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A review by _fallinglight_
The Pilgrims of Rayne by D.J. MacHale
adventurous
challenging
emotional
sad
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
2024 reread
To quote Freddie Prinze Jr., this is brilliant American literature. It's Literature. It should be taught in schools.
Lol no but for real, what a phenomenal book 🤌🏻
*2021 reread*
I don't know what I was thinking when I first gave this book 4 stars when it's so aggressively amazing and gut wrenching. 5 stars seems too low even. Also Alder's in this and Alder makes everything better.
But even though this book is so phenomenal to me I guess one of the few things that's always bothered me about TPOR and stood out the most in this reread and that I've always found it a faulty idea or incomplete world building or whatever is the fact that Third Earth is SO advanced but there are NO robots, like how? When good old current Second Earth already has them??? I feel like DJM definitely should have elaborated on how or why humanity convened not to use or create robots/androids/cyborgs/etc. in the future when we're definitely doing these things now irl. It would have made having dados on Third Earth more significant and life altering and Patrick's freak out more logical and the depths of Saint Dane's evil (?) more impacting, idk. Or maybe I'm just stupid and not getting it so ignore me on that.
Now absolute things I love about TPOR besides Courtney and her arc is Saint Dane 😍 Once again, and I've fully confirmed this during these rereads, these books fluctuate in boring at points when Saint Dane is not around, but once he shows up,holy fuck, he's the greatest villain ever made, argue with the wall.
Another thing I must praise DJM for is his masterful skill at creating dialogue scenes. When Courtney and Mark talk in the isolation ward omg that scene! The emotions, the weight of it all. DJ MacHale is a genius in creating a scene in all honesty. I think this is what I love the most of these books, the dialogue and the scenes. Other books are great at creating world building passages and showing the intricacies of the world's politics and culture and the characters life from afar but don't know very well how to write convincing, realistic, non stiff dialogue, which is what DJM is so good at and it makes up for other weak points in the books.
And what can I say about Bobby and my continuous and conflicting love-hate relationship I have with the poor guy. Yeah, I know he's obnoxious, judgmental, kinda selfish, and has a very middle class white American cis man worldview but I will never not feel bad for him in these last books. It's just trauma after trauma and trauma some more with him. In The Quillan Games he had it bad, but TPOR was just exceptionally cruel to him. Yeah, he basically falls for everything practically everything that happens to him is on him but at the same time I've always admired how he keeps giving people his trust despite being fooled time and time again.
To quote Freddie Prinze Jr., this is brilliant American literature. It's Literature. It should be taught in schools.
Lol no but for real, what a phenomenal book 🤌🏻
*2021 reread*
I don't know what I was thinking when I first gave this book 4 stars when it's so aggressively amazing and gut wrenching. 5 stars seems too low even. Also Alder's in this and Alder makes everything better.
But even though this book is so phenomenal to me I guess one of the few things that's always bothered me about TPOR and stood out the most in this reread and that I've always found it a faulty idea or incomplete world building or whatever is the fact that Third Earth is SO advanced but there are NO robots, like how? When good old current Second Earth already has them??? I feel like DJM definitely should have elaborated on how or why humanity convened not to use or create robots/androids/cyborgs/etc. in the future when we're definitely doing these things now irl. It would have made having dados on Third Earth more significant and life altering and Patrick's freak out more logical and the depths of Saint Dane's evil (?) more impacting, idk. Or maybe I'm just stupid and not getting it so ignore me on that.
Now absolute things I love about TPOR besides Courtney and her arc is Saint Dane 😍 Once again, and I've fully confirmed this during these rereads, these books fluctuate in boring at points when Saint Dane is not around, but once he shows up,
Another thing I must praise DJM for is his masterful skill at creating dialogue scenes. When Courtney and Mark talk in the isolation ward omg that scene! The emotions, the weight of it all. DJ MacHale is a genius in creating a scene in all honesty. I think this is what I love the most of these books, the dialogue and the scenes. Other books are great at creating world building passages and showing the intricacies of the world's politics and culture and the characters life from afar but don't know very well how to write convincing, realistic, non stiff dialogue, which is what DJM is so good at and it makes up for other weak points in the books.
And what can I say about Bobby and my continuous and conflicting love-hate relationship I have with the poor guy. Yeah, I know he's obnoxious, judgmental, kinda selfish, and has a very middle class white American cis man worldview but I will never not feel bad for him in these last books. It's just trauma after trauma and trauma some more with him. In The Quillan Games he had it bad, but TPOR was just exceptionally cruel to him. Yeah, he basically falls for everything practically everything that happens to him is on him but at the same time I've always admired how he keeps giving people his trust despite being fooled time and time again.