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A review by kitvaria_sarene
The Humane Society for Creatures & Cryptids by Stephanie A. Gillis
3.0
Read for SPFBO, this is only my personal opinion, group verdict might differ widely! š„
The Humane Society for Creatures and Cryptids by Stephanie A. Gillis is a hard one for me to rate and review.
I really, really liked the start. I would probably have gone for an 8/10 in the first half. However, in the middle I simply ran out of steam. While I was happily chugging along in the first half, I found my mind wandering off in the second half, and to be honest for the last 50 pages or so I just wanted to have finished it.
This is quite unfortunate, as I was enjoying it in the beginning, and really loved the idea behind it all.
Magical creatures in a secret rescue? Count me in! I also liked the sisters who were different and each had their own character traits.
But, and sadly there has to be a but, it was mostly the characters that lost me over time. Some bits just didn't feel organic to me, and so I lost my connection to them.
Like going from no friends at all, and being ostracized, to trusting random strangers in what feels like a finger click?
The romances, as well as some friendships, all felt a bit too quick and out of the blue, considering how cast out they were before.
Or having had bad trauma, and then just ādecidingā to get over it? Not even in cosy fantasy does this work for me.
That's another point, most of this is cosy and comfy popcorn, but then there's something from the past that just doesn't fit in with the cosy. Not wanting to spoil anything, I won't go into more detail, but if you actually want to add this sort of trauma, then I think it should have been written differently. Because to me, it did not feel well handled.
That's my biggest complaint, so many big things just kinda go *poof* and are all of a sudden solved. There's a few quite dark moments and pieces, and then it all goes back to fluff.
This can work, if you don't try to add those serious topics, but the mix of those, and then the almost casual way people got past it just felt unrealistic. More unrealistic than crystal bats, a Sasquatch and a bear with stars on her peltā¦
So why was it so much better for me at the start? Here we were just learning about all the problems, and it wasn't yet just waved away.
Also, I just adore the setting and all the creatures, pardon, magical animals! The running of the rescue was fascinating, and I would happily have spent more time there.
There are super cute illustrated entries for the creatures, which added a lot to the book as well.
Overall I still liked it, but I'm unlikely to read a sequel.
The Humane Society for Creatures and Cryptids by Stephanie A. Gillis is a hard one for me to rate and review.
I really, really liked the start. I would probably have gone for an 8/10 in the first half. However, in the middle I simply ran out of steam. While I was happily chugging along in the first half, I found my mind wandering off in the second half, and to be honest for the last 50 pages or so I just wanted to have finished it.
This is quite unfortunate, as I was enjoying it in the beginning, and really loved the idea behind it all.
Magical creatures in a secret rescue? Count me in! I also liked the sisters who were different and each had their own character traits.
But, and sadly there has to be a but, it was mostly the characters that lost me over time. Some bits just didn't feel organic to me, and so I lost my connection to them.
Like going from no friends at all, and being ostracized, to trusting random strangers in what feels like a finger click?
The romances, as well as some friendships, all felt a bit too quick and out of the blue, considering how cast out they were before.
Or having had bad trauma, and then just ādecidingā to get over it? Not even in cosy fantasy does this work for me.
That's another point, most of this is cosy and comfy popcorn, but then there's something from the past that just doesn't fit in with the cosy. Not wanting to spoil anything, I won't go into more detail, but if you actually want to add this sort of trauma, then I think it should have been written differently. Because to me, it did not feel well handled.
That's my biggest complaint, so many big things just kinda go *poof* and are all of a sudden solved. There's a few quite dark moments and pieces, and then it all goes back to fluff.
This can work, if you don't try to add those serious topics, but the mix of those, and then the almost casual way people got past it just felt unrealistic. More unrealistic than crystal bats, a Sasquatch and a bear with stars on her peltā¦
So why was it so much better for me at the start? Here we were just learning about all the problems, and it wasn't yet just waved away.
Also, I just adore the setting and all the creatures, pardon, magical animals! The running of the rescue was fascinating, and I would happily have spent more time there.
There are super cute illustrated entries for the creatures, which added a lot to the book as well.
Overall I still liked it, but I'm unlikely to read a sequel.