Aaand I'm back! I told you last time that I have tons of books to read and review. One of those is "Besides Naturalization", a children's sci-fi book. I received a free electronic copy of it from its author, Isabel Chloe.
The book was pretty short (only 36 pages in PDF format), a novella, and I thought, great, this will be a quick and nice read. Uh, no.
First off, it wasn't quick even though it's short. It would have taken me just one sitting to finish reading it, but every time I try to do so, I end up pausing and confused. It's the 23rd century and Lily and her family are supposedly living in a new planet. This is a pretty common plot for books, but what made this confusing was the lack of background, or explanation on why they're there. Why are they in a new planet? What happened? Why is Lily's grandmother sooo mean to her? Why is Lily like that? Most of the time, a character smiles or frowns or turns pale out of nowhere and the reason was not explained at all. It's so puzzling.
The ironic thing is, this book was made for middle-grade school children and so it's supposed to be an easy and enjoyable read. But I found it hard to read at times, and sadly, I didn't enjoy it as much as I hoped I would. How will kids enjoy it when they can't understand it?
Every time I open a new book, I wish for it to be good, to be relatable or at the very least understandable. I always believe that a book should be a reflection of a reader's life, or a window to an appealing alternate world. This book sorts of gives that because it's set on Hynocripta, a new planet.The characters live different, advanced lives. Sometimes, the technology is fascinating, like when any character just pulls up a screen panel with his/her palms, and voila, they can order food. But a few times, it's creepy but maybe that's just me and my fear of robots taking over humans.
The sad thing is, this book could have been better if the author didn't cram everything in 36 pages. Maybe because of the limited number of pages, she was not able to do enough character development.
But hey, Isabel's another book, Basil, sounds interesting so maybe I'll still read her work.
That's it for now. Let me know if you've read this book. :)
As a reader and reviewer, I aim to write fair and honest reviews, both on this site and on Goodreads. Please read my Review Policy here.
The book was pretty short (only 36 pages in PDF format), a novella, and I thought, great, this will be a quick and nice read. Uh, no.
First off, it wasn't quick even though it's short. It would have taken me just one sitting to finish reading it, but every time I try to do so, I end up pausing and confused. It's the 23rd century and Lily and her family are supposedly living in a new planet. This is a pretty common plot for books, but what made this confusing was the lack of background, or explanation on why they're there. Why are they in a new planet? What happened? Why is Lily's grandmother sooo mean to her? Why is Lily like that? Most of the time, a character smiles or frowns or turns pale out of nowhere and the reason was not explained at all. It's so puzzling.
The ironic thing is, this book was made for middle-grade school children and so it's supposed to be an easy and enjoyable read. But I found it hard to read at times, and sadly, I didn't enjoy it as much as I hoped I would. How will kids enjoy it when they can't understand it?
Every time I open a new book, I wish for it to be good, to be relatable or at the very least understandable. I always believe that a book should be a reflection of a reader's life, or a window to an appealing alternate world. This book sorts of gives that because it's set on Hynocripta, a new planet.The characters live different, advanced lives. Sometimes, the technology is fascinating, like when any character just pulls up a screen panel with his/her palms, and voila, they can order food. But a few times, it's creepy but maybe that's just me and my fear of robots taking over humans.
The sad thing is, this book could have been better if the author didn't cram everything in 36 pages. Maybe because of the limited number of pages, she was not able to do enough character development.
But hey, Isabel's another book, Basil, sounds interesting so maybe I'll still read her work.
That's it for now. Let me know if you've read this book. :)
As a reader and reviewer, I aim to write fair and honest reviews, both on this site and on Goodreads. Please read my Review Policy here.
