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idonttcareeeee's review against another edition
5.0
I just all in all loved this book. I could NOT put it down, it was amazing
wildthorns's review against another edition
3.0
I think that this book shows good promise and has a wonderful storyline, but it goes really fast. This book is set in the future, where the government imports and catches animals in order to mutate them. They give them traits from other animals, and then force them to fight against each other. This storyline has a lot of potential, but the plot is very undefined and rather ambiguous. The sequel is worse... Also; Castor is an excellent character, but his strength and power are over the top. He seems to completely change character from book to book as well.
thistlechaser's review against another edition
3.0
When I picked out this book, I suspected it wouldn't be very good. But it had a number of elements I liked (told from the animal's POV being the main one), and it had a great cover (I know, I know), so I decided to give it a try.
The story opened with a pack of dogs living on the street. Through them we learn that people never leave the buildings anymore -- the air and water is too toxic for them to survive. (So how do dogs and all other animals survive outside? Since they were more intelligent than our RL animals are, to the point of the main character dog teaching himself to read by looking at street signs, I'm okay with assuming that they're somehow more evolved. Or mutated. Or something.) Two of the dogs encountered a street sweeper machine. (Why? If people never ever leave the buildings, why put them in protective gear and send them out to clean? Who cares if there's trash on the streets? And where in the world does the trash even come from?) For some unknown reason, the street sweeper just happens to have animal tranquilizers and a cage, so when it happens to break down and spot the dogs, the people in it can capture them.
As you can see, plotholes abound. To be far to the book, this isn't even a YA book -- it's targeted at 8-12 year olds, so likely they wouldn't notice all the issues.
So anyway, these animals are given *hand wavey* scientific injections and it turns them onto animal crosses. Buffalo-zebra. Panther-rabbit. Dog-eagle. That sort of thing. Then the animals have to fight to the death for the entertainment of the humans. It was exactly like some kind of talking animal Hunger Games story.
I could roll with all the issues and plot holes, but the humans were just so over the top evil -- black/white, not a single bit of subtleness at all. Nearly every human gleefully torture the animals. That was the last straw.
Surprisingly I made it to the 50% point, so I can count it towards my total for the year.
Edit: Rereading this, I realize I didn't touch on any of the things I liked. There were some big positives about this book. I liked all the characters, and they seemed believable "people" (personalities?). Even though I didn't like the dog learning to read by looking at signs, other than that, I bought the animals as animals -- their behavior seemed realistic to me (if too intelligent). The main dog character's struggles, feelings, and reactions were well-written and believable. If the story had been more light-handed on the 'all humans gleefully torture animals' thing, I would have finished it.
The story opened with a pack of dogs living on the street. Through them we learn that people never leave the buildings anymore -- the air and water is too toxic for them to survive. (So how do dogs and all other animals survive outside? Since they were more intelligent than our RL animals are, to the point of the main character dog teaching himself to read by looking at street signs, I'm okay with assuming that they're somehow more evolved. Or mutated. Or something.) Two of the dogs encountered a street sweeper machine. (Why? If people never ever leave the buildings, why put them in protective gear and send them out to clean? Who cares if there's trash on the streets? And where in the world does the trash even come from?) For some unknown reason, the street sweeper just happens to have animal tranquilizers and a cage, so when it happens to break down and spot the dogs, the people in it can capture them.
As you can see, plotholes abound. To be far to the book, this isn't even a YA book -- it's targeted at 8-12 year olds, so likely they wouldn't notice all the issues.
So anyway, these animals are given *hand wavey* scientific injections and it turns them onto animal crosses. Buffalo-zebra. Panther-rabbit. Dog-eagle. That sort of thing. Then the animals have to fight to the death for the entertainment of the humans. It was exactly like some kind of talking animal Hunger Games story.
I could roll with all the issues and plot holes, but the humans were just so over the top evil -- black/white, not a single bit of subtleness at all. Nearly every human gleefully torture the animals. That was the last straw.
Surprisingly I made it to the 50% point, so I can count it towards my total for the year.
Edit: Rereading this, I realize I didn't touch on any of the things I liked. There were some big positives about this book. I liked all the characters, and they seemed believable "people" (personalities?). Even though I didn't like the dog learning to read by looking at signs, other than that, I bought the animals as animals -- their behavior seemed realistic to me (if too intelligent). The main dog character's struggles, feelings, and reactions were well-written and believable. If the story had been more light-handed on the 'all humans gleefully torture animals' thing, I would have finished it.
sean67's review against another edition
2.0
The idea behind this seemed interesting, and there seemed be a good story in there somewhere but the execution was fairly flawed and it came across as pretty flat and dull and uninspiring.
heyshay07's review against another edition
4.0
A 7th grader loaned me this book and I really liked it. It might be my next book club pick because it is a fast, fun read but I think you could go with a lot of different talking points like animal cruelty and testing, reality TV and doing anything for ratings, team work, loyalty between animals and masters (everyone probably has a story for that), and how he humans polluted and ruined the planet. Best of all, it is completely G rated so no parents would be upset about anything in it.
Castor the eagle -dog is the main narrator for the story and is a likeable leader. Marcus and Leesa are the two human side characters. I wouldn't say they're is a lot of growth or development in the charters, but the plot is very action packed and story is pretty straight forward and fun. Great middle grade book.
Castor the eagle -dog is the main narrator for the story and is a likeable leader. Marcus and Leesa are the two human side characters. I wouldn't say they're is a lot of growth or development in the charters, but the plot is very action packed and story is pretty straight forward and fun. Great middle grade book.
addiethereader's review against another edition
4.0
This book was a little bit of everything: animals, dystopia, battle, suspense, and most of all, DOGS! Of course, if it's a dog with eagle wings, he's 10 times cooler.
:)
:)
anickle12's review against another edition
5.0
I just all in all loved this book. I could NOT put it down, it was amazing
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