Review of The Shade of Highfall
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Emily Pyke
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- Latest Review: The Shade of Highfall by Mark O'Dell
Review of The Shade of Highfall
[Following is a volunteer review of "The Shade of Highfall" by Mark O'Dell.]
The Shade of Highfall by Mark O’Dell follows the story of a young girl named Shrew as she navigates life in the slums. Arrested for thieving, Shrew is brought to an orphanage – where hunger becomes the least of her worries. Stumbling across a dagger with many useful abilities becomes her salvation, and befriending an unlikely ally gives her a chance at a normal life. However, when an evil darkness is awakened, the line between good and evil becomes blurred in her city. In-order to save the people she loves, she must also save the world.
The story line of this book is absolutely incredible. Mark O’Dell had me entrapped in Shrew’s world from the very beginning, and kept me enticed and wanting more after every single chapter. At first I questioned the originality of this story, I was concerned by the description that it was going to be similar to other fantasy stories I have read. However, I was pleasantly surprised by how the story had a mind of its own. There were always a lot of things happening at once, which kept the reader on their toes and paying attention to every word written. Overall, it was an excellent story to read and I thoroughly did enjoy it.
One thing that I was not impressed with, was the author’s attempt to write like Tolkien inconsistently throughout the book. For example, the author would use obnoxiously difficult and unnecessary words to describe a scene. The first page of chapter one when the view of Highfall is being explained, the wording used is a deterrent to inexperienced readers. Another example was the dialect between characters that would change from old English, to modern English, to randomly speaking like pirates, to then adding in a Fae language as well. Another thing that bothered me about this author’s writing style was his run-on sentences, there was no need for sentences to be as long as they were. Reading the story became exhausting regardless of how excellent the plot was.
Overall, I did enjoy this story very much. I would have liked better descriptions on scenes throughout the book so for that reason and others listed in the previous paragraph, I have rated this book 2 out 4 stars. I cannot justify rating this book any higher than that because of how many issues I had with the writing style. I came across very few spelling errors and grander words were used correctly which also holds weight in my decision to rate it as I did.
The Shade of Highfall by Mark O’Dell is a brilliant story that I would recommend to anyone who loves a good fantasy book. Keeping in mind there are a few adult scenes in this book making it aimed towards older teens and young adults.
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The Shade of Highfall
View: on Bookshelves | on Amazon
The Shade of Highfall by Mark O’Dell follows the story of a young girl named Shrew as she navigates life in the slums. Arrested for thieving, Shrew is brought to an orphanage – where hunger becomes the least of her worries. Stumbling across a dagger with many useful abilities becomes her salvation, and befriending an unlikely ally gives her a chance at a normal life. However, when an evil darkness is awakened, the line between good and evil becomes blurred in her city. In-order to save the people she loves, she must also save the world.
The story line of this book is absolutely incredible. Mark O’Dell had me entrapped in Shrew’s world from the very beginning, and kept me enticed and wanting more after every single chapter. At first I questioned the originality of this story, I was concerned by the description that it was going to be similar to other fantasy stories I have read. However, I was pleasantly surprised by how the story had a mind of its own. There were always a lot of things happening at once, which kept the reader on their toes and paying attention to every word written. Overall, it was an excellent story to read and I thoroughly did enjoy it.
One thing that I was not impressed with, was the author’s attempt to write like Tolkien inconsistently throughout the book. For example, the author would use obnoxiously difficult and unnecessary words to describe a scene. The first page of chapter one when the view of Highfall is being explained, the wording used is a deterrent to inexperienced readers. Another example was the dialect between characters that would change from old English, to modern English, to randomly speaking like pirates, to then adding in a Fae language as well. Another thing that bothered me about this author’s writing style was his run-on sentences, there was no need for sentences to be as long as they were. Reading the story became exhausting regardless of how excellent the plot was.
Overall, I did enjoy this story very much. I would have liked better descriptions on scenes throughout the book so for that reason and others listed in the previous paragraph, I have rated this book 2 out 4 stars. I cannot justify rating this book any higher than that because of how many issues I had with the writing style. I came across very few spelling errors and grander words were used correctly which also holds weight in my decision to rate it as I did.
The Shade of Highfall by Mark O’Dell is a brilliant story that I would recommend to anyone who loves a good fantasy book. Keeping in mind there are a few adult scenes in this book making it aimed towards older teens and young adults.
******
The Shade of Highfall
View: on Bookshelves | on Amazon
Latest Review: The Shade of Highfall by Mark O'Dell
