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3.28 AVERAGE
3.28 AVERAGE
This is really 2.5 stars:
I must say, my feelings toward this book were totally flip-floppy the entire time I was reading it. The only way I can explain my final thoughts are wishy washy. I started out super confused, and completely turned off be the narration and the main character, Tess. My feelings about this didn't really change. The diary point of view became increasingly annoying as time went on, and I felt myself getting so fed up with Tess and her choices that I didn't want to keep reading. Yet, I did keep reading. Why? Because the plot was so ridiculously interesting to me. Here is a girl, someone who is clearly very intelligent, old-fashioned seeming, and obviously not human, that woke up in the bush one day and couldn't remember anything before that very moment. I had already figured out what was going on with her on page 15. That's a testament to how unoriginal the author was with her writing. The descriptions were so.... vague and boring. Almost like she was too lazy to actually creatively come up with anything on her own. She gave us as little information as she possibly could, which was quite little. Come the end of the book I still had no idea what actually happened with Tess, Connolly, or Cat. While she tried to explain away Tessa's memory loss, it was such a cop out. I was quite disappointed with the entire thing.
I must say, the cliff-hangers were wonderful, as were the length of the chapters. I've noticed, when chapters are shorter I tend to read longer. I also liked that she used actual land
You can find the rest of my review on my blog Drunk On Pop by clicking here: http://drunkonpop.com/2013/05/13/review-thyla-by-kate-gordon-thyla-book-1/
I must say, my feelings toward this book were totally flip-floppy the entire time I was reading it. The only way I can explain my final thoughts are wishy washy. I started out super confused, and completely turned off be the narration and the main character, Tess. My feelings about this didn't really change. The diary point of view became increasingly annoying as time went on, and I felt myself getting so fed up with Tess and her choices that I didn't want to keep reading. Yet, I did keep reading. Why? Because the plot was so ridiculously interesting to me. Here is a girl, someone who is clearly very intelligent, old-fashioned seeming, and obviously not human, that woke up in the bush one day and couldn't remember anything before that very moment. I had already figured out what was going on with her on page 15. That's a testament to how unoriginal the author was with her writing. The descriptions were so.... vague and boring. Almost like she was too lazy to actually creatively come up with anything on her own. She gave us as little information as she possibly could, which was quite little. Come the end of the book I still had no idea what actually happened with Tess, Connolly, or Cat. While she tried to explain away Tessa's memory loss, it was such a cop out. I was quite disappointed with the entire thing.
I must say, the cliff-hangers were wonderful, as were the length of the chapters. I've noticed, when chapters are shorter I tend to read longer. I also liked that she used actual land
You can find the rest of my review on my blog Drunk On Pop by clicking here: http://drunkonpop.com/2013/05/13/review-thyla-by-kate-gordon-thyla-book-1/
While I loved the fact that this was a paranormal book focusing on something new and different(!!) and that it's set in Tasmania - which I've literally never come across before - and that it involved key locations in Hobart and an awesome amount of colonial history, there was something about it that left me a little flat. First of all, it felt a liiiiiiiiiiiiiiiittle too obvious. I mean, So. Yeah.
Look, it was fine. I didn't even remotely buy that a snooty private boarding school would just let a bunch of students go out bushwalking off school grounds in the middle of the night, and there were occasional moments where the characters used phrasing that sounded very...American...in regards to academic things. But on the whole, I enjoyed it and I raced through it in like 90 minutes, so I guess it's got that in its favour.
Spoiler
Tessa randomly knows a ton of stuff about colonial history despite knowing almost nothing else courtesy of amnesia, she has literal stripes on her back, it's set in Tasmania, and the book is called Thyla. And the title is tiger striped on the cover. OBVIOUSLY, there was going to be some kind of human/thylacine shapeshifter thing going on, and obviously said shapeshifters would be immortal and obviously Tessa would be one of them.Look, it was fine. I didn't even remotely buy that a snooty private boarding school would just let a bunch of students go out bushwalking off school grounds in the middle of the night, and there were occasional moments where the characters used phrasing that sounded very...American...in regards to academic things. But on the whole, I enjoyed it and I raced through it in like 90 minutes, so I guess it's got that in its favour.
I loved the beginning of this book, and it saddens me that I have to give it a two. The writing style drew me in- the unusual narration, the mystery, the raw emotion. I think the ideas behind the story had alot of potential. But in the end the supernatural elements and the action fell flat. Everything happened in a rush at the end, explanations were missing, the action wasn't even interesting, the characters were left underdeveloped, the enemy was too mysterious and one dimensional. Overall, I praise the writing style and inspiration of the author, but feel her general fantasy/world building skills to be a bit lacking.
It was ok, an easy read. It wasn't insanely fun, or incredibly interesting to read, but it was quick and easy to get through. Just... everything about this book is just ok. Even though I don't hate it, I don't love it either, so, I wouldn't recommend this one to anyone. You would just kind of waste your time.
I know it has only been a day or two since I finished this book but for the life of me a good portion of the story flew out of my head. I do remember that it felt overly-complicated and not particularly well-written and I can't say that I'm interested enough in it to bother picking up the next book, if there is a next book. Not my particular cup of tea. Pass.