Review: Not as engaging as expected
Rating: 3 out of 5
Date: 01 7, 2013
See more of my reviews sooner on The YA Kitten! My copy was given to me by the author for review.Same as usual: the author is my friend and this didn't influence my rating or review. You'll see that in a second.Well... This was unexpected. Pippa's story should have been so interesting because we know so little about her; we only found out the littlest bit of information close to the end of On Demon Wings, the fifth novel in the series. The long-awaited story behind the woman made up like a clown isn't able to make the anticipation worthwhile, but her character is developed well enough to make that a little bit better.This short novella manages to cover Pippa's entire life, which was probably around sixty or seventy years by my vague math, but only concentrates on the key times of her life. When she started seeing ghosts, how she grew up, an affair that came back to bite her multiple times, what happened once she came to New York and met Dex, and other little tidbits I'll keep quiet. By the time you're done, you understand exactly how she came to be who she is and why she's been haunting Dex and Perry for so long.One of the larger issues is that Pippa isn't as engaging of a narrator as Perry is. Pippa speaks much more formally--befitting of her age and when she grew up, I suppose, but it's not necessarily fun reading. Even with this heavily abridged version of her life, some parts drag and I got tempted to flip through another book even with just a little bit left to this novella.I noticed the quality of the editing make a small decline in On Demon Wings, but it's even worse here. Figuring out where to start is difficult because there were so many sections I highlighted for repetitiveness, awkward structure, and even a dropped word or two. I try not to overdo it with commas despite being taught to use them everywhere, but there were a lot of places that really needed commas objectively.Even though this was a slight disappointment, I'm sticking around and still love Karina to bits. How can I not with how well On Demon Wings went?