Scan barcode
A review by hmalmal
Above by Leah Bobet
1.0
I really just didn't like this book.
The characters were eh. The Plot was eh. And the writing was ick.
The Characters
The story is told in first person by Matthew, a boy of undetermined age, race, or ethnicity, or really anything. All we know about him is his English sucks, he's a he, and he has no living parents. That's it. That wouldn't be a bad way to start a book, but by the end we still have no idea of the physical nature of Matthew...only that he has to be under 47...
The other characters aren't that great either. I think Leah Bobet wants yo to feel sorry for Matthew's love interest, Ariel (or Ari for short), but she hardly speaks, she doesn't let Matthew hold her hands (or anything affectionate) even though he basically saves her life numerous times, and she's constantly running away. Oh, and all we really know about her physical appearance is that she has blonde hair. Which basically makes the book feel kind of awkward.
The Plot
So, basically Leah Bobet takes us on this journey of a bunch of "mythical creatures" trying to stay safe from "the whitecoats" which are just your average "we want to figure out what makes this bomb tick" kind of scientists. I'm not really sure if this was supposed to be in the future, but there wasn't a whole lot of information to go off of as far as the setting was concerned. I don't even think it was mentioned where this was. But, the characters never really fight the whitecoats off...they just hide which makes the ending not feel very satisfying. What I did like about the plot were the added in stories about the other characters.
The Writing
Matthew's broken English basically ruins the book. The narrator makes the plot confusing to understand and difficult to read. Half the time I would find myself rereading a sentence just to try and understand what he was trying to say.
In The End
The book just fell short. I didn't care about the characters. I didn't even want to, since it was so hard to understand what was going on, and the plot just didn't seem to be going anywhere.
The characters were eh. The Plot was eh. And the writing was ick.
The Characters
The story is told in first person by Matthew, a boy of undetermined age, race, or ethnicity, or really anything. All we know about him is his English sucks, he's a he, and he has no living parents. That's it. That wouldn't be a bad way to start a book, but by the end we still have no idea of the physical nature of Matthew...only that he has to be under 47...
The other characters aren't that great either. I think Leah Bobet wants yo to feel sorry for Matthew's love interest, Ariel (or Ari for short), but she hardly speaks, she doesn't let Matthew hold her hands (or anything affectionate) even though he basically saves her life numerous times, and she's constantly running away. Oh, and all we really know about her physical appearance is that she has blonde hair. Which basically makes the book feel kind of awkward.
The Plot
So, basically Leah Bobet takes us on this journey of a bunch of "mythical creatures" trying to stay safe from "the whitecoats" which are just your average "we want to figure out what makes this bomb tick" kind of scientists. I'm not really sure if this was supposed to be in the future, but there wasn't a whole lot of information to go off of as far as the setting was concerned. I don't even think it was mentioned where this was. But, the characters never really fight the whitecoats off...they just hide which makes the ending not feel very satisfying. What I did like about the plot were the added in stories about the other characters.
The Writing
Matthew's broken English basically ruins the book. The narrator makes the plot confusing to understand and difficult to read. Half the time I would find myself rereading a sentence just to try and understand what he was trying to say.
In The End
The book just fell short. I didn't care about the characters. I didn't even want to, since it was so hard to understand what was going on, and the plot just didn't seem to be going anywhere.