Jennifer says...
Rating 4: First off, this isn’t a Choose Your Own Adventure. It’s just written in the second person. So that was disappointing. From what I can tell, the rest of their new books are, but that this one is merely supposed to be “interactive.” Theoretically there is an internet component, but other than a facebook quiz, I didn’t see anything.
I didn’t find the second person narration distracting, it was handled well and actually helped gloss over what might have otherwise been shortcomings in the storytelling (it made it easier to tell, not show.) And I genuinely enjoyed and got caught up in the story. The “you” character (I think a name might have been mentioned, but I forget it) is interesting and complex, especially in the first half of the story. She’s wary and a bit damaged from her experiences in the foster system, but not permanently so. She’s anxious to begin a better life, but doesn’t blindly want to become like the worst of her spoiled classmates; the future life she envisions for herself and the women she wants to emulate are all worthy of the effort. Where the story loses a little bit of its steam is in the unfolding of the treacherous plot. But luckily the book doesn’t fall into the A-Great-and-Terrible-Beauty trap of making her question her powers too much or of having friends who don’t back her up. For the most part, when she does falter it’s just for a second and then she acts sensibly again. Like with the Lemony Snicket books, one of my biggest dislikes is when plots are advanced because the main characters stand passively by while bad things happen. They hem and haw and are scared even though they are meant to be exceptional. I’ve come to realize it’s a personal preference, and try not to judge books as being badly written just because of it, but I really can’t enjoy many books because of it. Grumpy Harry Potter I’m looking at you.
READ ON…
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