It didn’t ever feel like world building occurred.random creatures just kept getting thrown in at random times (see fairy best friend for no reason) they just tended to muddle the story and feel out of place.
Conversations and events like that kept happening that felt so out of place and awkward. It just felt so weird, your best friend would already know that and be aware that you were practicing magic, it just felt like a really lazy attempt at world building. For example near the beginning of the book she is with her best friend and out of nowhere and for absolutely no reason he conjures a light and is like hey.I’m a descendent of Oberon, and Ellie is all shocked. Next the conversations between people and the way information was revealed was just very awkward most of the time. This whole story would have worked better if it had just embraced being a middle grade story. To start with the narrative voice felt very young and it was jarring every time you were reminded that the main character was 17. This was so disappointing for me, I really wanted to love this. this needed a 12-year-old protagonist and a middle grade marketing campaign. I was disappointed, and - after reading other reviews - I might be the only reader who felt this way. And then, the antagonist literally calls the main character and her sidekick, "meddling kids", just like in Scooby Doo. I still LOVED the Lipan Apache aspect - in fact, I enjoyed every time an elder shared a tradition or story - but, as the characters went into detective mode, I felt like I was reading a Scooby Doo script. Unfortunately, it read very middle grade instead of young adult, and the pithy dialogue popped up in the midst of pivotal, tense scenes, taking away from the plot and tone. I mean, it's got ghosts and monsters, Lipan Apache history and culture, and crimes to solve! And, it started out great - lovely writing, pithy dialogue, and all the rest I was looking forward to. I couldn't wait to get my hands on it, and I was even pondering possibly teaching it.
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