"Shadow Magic" by Joshua Khan

"I defy you not to love this story."

    -Rick Riordan

"Ok"

    -Sam Mouse

 

Yep, another instance of me being annoyed at/by front quotes. Actually, Unseen Magic's Margaret Peterson Haddix quote didn't bug me. Maybe because that's just saying she found it "enchanting" and not anything very strong? I don't know what it is, but something about this quote and Jed and the Junkyard War's quote got on my nerves.

Y'know, this might be related to my reflexive/instinctive/adjective dislike of books that are recommended to me. Having someone say "I liked this book", like with the quote on Unseen Magic, is fine and I don't mind it; it might even influence me to try the book. Having someone say "You will like this book", like with the quote on this, annoys me and will probably influence me not to try the book. (Didn't with this one, though. Or at least not hard enough to stop me.)

Now that we've got that out of the way, I'll talk some about the actual book. It's the most Kittens thing I've read in a while; Kittens (not the actual name, for obvious reasons) is one of my relatives, who likes to read edgy fantasy books about people with sad backstories.

(I'm kidding about the "edgy" thing, Kittens. Mostly.)

 

Basically, some kid gets sold into slavery and goes to the kingdom of darkness. And there are other plot lines, but I'm not going to bother with them.

Also, there's a giant bat! His name is Hades, and he's awesome. The main character rides around on him at times. 

Unfortunately for him, Rick Riordan defied me unsuccessfully. I did not love this story. (I did really like Hades the giant bat, though.)

Were this a videogame, I'd rate it: A soft T for horror elements like zombies.

Now, I will acknowledge that my dislike of being told I will like things, which I mentioned earlier, might be biasing my decision. The decision in question being to rate this 3 stars.

Favorite lines:

 

    Bad things didn't happen to Tyburn. Bad things happened because of Tyburn.

    Page 39.

(Endnote: I can always tell when I've been reading a lot of my mom's blog(s), because her voice starts to creep into mine.)