Book Review: Child of Nod

Child of Nod by C.W. Snyder

My rating: 1 of 5 stars

Did not Finish - 15%

Just in case there weren't enough Alice in Wonderland spin-off or inspired by teen books out there; C.W. Snyder brings us her take on the beloved tale. The Child of Nod brings Alice into Nod (essentially Wonderland) which appears to be some sort of land of the dead. We start out with Alice dropping down some sort of hole and being carried off by water. Sound familiar?

*Yawn*
I broke my usual rule of reading at least 30% of a book before giving up because I honestly could not keep my eyes open. Snyder's writing is too matter of fact for me; she lacks a real deep essence to her writing that I want in fairy tales. There needs to be a spark of magic early on to really drawn us into the world construct; unfortunately Land of Nod made me nod off.

Errors Galore
I know writing is touch. And finding a good editor is even harder. And yes Land of Nod is published by a small house that likely doesn't have a lot of resources (or money) for writers to drawn from in order to get a good editor. And that's okay. Amazing stories don't have to be perfect. But they do need to have basic grammar and spelling check ran on them. Almost everyone other page I was finding an error or needing to re-read a sentence that was awkwardly phrased. Never underestimate the need for a good content editor AND a good technical editor.

Overall
This just felt like a yawn fest and with so many great books in my queue I decided not to stick it out. Additionally, if you are going to write a novel based on the premise of a famous story, you had better be sure it's solid. Everyone knows the story of Alice and would be far more impressed if you took that construct and really made it your own. It's certainly possible that as the Child of Nod carries forward it gets better. I'm okay not ever knowing and moving onto the next Alice in Wonderland inspired novel. It's not like there is any lack of them.

Please note: I received an eARC of this book from the publisher via NetGalley. This is an honest and unbiased review.

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