aliciaclarereads's Reviews (1.25k)

"You broke me out of my shell. It was bound to be a bit of a mess."

I read a lot of bad reviews for this book when it first came out and was completely happy to avoid it. Then, a friend recommended it to me this past summer say the series was a quick and fun read. Similarly, my roommate and I became obsessed with the Bachelorette this summer. It was so bad but so good, and I finally decided to give this series a try.

And I barely got through this. After about halfway, I was content to just start skimming to get to the end. Then I read through the synopses of all of the rest of the books because I was curious about where this series went. I think the idea of this book perfectly aligns with my interests, but the concept is executed so poorly. The writing is incredibly juvenile and the interactions between the characters seem so cartoonish. Also the naming conventions are TERRIBLE. I just... there was no way I could ever have rooted for a protagonist named America Singer.

In my sudden inspired Meg Cabot reread, this book still holds up for me. The only difference I notice is the time frame is incredibly short. It felt similar to the first time I read Romeo & Juliet and realized the play takes place over a weekend.

I reread this book for the first time in years, and I still love it. I read this book for the first time at age 10 (or perhaps younger) and loved it. My poor little paperback edition looks as though it had been read hundreds of times. I still really like Sam, but now at age 22, she makes me giggle because she's a perfect teen; Sam thinks she has all the answers when she actually doesn't know anything at all.

(Seriously every time she talked about how enlightened she was as opposed to her current generation, I was howling. But hey, it's practically a requirement to being 16)

Rewrite Shadow and Bone to be about Genya and not in first person and I would like it so much more.