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A review by onthesamepage
Renna's Crossing by Geordie Morse
Did not finish book. Stopped at 55%.
ARC provided by the publisher through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
I DNF'd this book at around 55% in so I feel comfortable writing down my thoughts despite not having read the ending.
The book follows Renna, a teenager with magical powers, and Job, her mentor, who has come to take her to the Rectory where she will be safe from the dangerous demon that is out to hunt her. Said demon killed Renna's entire family when she was a little girl, and even though her grandmother, the great witch Mab, had sealed the demon away, it has now grown strong enough to come after Renna. On the way to the Rectory, Job and Renna encounter other witches, both good and bad, making friends along the way.
Even though the book is only 291 pages long, it felt at least twice that. The pacing is very slow. I was expecting a high speed race towards the Rectory with the threat of the demon ever looming. Instead, the book meanders, and there is no sense of urgency whatsoever. I didn't care about any of the characters, and this is ultimately why I decided to stop reading the book.
There's a lot of telling rather than showing, with pointless repetition of facts and convenient plot points. The characters' knowledge seems omniscient at times; Job is a non-binary character and somehow everyone knows which pronouns they prefer to go by, despite never having met them. It's a small thing, but it jarred me out of the story every time it happened.
The way some of the characters talk also makes me think the author hasn't spent much time around teenagers.
The representation is one of the highlights of the book, however. I'll also say that I thought the beginning at Inglenook was pretty charming. It's just unfortunate that the story loses that charm somewhere along the way.
I DNF'd this book at around 55% in so I feel comfortable writing down my thoughts despite not having read the ending.
The book follows Renna, a teenager with magical powers, and Job, her mentor, who has come to take her to the Rectory where she will be safe from the dangerous demon that is out to hunt her. Said demon killed Renna's entire family when she was a little girl, and even though her grandmother, the great witch Mab, had sealed the demon away, it has now grown strong enough to come after Renna. On the way to the Rectory, Job and Renna encounter other witches, both good and bad, making friends along the way.
Even though the book is only 291 pages long, it felt at least twice that. The pacing is very slow. I was expecting a high speed race towards the Rectory with the threat of the demon ever looming. Instead, the book meanders, and there is no sense of urgency whatsoever. I didn't care about any of the characters, and this is ultimately why I decided to stop reading the book.
There's a lot of telling rather than showing, with pointless repetition of facts and convenient plot points. The characters' knowledge seems omniscient at times; Job is a non-binary character and somehow everyone knows which pronouns they prefer to go by, despite never having met them. It's a small thing, but it jarred me out of the story every time it happened.
The way some of the characters talk also makes me think the author hasn't spent much time around teenagers.
The representation is one of the highlights of the book, however. I'll also say that I thought the beginning at Inglenook was pretty charming. It's just unfortunate that the story loses that charm somewhere along the way.