(If you don’t feel
like reading this whole spiel and just want a single opinion, go down to the
bottom for a one-sentence summary of the review.)
I read this particular book over the summer. I remember
seeing it on the shelves at Barnes and Noble and not being too interested with
the cover.
It’s pretty enough, but I’m more interested in the majestic,
the gorgeous, and this was just a little too bland for me. It just seemed like
yet another teenager-woe-is-me-type book.
I didn’t get it for the names at the top, either. I’m sure
some of you will read this for the Author Factor—in case you haven’t noticed
that huge name at the top is Jodi Picoult,
a rather well-known author in her respective field. She’s written great books
like My Sister’s Keeper (the one that
was made into that movie). However, she’s only done adult books before now, so
I’ve never really gotten into her books, and I’ve certainly never heard of this
“Samantha Van Leer” before—probably because this is her first book and she’s
actually Ms. Picoult’s teenaged daughter.
However, my sister shoved this book in my face before we got
our books and left, telling me to read the summary and get the book. I did, and
I certainly wasn’t disappointed in the story’s premise:
WHAT HAPPENS WHEN HAPPILY EVER AFTER…ISN’T?
Delilah hates school as much as she loves books. In fact, there’s one book in particular she can’t get enough of. If anyone knew how many times she has read and reread the sweet little fairy tale she found in the library, especially the popular kids, she’d be sent to social Siberia…forever.
To Delilah, though, this fairy tale is more than just words on the page. Sure there’s a handsome (well, okay, hot) prince, and a castle, and an evil villain, but it feels as if there’s something deeper going on. And one day Delilah finds out there is. Turns out, the Prince Charming is real, and a certain fifteen-year-old loner has caught his eye. But they’re from two different worlds, and how can it ever possibly work?
I immediately bought the book. That summary gave me a lot of
hopes and expectations—a book about a girl reading a book where the characters
are real! It was like my dream come true. Maybe I’m just a nerd, but there have
been countless times when I’ve been reading a particular story and just start
sighing over some hunky dude, and imagining what life would be like if he were
real. This seemed like every bookworm’s perfect dream—the loner, the loser,
getting a fairy-tale prince that’s literally
from a fairy tale.
I say ‘seemed,’ because reality turned out much different
from fantasy. It usually takes me a day, two at maximum, to finish a book if
it’s rather large. This is a medium-sized story. It took me over a month, and that
month was literally an ordeal for me—the only reason why I finished it in the
first place is because I planned to review it for this blog specifically.
It’s not like this book didn’t have a lot of potential. The
first few chapters were great; they established a great setting for a story.
Delilah seemed like an interesting enough character when thinking about her
critically; she was shy and awkward and lost in her own world because of bad
family relationships, and seemed like a character I should be rooting for.
Prince Oliver, the other main character, was both much more fascinating and
much blander; his personality seemed like a stereotypical Disney Princess’s (“I
want more”), but the world of the story book was utterly engrossing to read
about. The characters of the story (which you see “in character” as you go
through the book and read excerpts of the fairy tale they are a part of) are
completely different than how they are portrayed in the actual tale, and view
the plot of the book and the world of the story as one big acting role, playing
the parts exactly the same way over and over starting at whatever page they are
opened at. I felt like this whole idea had a whole lot of potential—the plot of
Between the Lines seemed like a
really good idea to work on.
But somehow, this story did not just work for me. Something
about the writing kept me completely uninterested in the characters and their
plights, and as soon as Delilah found out Prince Oliver was not just a picture
on the page, my interest levels dropped down to the negatives. Nothing about
the storyline captured me any longer. I wasn’t interested to find out how
Delilah dealt with her mother’s increasing worry about her mental health or how
she was seen in school; I couldn’t have cared less if Prince Oliver ever made
it out of the book to be with his One True Love. The world was interesting, but
the plot followed the same basic storyline that I’ve seen a thousand times
before, with nothing new that made me want to keep reading and see Delilah and
Oliver get their happy ending.
This might be because I’ve read so many other books, I’ve
become jaded in terms of plot. The concept is interesting and the world of the
storybooks is great, but I really just couldn’t bring myself to enjoy this
book. I give it a three out of ten, and I hope that Ms. Picoult and Miss Van
Leer’s other books are much better than this one.
Tl;dr: This book
followed a predictable plot and left me completely uninterested in the
characters or their conflicts, though it had an interesting setting and the
premise had a lot of potential.
All right, that's all for now. I'm out.
No comments:
Post a Comment