Eon: Dragoneye Reborn

Eon: Dragoneye Reborn (Eon #1)

by Alison Goodman

2.5 stars

531 pages

Published Dec. 26, 2008 by Viking Juvenile (first published Jan. 1, 2008)  

 

I have a number of adjectives describing this Eastern-culture inspired novel:

slow
boring
repetitive
whiny
confusing
verbose
way too long
predictable

So why did I finish it? I'm not sure. Maybe there was something compelling about the theme - not the characters, though, they were one-dimensional and weak; or the plot - which was over-simple and over-written.

The theme - accepting strength in womanhood - is contrived, yes. And the book does it no justice with the weak characterization of Eon/Eona. But the universal truth of the theme made me interested to see how Eon/a came to realize it. Unfortunately, by the time Eon/a got her head on straight, the book was pretty much over, so I stuck it out til the end.

This book actually drained me so much that instead of reading the next book on my To Read list, I watched TV! Ach! The tragedy!

The bright spot was that there was no swearing and no sex. But there are some transvestite and eunuch characters, if that bugs you. Actually the best character in the book was the transvestite. S/he was pretty awesome.
 
I will not be reading the sequel.

Towering

Towering

by Alex Flinn

2 stars

293 pages 

Published May 14, 2013 by HarperTeen

I am pretty bummed I had to give this book so few stars. It had such potential - part love story, part paranormal mystery - but the execution was lacking.

"Towering" is touted as a modern re-write of the Rapunzel tale, but the only tie-in the book contains is that one of the protagonists has long hair, which she cuts to make a rope so she can escape her tower prison/safe-house. The rest is an anti-drug PA (which I'm all for: Drugs=Bad!), but it just didn't jive with the spirit of the original Rapunzel tale. That, paired with poor character development, uneven pacing, and too many unanswered questions at the abrupt and unsatisfying ending made this book an unfortunate and forgettable work.

I did dig the book cover, though.