Scan barcode
dandelionsteph's review
I almost always like books under the Rick Riordan Presents imprint, and I really liked the Aru Shah series, so I figured I'd like this book. Unfortunately, I did not. While the setting of babaylans (from context, apparently shamans/witch doctors) and the spirit world was interesting, I wasn't able to go very far because of its writing style.
The writing style felt surprisingly amateurish, like fanfiction written by a 13-year-old, for multiple reasons. Firstly, there was a lot of "telling" (direct statements in the narrative), rather than "showing" (conveying something through dialogue, imagery or context). While telling is at times justified, its frequency and duration distracted from the narrative. For the sake of fairness, I inspected an Aru Shah book sample for telling-not-showing: Chapter 7 of Book 3, Page 1-2: "Aru couldn't help herself. She was jealous again[...]Was she so bad at being a Pandava that her own soul dad wouldn't stick up for her?" 3 out of the 10 sentences in this passage contain worldbuilding details from Indian mythology/religion that might be hard to fit elsewhere, given the sheer amount of mythological context needed to understand the references. That series often has "telling" when it concerns the mythological details, although at times it's conveyed outside of narration or dialogue in a "Pope in the Pool" (https://savethecat.com/tips-and-tactics/swimming-with-the-pope-in-the-pool) sequence of imaginative imagery.
In contrast, in The Spirit Glass, even things that would be quick and easy to convey in-story are conveyed through narration. In fact, sometimes information is conveyed in a redundant way: on Page 26, information is given that Tina's magic is powerful and graceful and Corazon's magic is clumsy and weak even after this was established by the showing technique on Pages 1-2. Sometimes the instances of "telling" accomplished nothing, to the point they could have quickly been edited out by a line editor.
In addition, the sentences frequently feel choppy and, occasionally, awkwardly-phrased. While Saso might have been an easy way to more naturally provide exposition or character personality details via dialogue with Corazon, more often than not, Saso functions as extraneous comic relief.
The writing style felt surprisingly amateurish, like fanfiction written by a 13-year-old, for multiple reasons. Firstly, there was a lot of "telling" (direct statements in the narrative), rather than "showing" (conveying something through dialogue, imagery or context). While telling is at times justified, its frequency and duration distracted from the narrative. For the sake of fairness, I inspected an Aru Shah book sample for telling-not-showing: Chapter 7 of Book 3, Page 1-2: "Aru couldn't help herself. She was jealous again[...]Was she so bad at being a Pandava that her own soul dad wouldn't stick up for her?" 3 out of the 10 sentences in this passage contain worldbuilding details from Indian mythology/religion that might be hard to fit elsewhere, given the sheer amount of mythological context needed to understand the references. That series often has "telling" when it concerns the mythological details, although at times it's conveyed outside of narration or dialogue in a "Pope in the Pool" (https://savethecat.com/tips-and-tactics/swimming-with-the-pope-in-the-pool) sequence of imaginative imagery.
In contrast, in The Spirit Glass, even things that would be quick and easy to convey in-story are conveyed through narration. In fact, sometimes information is conveyed in a redundant way: on Page 26, information is given that Tina's magic is powerful and graceful and Corazon's magic is clumsy and weak even after this was established by the showing technique on Pages 1-2. Sometimes the instances of "telling" accomplished nothing, to the point they could have quickly been edited out by a line editor.
In addition, the sentences frequently feel choppy and, occasionally, awkwardly-phrased. While Saso might have been an easy way to more naturally provide exposition or character personality details via dialogue with Corazon, more often than not, Saso functions as extraneous comic relief.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Death and Death of parent
Minor: Animal death
More...