City of Ghosts by Victoria Schwab
Author: Victoria Schwab
Genre: paranormal, adventure
Age: MG
POV: 1st person
Summary: After a near death accident Cassidy (Cass) can now see ghosts and has a best friend as one. Cass can pull back the veil and enter the world of the dead. Her parents that are paranormal writers announce they are going to Edinburgh, Scotland to host a TV show. Here Cass finds another girl that able to cross over to the veil like herself.
Review: Similar to other books I have read, City of Ghost does have a different take on the seeing dead people trope. I do like the friendship between Cass and Jacob. They both have this snarky and sarcastic tone making for some humorist moments. They always have each other back.
The description of the streets and history of Edinburgh makes me want to go there. There is a good share of creepy scenes as well. I don't like how they have to explain British words like kids can't figure out the meaning. I read The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman and the story doesn't stop and explain every word. It seems like it the non-British writers that do this.
Review: Similar to other books I have read, City of Ghost does have a different take on the seeing dead people trope. I do like the friendship between Cass and Jacob. They both have this snarky and sarcastic tone making for some humorist moments. They always have each other back.
The description of the streets and history of Edinburgh makes me want to go there. There is a good share of creepy scenes as well. I don't like how they have to explain British words like kids can't figure out the meaning. I read The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman and the story doesn't stop and explain every word. It seems like it the non-British writers that do this.
Main Characters:
Cassidy: Describe with brown eyes and brown curly hair.
Determine and brave.
Jacob: A ghost that is cautionary. Which make him grounded. Makes scents that you can’t be too careless even as a ghost.
The end is left with
unanswered questions about the vail, leaving the idea that there is still more
to learn. There another plot dealing with the Red Raven, which is not that well
developed.
Another thing that I don’t like is just
because the book is set in the UK let’s drop as many HP references as possible.
One or two is fine, but I counted 17. May me think what is this book trying to
appeal to? Kids that want a spook story or older readers overly obsessed with
HP.
Points:
Characters: 5/5
Writing: 4/5
Plot: 4/5
Total: 13/20 - 1 point loss for every 5 HP reference = 10/20 Okay I'm just kidding. btw I don't like HP.
Other books that are similar to City of Ghost i.e. theme, setting, concept:
The Secrets of Wintercraft - Has a magic system based on the dead called the veil.
The Graveyard Book - Set in the UK about a boy who is rise by ghost
The Haunting of Derek Stone - About a boy and his dead brother that follow him around. has an
interesting concept that will take forever to explain
No comments:
Post a Comment