Official Review: Dedecus by Kathrine Webb
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Aly_Mali
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- Latest Review: "Dedecus" by Kathrine Webb
Official Review: Dedecus by Kathrine Webb
[Following is the official OnlineBookClub.org review of "Dedecus" by Kathrine Webb.]
2 out of 4 stars
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Dedecus by Katherine Web is the second part of the Story of Adelais. The story is set in a relatively advanced, post-apocalyptic society, part of which lives underground. The Sutrans (underground people) are recovering from a war which occurred in the first book. Pila Masterson, a young girl who was the main cause of the war, suffers from great trauma, as she was witness to the necessary murder of her father. With great guilt in hand, she ventures to discover if her father was truly evil, or if he was an unnecessary sacrifice. Alongside her love interest, top sider Zachary, they travel to a distant city in order to discern what lies ahead for their people. Will there be more war? Will she forgive Zach for taking it upon himself to kill her dad?
One of the greatest things about YA literature is the fact that the author has the ability of creating interesting and exciting character development. However, in this sense, this book was quite disappointing. Throughout most of the book, the internal dialogue of each character remains the same. The main character is shown to be crying nearly all the time with little other emotions. All of the male characters are written quite two dimensionally as well. For example, the male lead, Zachary, is shown to only be thinking about the fact that he loves Pila. Due to lack of characteristics of the characters, most of their actions seem out of place and unlike how they are portrayed, which creates the confusion for the reader.
Although I really enjoyed the wording used by author, the plot suffered almost as much as the character development. It really felt like towards the middle of the book the author just got tired of writing the story so she hurriedly started to incorporate things that popped into mind. The sudden rapid decrease in chapter length also leads me to this thought. Each scene portrayed seemed to be very choppy, not flowing well into the next one. Each event important to the plot was completely random and out of place. They were generally not surprising or exciting, but rather confusing and did not make any logical sense. The climax in the book was excruciatingly short and disappointing: what could have been a grand battle was cut into a short segment with a completely predictable end.
The origin story of this post-apocalyptic world and of the myth the story focuses on was poorly developed as well. I understand that this is the second book in the series and that more of the world construction and origin could have been covered there. The new places the characters visit, however, were not all previously mentioned in the first book. This leads to the lack of description of the new society and the world they live in as the characters travel to new lands. The relatively short length of the book may have influenced this aspect, but the beauty of fiction is the amount of detail one can create in his or her world.
Overall, I give this book 2 out of 4 stars. I greatly enjoyed the words used by the author and I believe this book does have potential if the plot, characters, and world are all elaborated and worked on. In its current state, I would not recommend this book to anyone. When finished, however, I feel like it could be an interesting read for the YA or Fantasy audience.
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Dedecus
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Dedecus
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2 out of 4 stars
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Dedecus by Katherine Web is the second part of the Story of Adelais. The story is set in a relatively advanced, post-apocalyptic society, part of which lives underground. The Sutrans (underground people) are recovering from a war which occurred in the first book. Pila Masterson, a young girl who was the main cause of the war, suffers from great trauma, as she was witness to the necessary murder of her father. With great guilt in hand, she ventures to discover if her father was truly evil, or if he was an unnecessary sacrifice. Alongside her love interest, top sider Zachary, they travel to a distant city in order to discern what lies ahead for their people. Will there be more war? Will she forgive Zach for taking it upon himself to kill her dad?
One of the greatest things about YA literature is the fact that the author has the ability of creating interesting and exciting character development. However, in this sense, this book was quite disappointing. Throughout most of the book, the internal dialogue of each character remains the same. The main character is shown to be crying nearly all the time with little other emotions. All of the male characters are written quite two dimensionally as well. For example, the male lead, Zachary, is shown to only be thinking about the fact that he loves Pila. Due to lack of characteristics of the characters, most of their actions seem out of place and unlike how they are portrayed, which creates the confusion for the reader.
Although I really enjoyed the wording used by author, the plot suffered almost as much as the character development. It really felt like towards the middle of the book the author just got tired of writing the story so she hurriedly started to incorporate things that popped into mind. The sudden rapid decrease in chapter length also leads me to this thought. Each scene portrayed seemed to be very choppy, not flowing well into the next one. Each event important to the plot was completely random and out of place. They were generally not surprising or exciting, but rather confusing and did not make any logical sense. The climax in the book was excruciatingly short and disappointing: what could have been a grand battle was cut into a short segment with a completely predictable end.
The origin story of this post-apocalyptic world and of the myth the story focuses on was poorly developed as well. I understand that this is the second book in the series and that more of the world construction and origin could have been covered there. The new places the characters visit, however, were not all previously mentioned in the first book. This leads to the lack of description of the new society and the world they live in as the characters travel to new lands. The relatively short length of the book may have influenced this aspect, but the beauty of fiction is the amount of detail one can create in his or her world.
Overall, I give this book 2 out of 4 stars. I greatly enjoyed the words used by the author and I believe this book does have potential if the plot, characters, and world are all elaborated and worked on. In its current state, I would not recommend this book to anyone. When finished, however, I feel like it could be an interesting read for the YA or Fantasy audience.
******
Dedecus
******
Dedecus
View: on Bookshelves | on Amazon
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Latest Review: "Dedecus" by Kathrine Webb
