Review: Great concept, needs work
Rating: 3 out of 5
Date: 09 9, 2013
I stayed up all night reading this book; finally finished at 7am.  The concept and the plot kept me hooked to the end.  I just bought book 2, so I could find out what happens next.  So, yes, there was a lot of good in this book.However, there were a lot of things wrong with this book.The short version:  Plot details and character motivations didn't really make sense; it's like the author couldn't be bothered to think things through.  Also, poor editing.The long version:We will start with the little detail that Flea is kidnapped by Santa's minions (yes, elves).  Well, the security chief of the elves, in particular.  Flea wakes up in a strange place, and is faced with a guy who is rude, obnoxious, and not particularly forthcoming with any answers.  So, he makes a run for it, as anybody would in similar circumstances.  But this is when the book loses all touch with sanity.  The kidnapper gets angry with Flea for not following orders, for not totally trusting him implicitly, for not knowing things he could not be expected to know, and for asking questions.  But even more surreal, Flea takes only minutes to change his tune from "I've been kidnapped, I've got to get out of here!" to "Wow, I sure do hope they'll let me stay!"  Sure, he's in a magical place and apparently not in danger of being on the menu or anything like that, but I wouldn't be so quick to trust people that kidnapped me, refused to answer most of my questions, and seem not to even like me.Flea is sent to school shortly after waking up.  He isn't even offered food or water first, mind you; just "oh, you're awake, you've annoyed me, and now get your butt to school!"  Okay, aside from the sudden change in circumstances, this makes a sort of sense because Flea is 10 and 10-year-olds go to school.  But, as it turns out, elf school isn't actually school at all.  There is one class in building things to elf standards.  Apparently, an elf doesn't need to learn anything else.  No reading, writing, or math.  You might forgive that as some sort of special "boot camp" to get Flea up to speed with everyone else, except that the book really does imply that no other schooling exists.For that matter, no other kids exist.  Flea is the youngest elf at the North Pole.  There was apparently a crop of kids some 50-odd years ago, and one kid who is younger than that, and then nothing.  I doubt there will ever be a plot about fertility issues, so this is really weird.But it all serves to drive a plot device that is stupid in its own right.  Apparently, the law of the land says that school will only be taught if there are three or more students.  As it happens, there are exactly two students who flunked out back when there were lots of students.  So, Flea can take classes, and they can have a second shot at passing.  The only way this makes sense is if society needs two losers to function.  But, it doesn't; neither of these two people do anything actually useful or worthwhile.  (In fact, it would have made a lot more sense if they had been designated janitors to keep things clean or some such.)My biggest complaint is that the various antagonists don't really seem to have any logical motivations.  Flea is a kid who seems to pick up bullies for no apparent reason.  One pack of bullies apparently wants to get him because a teacher called him out of class before he got eliminated in a dodgeball game.  The next pack of bullies go wild with rage and hate because they threw a snowball at Flea that didn't manage to hit its target, and failing to get hit by a snowball somehow constitutes a crime worthy of revenge on a really ugly scale.To be fair, this second pack of bullies witnessed Flea apparently using a magical power they don't have - the ability to melt snowballs before they hit him - which made him a "freak" in their eyes.  However, his crime that incited their wrath was failing to get hit, not wielding a magical power.  In any case, all members of this pack of bullies were over the age of 50, which might be young in elven terms, but is more than enough years to learn some semblance of behavior - especially since they are all working members of society with adult jobs and everything.Then, too, there was the ridiculousness of the security chief.  He is so busy and so important that he doesn't have time to answer questions or even escort Flea all the way to the door of his first class, but he sure does have lots of time to expound at great length about how he doesn't have time.  He likes to explain how important he is at great length, too.To top it all off, the editing was lazy.  There were errors all over the place.  Other reviewers have mentioned this, so I won't go into much detail.  That's annoying in any book, but it's particularly awful in a book intended for the middle grade audience.  At that age, the kids are looking to their books for examples of how to write well.  It's almost criminal when a book teaches them how to do it wrong!After listing so much of what was wrong, I think it's only fair to point out what was right, too.Flea was a great character.  He had quiet strength and an essential goodness about him that really shone.  He forgave when most kids his age would not.  He showed mercy when most kids his age would not.  He tried to avoid conflict (mostly because he was taught that was the right way to behave), but he was not a coward and fought back when it became necessary.The North Pole itself was pretty interesting.  The elf dorm was charming and fun; it's the sort of place I would love to visit.  I don't think I'd want to live there, but I would definitely like a week or two to play in it.  I particularly liked some of the buildings you wouldn't normally imagine were at the North Pole, such as the Ice Bank.  We didn't see everything in the village, either, so you can imagine there might be other interesting places that weren't yet mentioned.  Overall, the place really came to life in my head, and I wanted to go exploring and see everything.And, as I mentioned earlier, I kept wanting to turn pages to see what was going to happen.  Despite the flaws in logic, I didn't want to put the book down.Several previous reviewers mentioned that this book is "like" Harry Potter.  I'm a huge Potter fan, so a comparison like that strikes me as a big deal.  Honestly, I do see WHY some people compare Flea to Harry; there are a lot of similarities.  Both boys are orphans who don't really fit in, both have magical powers they don't really understand and that are dismissed and put down by their families, they are both picked on, they both feel alienated in the regular human world, and they both end up thrust into a glorious magical world where they discover they are someone special.  That said, though, I would probably not have drawn any mental connections if someone else hadn't put the notion into my head before I read the book.  The Wizarding world and the North Pole are not very much alike at all.  IN fact, the only thing they have in common is that normal humans generally aren't aware of these special places.  A whole lot of other special places can say the same thing, though, so it's not particularly unique.  While Flea and Harry have some similar stories and are both good guys, they have distinct personalities.  They handle situations differently.  So, this isn't all that much like Harry Potter.This North Pole really is quite different from most stories about the North Pole.  I thought I might hate the book for that reason, because I'm really not big on the current trend of messing up great legends in some bid to pretend you're clever.  But this book isn't like that at all.  It's different, but not disrespectful or ignorant.  Aside from adding extra buildings you might not have imagined at the North Pole (but which could certainly be there), it's really more of a different perspective.  It's an elf's perspective, and an outsider elf at that.  Santa himself barely figures at all.  This is a story about the elves who work for him.Now, one thing that doesn't really mesh well with popular images of the North Pole is having bullies among the elves.  I would think that a guy like Santa would not tolerate that at all.  He knows who's naughty and nice, so he surely knows what's going on among his own people.But, other than that, it's a pretty decent vision of what life for Santa's elves might be like.In summary:This book had the potential to be an amazing book, worthy of *six* stars (on amazon's five star scale).  However, it failed to live up to its potential.  I really wanted to love it.  Part of me does love it, or at least parts of it.  But, due to its shortcomings, I can't wholeheartedly endorse it.  I will say it is an enjoyable read.