Review: Good, but not for me.
Rating: 3 out of 5
Date: 01 10, 2013
This was an interesting novel, with an interesting premise, but I just didn't care for it all that much. The writing was good, the characters were well done, but I never really connected with the story itself. Honestly, I don't know why this is. I love first person narration, and Parry delivers just that in this novel. I enjoyed the characterization--both Gurt and Elanore have very human characteristics and they deal with real life problems. I do like a bit of magic and fantasy, and that, too, fills the pages of the novel. There's a great mystery to be solved, as well. So, what's my hang-up? I don't know. My honest feelings are that my preference for novels may have shifted over the last year without my realization. I used to be a YA, fantasy, paranormal romance kind of girl, but now I'm thinking that maybe I'm falling out of love with the fantasy aspect... ? Part of me wonders if I would have enjoyed the story more if the troll and fairy were human, but I don't know if that's the issue. I mean, these characters, though fantastical, do have human qualities, and I love a good fairytale, just like most people, so... I have no idea. I just never really connected with Gurt or his problems. Part of me thinks that maybe I'm now more or less a YA girl all the way, but I don't know that that's the issue here either. I've read my fair share of novels with older characters and I've enjoyed them just as much as I like YA, so... I just don't know. What I do know is that the story, while intriguing, just didn't pique my interest enough for me to really care one way or another, and I think that's more of a personal problem than the story's problem. People change, their preferences change, and I've gone back and read amazing books years later and questioned what I ever saw in the book in the first place, so, what I'm saying is, I think you should give this novel a try. It's really weird to me that I can't put my finger on why I never made any connections to the characters or the story, so I definitely think you need to check out this novel yourself, especially if you're a fantasy fan, because, in all honesty, it is well written.(Please note: I use the rating system of that of Goodreads, which is different from that of Amazon.  My overall personal rating is that it's okay.