The Binding by Bridget Collins
My rating: 1 of 5 stars
DNF @ 40%
A strange thing happens in The Binding. We are taken through Part I which is full of magical intrigue, book binding principles, books galore; and then it's all ripped away. Part II opens up and it's like nothing in Part I happened at all! Now we are just stuck on a farm with our (not so interesting) and seemingly non-magical teen boy. Whereas in Part I the same teen boy was just coming into his own personally and professionally (as a magical book binder) when we are pulled away from the story.
Good Stuff Too Early
In a world where it is increasingly difficult to capture the attention of any one person, never mind a large group of people, it's critical that you not give away too much of the good stuff too soon. If the beginning of a book, like The Binding, is infinitely more interesting than the rest then any author is going to have a hard time keeping their reader around for another 300+ pages.
As I didn't read the whole book (I gave up during Part II) I went and read some spoiler plot points and other reviews. These all confirmed exactly what I suspected, the good stuff was all over and the rest of The Binding might have been be a good story IF you didn't know what happened in Part I.
What Bridget Collins should have done with The Binding is flipped narratives around and started with a teaser of Part I and then stuck us into Part II right away. That way we haven't had our attention piqued and the interesting stuff ripped from our attention. Our world has a lot of competition for attention and ultimately enticing people to to read more must be a large priority. Sadly farms, even ones with cute m/m possible relationships, just aren't that interestin (or at least not near as interesting as books full of memories).
Books about Books
I've said it before, there is nothing quite as easy as marketing a book about books (or book related activities) to a bunch of bookworms. It should be a slam dunk. You might not get the mass appeal that Stephen King garners but you'll likely get a small, devoted following to your story. The Binding is one of these books that should have been an easy sell to someone like me. A book about binding books that have magical properties!? Sign me up now!
Now, maybe my excitement about the possibility of a fantasy and magical realism mixed in with the art of book binding (not with a machine but by hand) had my expectations too high? Or maybe I just wanted to have the whole story be about books (and Part II clearly wasn't)? Or perhaps it's a little of both; which seems the most likely. Either way the use of book binding should have made this a worthy read; too bad there isn't any book binding in Part II up to the point I read.
Writing, Setting, etc.
It's really too bad that the focus and plot of The Binding fly off the rails as the writing itself is really lovely. It's a romantic, sing-songy style that invoked an archaic, medieval feel for me. the descriptions and use of magic in Part I are just enough without being overwhelming; and our lead boys response to the magic and how it affects him is really well done. I especially appreciated that he was sick for a long time before he could do even small amounts of magic or binding. No easy road here for this hero. It felt realistic in a way that most magical fantasy stories aren't able to convey. It's so tragic that this writing, imagery and setting don't result in a plot and story that I cared about enough to finish the novel.
Overall
Collins has some definite talent for setting a scene and creating worlds that are well developed. Additionally Collins clearly knows how to write characters that readers can bond with almost immediately. Because of this obvious talent in writing I would try another Collins book again; even though I did not finish this one. The Binding should have been one of my top reads of the year; and if Part I had continued forward in the same style, setting, etc. it might have been. Unfortunately we end up on a farm bored out of our minds with the harvesting, horses and not enough to keep it all going. It's sad because I bet the m/m relationship that was developing between our two teen boys was adorable. However there is no amount of cuteness between two characters (even gay ones) that will have me put up with descriptions of grains and farm animals for dozens and dozens of pages.
Please note: I received an eARC of this book from the publisher via Edelweiss. This is an honest and unbiased review.
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The Remarkable Inventions of Walter Mortinson by Quinn Sosna-Spear
My rating: 3 of 5 stars
A little disjointed at times, this strange and unique middle grade book has a lot to digest (even for an adult). I feel like it tries to do too much and that takes away from what the core story should be. While I felt like there was an attempt to have a fun and dream-like tone and story; Quinn Sosna-Spear misses the mark for me in some key areas including plot and use of flashbacks.
Plot
It's only at the 32% mark in which our two children actually take off on their journey together! Just a bit too much introduction and info dumping for my taste to start with. This is a classic quest set-up with our two main characters setting out into the big wide world. Nothing really different from other stories happens. There's a balloon incident (Wizard of Oz), giants (Jack and the Beanstalk), quirky inventors and some odd honeybees. All were unique in their own way as encounters but none of them stood out to me as especially unique or even all that exciting.
Odd Moments
There are a few noteworthy or odd things that happen or are said in this book that I highlighted while reading and I feel like they are worth coming back to. These descriptions begin to really give a sense of why I wasn't a huge fan of this book.
In the opening few pages we meet a teacher who is intentionally teaching children the wrong things! From spelling, math and geography; this teacher gives the kids the wrong answers to things; and she does it knowingly. I'm not sure what the point was of this teacher but it really bothered me that this character (already a brief presence) existed at all. Unless of course the reason was to give our children an "excuse" to run away from school? (ie: they weren't being taught properly anyways?)
One of the first towns we encounter sounds exactly like H.P. Lovecraft's Innsmouth. I'm going to assume this is not intentional (?) as this is a children's book and there wouldn't really be a reason to pay homage to a horror writer in a fantasy middle-age story. However; given the Lovecraft Innsmouth town use in the recent blockbuster DC comics hit 'Aquaman' and a bit of a resurgence of Lovecraft's settings and monsters being used by many adult fantasy/horror writers; I can't help but wonder if it was coincidence or not. There is nothing wrong with this homage or use of Innsmouth (as it's a clever way to explain evolution); it just struck me as a bit odd and made me wonder if Sosna-Spear wasn't creative enough to come up with her own quirky town.
Circling Dialogue
This reminds me a bit of Ronald Dahl in that there’s a lot of nonsense in it and dialogue that circles itself. Where each character says the same thing a different way and they are confirming their understanding of one another. It's really annoying as an adult to read this. And frankly, as a child I found Dahl to be a bit boring at times because it took him soooo long to describe one thing or have one quick conversation. Perhaps this is just me and it's helpful to children to read the same thing over again in a different way to help with comprehension. If that is the case I will conceded that it is clearly appropriate for this middle-age book.
Flashbacks
My ongoing hatred of poorly used flashbacks continues. I don't understand why we get the POV of Walter's Mother closer to the end of the story in the current day; never mind her flashbacks. It feels like Sosna-Spear wasn't able to write the story in a clever enough way to have Walter unveil the secrets for the readers and instead Sosna-Spear gives us two sides of the same story so we can put it together (albeit slightly) sooner than our main children do. The purpose is still beyond me except to maybe ensure the reader knows what is/has happened.
The biggest pet peeve of this book I have is the use of flashbacks. If you want to change POVs without too much context I don't tend to mind. But switching what timeline is being described is a huge no-no to me. If I'm getting slightly lost trying to figure out of the Mother's POV was current day or past I don't even want to think about the struggle a 9-year-old child might have. It was just too much work near the end of the story (especially given the ease of reading the prior sections of the book) to keep things straight.
So I hold to my usual comment: if you don't know how to set-up and use flashbacks, then please don't use them at all. Tolkien uses flashbacks poorly and emulating his wizard battle flashback from Fellowship will always be a bad idea!
Overall
I nearly didn't finish reading The Remarkable Inventions of Walter Mortinson. Honestly, had it not been relatively short and easy to read I may have put it aside. 3 stars is probably a bit generous of a rating for me. And yet I will say there is some magic here and the children are fairly well put together characters. If a child was to read this as one of their first fantasy-style stories I could seem them being enamored as it's not 'bad' so much as it's just boring and very plain given the plethora of middle-age fantasy that is available to readers which has a much better plot and writing style.
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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Treasure by Mireille Messier
My rating: 3 of 5 stars
Beautiful artwork and lots of colour is found in Mireille Messier's children's book Treasure. A good length for a bedtime story and doesn't have any huge moments that might over excite children for a nap or sleep read.
Unfortunately I didn't love the content of this story. A little girl goes looking for treasure and asks her mother many times if something from nature is the 'treasure'. Things like a flower, rock, etc. Eventually the 'treasure' is a hidden, special waterfall. I didn't really like that the other items prior to that (which might be considered treasures to many) were dismissed as not treasure. I also didn't like that the waterfall, which is an intangible thing, was called treasure. I realize the point here is likely to teach children that physical objects or items aren't the only kind of treasure in the world; but it felt a bit forced to me. I would have preferred to have the mother say that while an item can be someone's treasure it's not HER treasure.
This change would allow for children to learn:
a) anything can be treasure, not just objects (especially nature items!),
b) treasure is special to each person,
c) treasure can be special in it's own way. For example: not all treasure is equal or even the same (ie: gold coin versus waterfall).
While I don't think there is any harm in the way this story is set-up for children; it's just not the way I would have done it.
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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