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A review by midknytowl
The Light Between Worlds by Laura E. Weymouth
Did not finish book. Stopped at 15%.
There were a few reasons why I DNFed. First, I was not a fan of her writing style. She was trying so hard to be poetic that I was confused instead, especially in the beginning - I had to read the first page several times to understand what the hell was going on.
The chapters go back and forth between present and past, but not in a good way. If the focus of the book was how they deal with it after they come back, then a good summary of their time would have been fine. Or more details when she was pining, like looking at the trees outside the window reminded her of this specific awesome thing she missed about the other place. The pacing of the flashback chapters were too slow to go with how heavy she's missing it/obsessed in the present.
And even with the real time flashbacks there was nothing magical or intriguing about the world. It was just a big wood and a stag.
Maybe that wouldn't have been so obvious if it wasn't for the unavoidable Narnia comparison. I've read other books that I could tell maybe had a start as fan fiction or inspired by another universe, but they've been able to be different enough that they were there own stories. The little bits we see of the Woodlands is rather meh and still very derivative.
Also I've seen some reviews saying it isn't fair to compare it to Narnia and that they're not the same. Family of kids during World War II, in London during one of the air raids. End up in another land where the season is different. Meet majestical animal that appears to run the magical land. Older sister is super skeptical, youngest is really into it and has an instant bond with Magical animal. Non-human folk, including centaurs and tree spirits that look like a woman made of leaves, are soon to be at war with the human like people that came to this place a long time ago. After the family goes back home, the little one wants to return but the older sister turns to normal things and moves on. There's a difference between inspired and imitating...and if you're imitating you've really got to work to make it a lot more captivating than the alternate world she created.
I ended up looking at reviews to see if it got better, which is one of my DNF rules. Most people seemed to really like when the POV changed to Philippa 2/3 of the way in, and the book as a whole was depressing as hell. Not worth continuing it for me.
The chapters go back and forth between present and past, but not in a good way. If the focus of the book was how they deal with it after they come back, then a good summary of their time would have been fine. Or more details when she was pining, like looking at the trees outside the window reminded her of this specific awesome thing she missed about the other place. The pacing of the flashback chapters were too slow to go with how heavy she's missing it/obsessed in the present.
And even with the real time flashbacks there was nothing magical or intriguing about the world. It was just a big wood and a stag.
Maybe that wouldn't have been so obvious if it wasn't for the unavoidable Narnia comparison. I've read other books that I could tell maybe had a start as fan fiction or inspired by another universe, but they've been able to be different enough that they were there own stories. The little bits we see of the Woodlands is rather meh and still very derivative.
Also I've seen some reviews saying it isn't fair to compare it to Narnia and that they're not the same. Family of kids during World War II, in London during one of the air raids. End up in another land where the season is different. Meet majestical animal that appears to run the magical land. Older sister is super skeptical, youngest is really into it and has an instant bond with Magical animal. Non-human folk, including centaurs and tree spirits that look like a woman made of leaves, are soon to be at war with the human like people that came to this place a long time ago. After the family goes back home, the little one wants to return but the older sister turns to normal things and moves on. There's a difference between inspired and imitating...and if you're imitating you've really got to work to make it a lot more captivating than the alternate world she created.
I ended up looking at reviews to see if it got better, which is one of my DNF rules. Most people seemed to really like when the POV changed to Philippa 2/3 of the way in, and the book as a whole was depressing as hell. Not worth continuing it for me.