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Bezig met laden... The Secret of Dinswood (The Dinswood Chronicles) (editie 2019)door Ellen Alexander (Auteur)
Informatie over het werkThe Secret of Dinswood door Ellen Alexander
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![]() Meld je aan bij LibraryThing om erachter te komen of je dit boek goed zult vinden. Op dit moment geen Discussie gesprekken over dit boek. ![]() ![]() ![]() If the entire book had been paced like the last quarter of the book, I would have enjoyed this a lot more. As it was, this took me two months to get through as it was because I was bored. There were just too many unnecessary scenes that added nothing to the plot or character development. I also had no interest in the potential of romance between 12 and 13-year-olds. Too young! And the focus was all over the place, when keeping with one character would have strengthened the narrative. Once I hit the last quarter, though, things picked up the pace and became the adventure I was expecting. Riddles, secret passages, pirate ships-it reminded me of The Goonies. Though this is aimed towards middle-grade readers, I'm not sure they would have the patience to get through it. I received a free copy from the author for reviewing purposes. All opinions expressed are my own ![]() The Secret of Dinswood is a simple adventure tale that younger readers may enjoy, but I found it to be predictable and missing a spark that would make it stand out. The story draws heavily on elements from Harry Potter (the story takes place across one school year and the action is interspersed with school work) to The Goonies (the school will close unless money is found, and now, conveniently, there is a rumor of a pirate's treasure). While the story draws from these other works, it did not stand apart from them and make its own mark. The style of the writing also made it difficult to get to know the characters. While Emma is introduced and is nominally the main character, the narrative is in third-person omniscient, so in each scene we jump from one character's thoughts to another, from one paragraph to the next. This was very jarring to me, and I found it very distracting. A third person limited (with only Emma as the main POV character) or even a third person omniscient where we only change POV at scene or chapter breaks, I think, would have allowed for the reader to get to know the characters better. The characters were not memorable to me. Again, Emma is introduced as the main character, and we learn the most about her, but I did not see her struggle or grow as a character. To me, she was the same person at the end of the school year as she was at the beginning. I had hoped there would have been more growth to her, a personal challenge to overcome, and this did not happen. The other characters, Martha, Sebastian, and Doug, also have limited growth and development, and do not stand out to me. I liked the story, but I would not recommend it except for younger kids who will probably enjoy the hunt for the treasure. That treasure hunt has an element of daring and adventure but for me it doesn't make up for the limited character development and jarring narrative style. ![]() The writing is on-par with a middle grade novel. It is bright and thorough, though it could on occasion due with some tightening up. There are cases where it feels as if the reader cannot be trusted to infer what is happening or connect pieces of the plot on their own. This made me cringe a little. An author needs to have faith in their readers. There needs to be a balance between what is told and what the reader is allowed to imagine on their own. This narrative erred toward telling too much. My excitement in the setting and the basis of the plot was fairly well founded. The story read easily, maintained my interest, and kept up a simple level of suspense appropriate for the goals of the read. Descriptions were well done, the movement of the plot was smooth, and there were no large holes in the plot or wildly unbelievable events given the background of the story. Everything seemed to work well and drive the plot in the correct direction. The characters were well constructed and worked well within the setting. There were some stereotypical tropes used, but it works fine under the umbrella of this genre. The interactions between the characters will well done as a whole. There were a few instances where the narration shifted to focus on other characters. This tended to throw me off and cause a small hiccup in the reading, but I can understand the intent of the author. It just didn't seem to work well in this case. The story held my attention well to the end. It was a fairly predictable ending, but...again...that works perfectly given the genre. Despite the predictability, the excitement was carried through to the end and I was not left unfulfilled with a flat ending. In fact, this story is a part of an expected series and I wouldn't mind continuing to read it. ![]() geen besprekingen | voeg een bespreking toe
Onderdeel van de reeks(en)
Young Adult Fiction.
Young Adult Literature.
HTML: Twelve-year-old Emma Higsby quickly falls in love with her new home, the beautiful but financially troubled Dinswood Academy. When she discovers a riddle of buried treasure, Emma and her new friends must solve the clues and claim the prize before their beloved school must close its doors forever. .Geen bibliotheekbeschrijvingen gevonden. |
Deelnemer aan LibraryThing Vroege RecensentenEllen Alexander's boek The Secret of Dinswood was beschikbaar via LibraryThing Early Reviewers. Actuele discussiesGeenPopulaire omslagen
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