Thank you Hachette for this book in exchange for an honest review
Synopsis:
A pickpocket with an exceptional gift. A prisoner of extraordinary value. An orphan haunted by dreams of the mysterious dark lady.
Henry is an orphan, an outsider, a thief. He is also a fifteen-year-old invested with magical powers…
This brilliant, at times brutal, first novel from the amazing imagination that is Akala, will glue you to your seat as you are hurled into a time when London stank and boys like Henry were forced to find their own route through the tangled streets and out the other side
Review:
So I wanted to like this book. I really did. Pickpocket, prisoner, orphan that has haunted dreams, this has every concept to make an interesting story but I overall felt like the author was beating me with a Shakespeare novel and I wasn’t impressed. If I’m to have books shoved in my face, its book I choose. Don’t get me wrong, I like Shakespeare but I felt as though this was the main thing that carried through the book and the characters, plot and story got left behind, behind Shakespeare.
The pace of this book was off and at times you are stuck with intense dialogue that makes you sigh, put the book down to make a coffee and prepare yourself for what’s to come. I found that the last few chapters of the book had an interesting pace that should have been carried across the whole book.
The slang was over use. Again. A way to slap you with Shakespeare. I understand that it was crucial to the time and somewhat for the story but I can’t help but feel that if all the Shakespeare elements were withdrawn from the story it would have been better.
The plot was…. Two plots? There were story lines that didn’t mesh well and seemed to be throwing Shakespeare shade at each other throughout the whole book. They didn’t work well together and kinda ruined it.
I think this book isn’t a young YA book but more of an adult kinda books. I seriously will buy ice-cream to the younger generation that read this book.
Can I finish with, hey the characters were good though, and the setting was detailed? Unfortunately this was one of those books where the negative outweighed the good.
Rating: 2/5
Publisher: Hodder Children’s Books
ISBN: 9781444943696