminder: not give up easily, trust our friends and family and always strive to do what's right. Let's not take the easy way out or simply sit and complain.
The writing style is great, really captivating and engrossing, with some great descriptions of characters and places without making it overbearing, and the author is very good at painting the Fae as the not so nice characters from the old stories.
For someone other than me, this book would probably deserve a much higher praise, and let me tell you it is a highly entertaining book with very few flaws, I just simply am not a fan of faery stories and that was what kept on marring my enjoyment of the book, it was a great book about the Fae, but only about the Fae and humans trying to fight them, and that's not exactly my cup of tea. So 3 and a half stars from me, and if you loved The Peculiar or enjoy books about the Fae, you'll probably love this book much more than I did!.
View all my reviews
The Whatnot by Stefan BachmannMy rating: 3 of 5 stars
When I requested The Whatnot I had expected I would have had the time to read The Peculiar already, but I had almost all but forgotten about my request when I was approved for the eARC on NetGalley last Friday, which left me shuffling my reading schedule to read The Whatnot before release date!
Thankfully it is not really necessary to have read The Peculiar to read The Whatnot since it's a companion book and not a sequel or prequel exactly. Some of the main characters are common and of course they take place in the same world, but I could follow the events and understand the world without having read The Peculiar.
Stefan creates a wonderful world, with very many unique and intriguing and creepy characters, with unlikely heroes and heroines, and quite a bit of character growth during the story. Pikey starts as a guy that only thinks of going on and candied apples and ends up being a key part on holding the others together. Hettie starts scared and completely doubting herself and through all her not very pleasant experiences at The Old Country, she ends up finding bravery in herself to face the battle. Barthy, her brother and the main character in The Peculiar is also still here, looking for Hettie and unexpectedly ends up pairing with Pikey for it, he's more motivation than hero in this book though.
The plot is a bit dark and a bit creepy, with a few surprises and ugly revelations but also contain some great lessons that not only the MG readers might need, but all of us could do with a reminder: not give up easily, trust our friends and family and always strive to do what's right. Let's not take the easy way out or simply sit and complain.
The writing style is great, really captivating and engrossing, with some great descriptions of characters and places without making it overbearing, and the author is very good at painting the Fae as the not so nice characters from the old stories.
For someone other than me, this book would probably deserve a much higher praise, and let me tell you it is a highly entertaining book with very few flaws, I just simply am not a fan of faery stories and that was what kept on marring my enjoyment of the book, it was a great book about the Fae, but only about the Fae and humans trying to fight them, and that's not exactly my cup of tea. So 3 and a half stars from me, and if you loved The Peculiar or enjoy books about the Fae, you'll probably love this book much more than I did!.
View all my reviews
I think I remember seeing The Peculiar around and liking the cover a lot. I had no idea there was a companion in the works. And I call myself a book blogger, lol.
ReplyDeleteI don't really read much MG if I can avoid it, so although the dark and creepy plot is certainly tempting, I don't think this is for me.
great review!
Thank you, Maja! It was interesting, but not exactly my kind of read really!
DeleteInteresting book, I haven't heard of this before but sounds like you enjoyed it! I'm actually the same, not a big fan of fae stories because sometimes they are just weird. Oh well, great review!
ReplyDeleteJeann @ Happy Indulgence
Thanks, Jeann!
Delete