Retro Review: Menagerie
/When I started this blog, I had been posting reviews on Goodreads for about 6 months. In the interest of having all of my book writing in one place, I will post one of these old reviews every Friday. They weren't written with a blog in mind, so please forgive the lack of summary and off-the-cuff tone.
4 stars. Very entertaining. Rachel Vincent paints a creative, character-driven world dripping with fantasy and charm. Her presentation is impeccable and the reader doesn't have to make leaps and bounds to buy in to the magic. By the end of this story I was really rooting for the characters and hoping for the best.
I do have a few things to grumble about (sorry, it's what I do):
Menagerie has dark moments, but I wouldn't consider it to be that dark, necessarily. I wanted it to really go there and felt a little unsatisfied. The writing itself felt way too YA/amateur at some points and the pacing/transitions could've been smoother.
In the beginning, we spend a lot of time watching Delilah push and get pushed back, and while I admire her moxy, her actions came off as so incredibly dumb. She often chose to be loud instead of smart, and again, while I love the fact that she's a fighter, I would've loved better strategy a lot more.
Lastly, the ending felt incredibly rushed and - almost - predictable.
But hey, what do I know? I have a thing for circus/carnival books and overall, this book is so fun. The Night Circus did a better job of putting me in the story, but I loved the flavor here. I couldn't put it down and I will definitely be reading more. Bring on the magic.