Take a photo of a barcode or cover
tshepiso 's review for:
Leia: Princess of Alderaan
by Claudia Gray
DID NOT FINISH
DNF'd on: April 5th, 2020
DNF'd on: Page 205 (50%)
I promise I tried really hard to like Leia, but goddamnit it was so boring. My major problem with the story was that I had no clue where it was going and I had no interest in finding out where the characters ended up.
Leia: Princess of Alderaan takes place after Leia Organa’s sixteenth birthday. As per Alderaan tradition, she has picked three challenges to accomplish to prove her worthiness to become the Crown Princess of the planet. Leia struggles as she realizes she may not be as fit for the role as she thought she was. And as her parents grow more and more distant from her she feels more and more alone.
My first problem with this book was how shallow it felt. Leia and every character in this book always felt slightly superficial and never tangible. I put this mostly on the writing of this story. There was a real lack of specificity, detail and nuance. It never felt like there was anything lying under the surface of the characters which made it very difficult to invest in the story.
A major conflict in this story is the growing distance between Leia and her parents. This had the potential to have some emotional impact on me but I never got a real sense of the relationship between Leia and her parents. We’re told that they used to be close and we get a lot of scenes of Leia moping that her parents don’t make time for her anymore but because I never had a real sense of love or connection in the family unit it all felt so tedious to me. Don’t get me wrong I had an intellectual understanding of the love between the three but never an emotional one.
The plot of this novel felt very scattered. I never had any idea what would happen next in the story. There was no clear goal or point to the novel. The synopsis made it seem as if we would be following Leia through her three trials but instead of focusing on each one individually, we flit between the three in a way that felt extremely jarring. In one chapter we’d be on a humanitarian mission only to jump to a senate meeting in the next and a training activity in the next. It never felt like there was any clear rising action and by halfway through the story I felt I should have had a much clearer picture of where the story was going.
There was very little I was actually enjoying about this book (hence the DNF) but I will say I did find Holdo’s characterization extremely amusing given how different it is from what we see of her in The Last Jedi and the romance between Leia and Kier was kinda cute. Though I find it very strange that Leia and Han’s first loves were named Keira and Kier respectively.
I think I’m giving up on the young adult Star Wars novels. The two I’ve read so far have just been extremely boring and filled with incredibly lacklustre writing. I’m still going to give the adult Star Wars titles a fair shake though. I hope they’re much better reading experiences.
DNF'd on: Page 205 (50%)
I promise I tried really hard to like Leia, but goddamnit it was so boring. My major problem with the story was that I had no clue where it was going and I had no interest in finding out where the characters ended up.
Leia: Princess of Alderaan takes place after Leia Organa’s sixteenth birthday. As per Alderaan tradition, she has picked three challenges to accomplish to prove her worthiness to become the Crown Princess of the planet. Leia struggles as she realizes she may not be as fit for the role as she thought she was. And as her parents grow more and more distant from her she feels more and more alone.
My first problem with this book was how shallow it felt. Leia and every character in this book always felt slightly superficial and never tangible. I put this mostly on the writing of this story. There was a real lack of specificity, detail and nuance. It never felt like there was anything lying under the surface of the characters which made it very difficult to invest in the story.
A major conflict in this story is the growing distance between Leia and her parents. This had the potential to have some emotional impact on me but I never got a real sense of the relationship between Leia and her parents. We’re told that they used to be close and we get a lot of scenes of Leia moping that her parents don’t make time for her anymore but because I never had a real sense of love or connection in the family unit it all felt so tedious to me. Don’t get me wrong I had an intellectual understanding of the love between the three but never an emotional one.
The plot of this novel felt very scattered. I never had any idea what would happen next in the story. There was no clear goal or point to the novel. The synopsis made it seem as if we would be following Leia through her three trials but instead of focusing on each one individually, we flit between the three in a way that felt extremely jarring. In one chapter we’d be on a humanitarian mission only to jump to a senate meeting in the next and a training activity in the next. It never felt like there was any clear rising action and by halfway through the story I felt I should have had a much clearer picture of where the story was going.
There was very little I was actually enjoying about this book (hence the DNF) but I will say I did find Holdo’s characterization extremely amusing given how different it is from what we see of her in The Last Jedi and the romance between Leia and Kier was kinda cute. Though I find it very strange that Leia and Han’s first loves were named Keira and Kier respectively.
I think I’m giving up on the young adult Star Wars novels. The two I’ve read so far have just been extremely boring and filled with incredibly lacklustre writing. I’m still going to give the adult Star Wars titles a fair shake though. I hope they’re much better reading experiences.