Aaron
Disappointing. The characters are good, but the plot and pacing feel rushed. Challenges are built up as impossible only to be overcome easily, without real effort or sacrifice.
The thing that will keep me from continuing the series, though, is the main character. Her tough side and her soft side seem like characters that should be in different books. Complex characters are interesting, but Brex feels bipolar. Sometimes she's a strong warrior that fits perfectly in an action packed adventure and other times she's a blushing damsel that belongs in a romance novel. A kick-butt fighter that has a vulnerable spot when it comes to romance is absolutely a character I would read about, but when it comes to the (kinda cringey) romance, the transformation feels rough and jarring.
I knew it wouldn't be like the Disney movie, but I was hoping it would be as good, if not better. The second chapter was enjoyable and by far my favorite, but the rest of the book was not what I was expecting. Mary Poppins is quarrelsome and extremely vain. In fact, vanity seemed to be her defining characteristic. The children were nothing but bland observers through the whole thing. Somewhat less of an issue, but still disappointing, was the lack of a coherent story arc; it's just a series of unconnected vignettes.
This is a romp through purple prose. The author seems to revel in it to the point that I feel like the whole thing was knowingly done tongue in cheek. There is a manly, handsome, wealthy protagonist and a beautiful woman in need of his help that he falls instantly in love with. There is a villain with no hands that stubbornly refuses to finish off our hero, even when said hero is bound and helpless. On multiple occasions. There's a stack of books that seems to hold the key to solving the whole mess hidden somewhere in their pages. There are gangsters, guns that never manage to get fired, burglary, ghosts, hypnotism, and a valet that seems to be more comfortable with violence than, er, valeting. Of course, it is a product of its time and it wouldn't be complete without a little casual racism. This threatens to ruin the enjoyment of what is ultimately some cheesy fun, but it's a very small part of the story.
More of a pep talk than a how-to guide. There is some great stuff in there, I liked the chapter on criticism, but overall it didn't really give me much in the way of action items or motivate me. If you feel like you could use a good kick in the pants to get you started, this would be a good book for you, especially the audiobook.
Despite its flaws, this would be a fun read except for two things. First is just an annoyance really: the point of view switches constantly. Second is everything with the cannibals. Everything in those scenes is just gratuitously cruel. If you're a horror fan (not thriller, horror) maybe this is you're thing, but if this wasn't a book club pick, I would have stopped after “mouth privileges.”
Still great, but there is a rapid timeline acceleration that's not clearly shown and it threw me off.
I'm still loving this series, the characters and story are as amazing as ever, but this last story arc (The Tale of Four Seasons chapters) are happening at a much faster time scale than everything previous. This volume starts at the beginning of their 2nd year of high school and by the end of the volume they're already in their 3rd year. This isn't necessarily bad, but it never clearly states that so much time has passed. In the next volume it finally says explicitly that they're in their 3rd year and it was very jarring. I thought I had missed something.
Great Characters
I really liked this book even though politics and teen romance aren't my favorite. It has truly interesting characters that kept me invested in them through the entire story. The romance was a little painful at times, but mostly because of how well it captures what it's like to be in love when you're 17. The politics are extremely polarized (democrats are good and wholesome, republicans are evil racists), but, strangely, it didn't feel preachy. It felt like looking at things through the un-jaded eyes of a teenager. And there were good and bad things from characters on both sides.
At its heart, this is a story about family and friendship, and it left me feeling happy and warm inside.
A fun, happy read
This book is just as nice as you could hope it would be, while still sometimes bopping monsters on the head. But only if they're meanies. It's not all overly cutsie stuff, though, there's plenty of adventure and exploration as well.
There are a couple of bits that push the line, like finding a “vibrating wand of cure hysteria” (if you don't get it, ask your parents), but still firmly gets a PG rating.
I thought this was a standalone book, as there is no mention of it being part of a series, but, with that ending, I hope there will be more.
This has a bit of spoiler, but I wish I had found something like this before I read this book.
I picked this up because of reviews talking about how sweet, charming, and funny it is. The first two-thirds of the book did have a quiet humor that I liked, with only a hint of darkness. But it wound up being very bittersweet, which I don't care for at all.
I admit I rounded up to 5 stars because of the anime. Some of the scenes were funnier because I'd watched them. (If you haven't seen the anime, I highly recommend it.)
If you like fantasy and comedy, I think you'll like this book. If you like RPGs, I think you'll like it even more. The only down side for me was the masochist character, which I didn't find funny, but it didn't ruin my enjoyment of the story.
I really like a lot of things about this series, enough that I tracked down fan translations for all the rest of the volumes, but 2 things made me stop reading. The first is the main character's constant sexual harassment of almost every single female he meets. The playful pervert is pretty common in Japanese stories like this, and it mostly doesn't bother me, but this didn't feel playful. The other, the thing that really made me stop reading, was the infidelity that kept popping up with several of the characters. Some of it was just because the character couldn't keep it in their pants, even though they were in a supposedly happy relationship. Some of it was from a ridiculous plot device. Without spoilers, it eventually went too far and ruined my enjoyment of the characters and story.