Review: 2.5 stars
Rating: 2 out of 5
Date: 01 29, 2014
Did I enjoy this book: I . . . I thought I did.  I wanted to.  It’s the sort of thing I usually enjoy, and yet for some reason about halfway through I found myself reluctant to keep reading and I couldn’t figure out why . . .You know how sometimes you get sick and don’t notice, and then a few days later you mention to your husband that you’re struggling to find motivation to do the dishes and he says, “Well, it’s probably because you’re sick,” and you think, “Holy Crap!  I AM sick!  No wonder I’ve been feeling so tired/yucky/cranky this week!”  Yeah.  This book was like that.. . . So, once I figured out I wasn’t actually enjoying the book, I realized why.  There’s too much of it.  For one, there’s too much poetry.  I hate it when characters in books just happen to be able to quote stanza after stanza of classic poetry.  If you’ve written a book, I assume you’ve also read a few.  You don’t need to wow me with your love of poetry by having your characters recite it.  I get it.  You’re well read.There was also too much sex.  Well, no, that’s not exactly it – there wasn’t very much actual sex, but the details were a bit too gratuitous for my taste.  I don’t, for example, need to see the protagonist masturbating.  Really I don’t.  He’s a teenager and he’s got a crush on a pretty girl.  I’m smart enough to figure out what he’s doing in his spare time without you spelling it out for me.There was just, generally, too much.  There were too many bad guys, too many subplots, too many secret powers and weird, hard to pronounce names, too much magic-that’s-not-really-magical terminology.  It was just too, too much.Would I recommend it: No.Will I read it again: No.As reviewed by Melissa at Every Free Chance Book Reviews.(I received a copy of this book for review purposes.)