Official Review: Her Unwelcome Inheritance
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Lydia
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Official Review: Her Unwelcome Inheritance
[Following is the official OnlineBookClub.org review of "Her Unwelcome Inheritance" by J. Aleksandr Wootton.]
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Most young adults have to stress over college - new friends, new places, new subjects to focus on. Petra Godfellow has that and much more weighing her down. Only a little while before she moves out of her home to her godfather's house for college, Petra accidentally listens to a phone message directed to her mother, Christina. Telling her mother and her aunt, Penny, has both older women acting strange. Christina insists on Petra leaving earlier than scheduled, so that she, too, can move as far as away as possible. Penny has possibly gone mad and tells her about a man named Oberon, and how Petra and Christina are descendants of Robin Goodfellow, the Leader of the Hobgoblins. But that can't be true, can it? Soon she comes to question her own sanity as well, as more and more people - and creatures - insist on Penny's story. With the Faerie King's lackeys and their magic after her, and with those opposing Oberon wishing for her to sacrifice her freedom, can Petra lead a somewhat normal college life? And how can she tell what is real and what is fictional anymore, when she starts leaning towards believing in what she once thought to be stuff for fairy tales?
Wootton's Her Unwelcome Inheritance is a book that teenagers who are fans of the Fantasy classics, like Lewis Carroll's Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, or the famous A Midsummer Night's Dream by Shakespeare, will come to enjoy. The story has several references to those and many more, showing the writer's hard work and research. Nothing speaks better to a fantasy reader, than a story that has strong back-up concerning the legends and fairy tales it uses to build its world upon. Famous characters that most of us have read about and may have come to love from our younger years come to life in this short book, with a plot that serves to either get our opinion on them even more solid, or completely crumble it and start anew based on the way we view them, now through Petra's eyes.
However, this was the only thing that mostly worked in Mr. Wootton's favor - the rest of it, I'm afraid, was not what I would consider equal in quality of such great background, use of the legends, and world-building. The story started in a fantastic way, with a short synopsis of the Faerie war, giving the reader a slight taste of the writer's voice. It was magneficent, and brilliant, and honestly had me raving over what a great book I chose to read - until I reached about half of the page count. Because, as good as the action was, as detailed as the world-building was with vivid images of Steameria and Niata's cottage and Tod's Hollow I could just picture them in my head, as shiver-worthy as the Faerie royal members were, there were many parts that left me not only confused, but also irritated. For one, there were many unnecessary details on the trivial, daily activities. Then, there was also the "hot and cold" pace issue - one moment we're rushing in a nail-biting scene, the next we're drenched with a bucketload of cold water to "normality" (or, well, what Petra considered normality to be). It was disorienting and frustrating most of the time. Even the ending - which I admit had me smiling because I love endings like this - didn't manage to make this a tad better.
But I feel like I wouldn't have minded all that if there was not another, very important issue to be solved. And that is Petra Godfellow herself. The main character was not one I cared for through the entire book. She came off as shallow at times, judgemental (a major pet peeve of mine), and too whiny. If she was a bit more likeable, I may have been able to enjoy the book a little bit, but honestly, when the chapter was focused on her I groaned from the effort it took to keep on reading. When you end up feeling elated because you're reading about someone else OTHER than the story's protagonist, then you know the writer has not done a very good job on portraying them. I'm not saying that main characters are what makes a book good, but they definitely help a reader feel better if the book is lacking in some departments.
All in all, the book, while having an amazing beginning and an equally wonderful ending, didn't manage to rate high in my mind thanks to what waited for me from point A to point B. Still, that is not to say that others may not enjoy it. Teenagers and young readers are more likely to appreciate Her Unwelcome Inheritance than an adult who may be a more seasoned reader. What someone like me might find lacking, others might view as fascinating and intriguing, a mystery or a puzzle that is to be solved piece by piece, book by book. So I'm giving it 2 out of 4 stars, to encourage middle and high schoolers to give it a try. It has a solid plot and world for younger people to explore, which an adult might not come to enjoy without that little something that makes a story stay with them longer than an hour after they've closed the book...
***
Buy "Her Unwelcome Inheritance" on Amazon
Buy "Her Unwelcome Inheritance" on Barnes and Noble
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Wootton's Her Unwelcome Inheritance is a book that teenagers who are fans of the Fantasy classics, like Lewis Carroll's Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, or the famous A Midsummer Night's Dream by Shakespeare, will come to enjoy. The story has several references to those and many more, showing the writer's hard work and research. Nothing speaks better to a fantasy reader, than a story that has strong back-up concerning the legends and fairy tales it uses to build its world upon. Famous characters that most of us have read about and may have come to love from our younger years come to life in this short book, with a plot that serves to either get our opinion on them even more solid, or completely crumble it and start anew based on the way we view them, now through Petra's eyes.
However, this was the only thing that mostly worked in Mr. Wootton's favor - the rest of it, I'm afraid, was not what I would consider equal in quality of such great background, use of the legends, and world-building. The story started in a fantastic way, with a short synopsis of the Faerie war, giving the reader a slight taste of the writer's voice. It was magneficent, and brilliant, and honestly had me raving over what a great book I chose to read - until I reached about half of the page count. Because, as good as the action was, as detailed as the world-building was with vivid images of Steameria and Niata's cottage and Tod's Hollow I could just picture them in my head, as shiver-worthy as the Faerie royal members were, there were many parts that left me not only confused, but also irritated. For one, there were many unnecessary details on the trivial, daily activities. Then, there was also the "hot and cold" pace issue - one moment we're rushing in a nail-biting scene, the next we're drenched with a bucketload of cold water to "normality" (or, well, what Petra considered normality to be). It was disorienting and frustrating most of the time. Even the ending - which I admit had me smiling because I love endings like this - didn't manage to make this a tad better.
But I feel like I wouldn't have minded all that if there was not another, very important issue to be solved. And that is Petra Godfellow herself. The main character was not one I cared for through the entire book. She came off as shallow at times, judgemental (a major pet peeve of mine), and too whiny. If she was a bit more likeable, I may have been able to enjoy the book a little bit, but honestly, when the chapter was focused on her I groaned from the effort it took to keep on reading. When you end up feeling elated because you're reading about someone else OTHER than the story's protagonist, then you know the writer has not done a very good job on portraying them. I'm not saying that main characters are what makes a book good, but they definitely help a reader feel better if the book is lacking in some departments.
All in all, the book, while having an amazing beginning and an equally wonderful ending, didn't manage to rate high in my mind thanks to what waited for me from point A to point B. Still, that is not to say that others may not enjoy it. Teenagers and young readers are more likely to appreciate Her Unwelcome Inheritance than an adult who may be a more seasoned reader. What someone like me might find lacking, others might view as fascinating and intriguing, a mystery or a puzzle that is to be solved piece by piece, book by book. So I'm giving it 2 out of 4 stars, to encourage middle and high schoolers to give it a try. It has a solid plot and world for younger people to explore, which an adult might not come to enjoy without that little something that makes a story stay with them longer than an hour after they've closed the book...
***
Buy "Her Unwelcome Inheritance" on Amazon
Buy "Her Unwelcome Inheritance" on Barnes and Noble
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Latest Review: "Blood Hunger" by L.E. Wilson
