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Tara (6 KP) rated Ink Iron and Glass in Books

Jul 3, 2018

Ink Iron and Glass

Gwendolyn Clare | 2018 | Young Adult (YA)

6.0

(2 Ratings)

Book Rating

Has some twists you don't see coming! Keeps you guessing. Keeps building to the end. Makes you wish you had the next book ready so you can find out what happens next. (1 more)

Wasn't a complete cliffhanger, but it did leave you with questions. General curiosity to how the story will continue.

Starts off slow. A lot of characters appear at once. A few times I got a character mixed up with another. (0 more)

Keep with it!

Book Sleeve Description -
Can she write a world gone wrong?
A certain pen, a certain book, and a certain person can craft entirely new worlds through a branch of science called scriptology. Elsa comes from one such world that was written into creation, where her mother - a noted scriptologist - constantly alters and expands their reality.
But when her home is attacked and her mother kidnapped, Elsa is forced to cross into the real world and use her own scriptology gifts to find her. In an alternative Victorian Italy, Elsa finds a secret society of young scientists with a gift for mechanics, alchemy, or scriptology - and meets Leo, a gorgeous mechanist with a smart mouth and tragic past. She recruits the help of these fellow geniuses just as an assassin arrives on their doorstep.
In this thrilling debut, worlds collide as Elsa unveils a deep political conspiracy seeking to unlock the most dangerous weapon ever created - and only she can stop it.

Wish I had the second book so I can find out what happens!
New type of YA story.
Refreshing.
Can start off slow...trust me...stick with it!

Kudos

Phil Leader (619 KP) rated Great Expectations in Books

Nov 13, 2019

This classic tale follows the life of Philip 'Pip' Pirrip as he discovers escaped convicts, falls in love and meets the eccentric Miss Havisham. When a mysterious benefactor bequeathes him money to make a gentleman of him Piip grasps the opportunity with both hands.

For me Great Expectations is the archetypal Dickens novel, in that it is very uneven and full of dull and tiresome sections which do little to advance the plot but instead let Dickens show off his love of absurd names and his observations of social hierarchies in Victorian London.

The first part is fine - after the rather clumsy opening paragraph. The scenes on the marshes are evocative, Stella is well portrayed as the unobtainable target of his affections and Miss Havisham steals the show.

It is when Pip arrives in London that it all starts to go wrong. The characters become flat and two dimensional, only there to demonstrate how he is progressing in his quest to become a gentleman, the usual Dickens tool of the name that slightly indicates their character frequently used instead of actually providing them with any character. Very little of this section is actually relevant to the plot in hand and just seems to be filler to pad the book to the requisite number of episodes.

Once Pip returns home for the final chapters and the big reveal the story once again picks up as the various plot strands laid in the first part come together.

Overall the first and last parts of the book are worth reading, but the middle bit can be safely skimmed through as the reader won't miss anything important and will avoid much tedium.