dbguide2's Reviews (863)

When I started this I thought I would love it. Everything about this (the cover/synopsis) should’ve given me all the reason to love it and devour it in one or two sittings. Except it took me days to finally finish the book and I didn’t have a good time throughout. Since I juggle multiple reads, if I’m not super interested in a book, I tend to take longer to read it. However, this is under 300 pages, so I should’ve read this in like 2 sittings.

I only cared for two (supporting) characters. If the book would’ve followed them instead of Lotte and Maryse, I would’ve (maybe) rated it higher. I found them both to be annoying and boring. Even when they were in danger or got hurt – I wasn’t interested in it. The book is very dialogue-heavy – which I’m not bothered by in the slightest because I love dialogue – but since I didn’t care for most of the characters – I was less interested in that.

I saw the plot twist coming a mile away and I was annoyed because of how it all led up to it and then everything afterwards. I think one of the biggest issues I had was the pacing and the plot twists. It was so incredible slow – and remember, it’s under 300 pages. It should’ve flown by. But it didn’t. A plot twist would happen and I’d look at the percentage and think “really? At this %?” like why are you putting a big plot twist at like 60% in the book?

I really wanted to like the book and I did really like the whole Dragon Tongue thing and I was interested in that. It was just everything else that wasn’t working for me. 

I don’t think there was a page that I didn’t utterly love. Every single page was amazing and I loved them all. I could have read about a thousand more pages, even! Jimmy and Elise were funny and I really liked seeing them get into a relationship with each other. 

I liked that there were no stakes and that it was a relaxing read. When you’re like me and read a a majority of medium/high stakes books, it’s always nice to breathe and read an easier book (easier here meaning a low-stakes fantasy book). 

This was such a cute graphic novel! I was so happy to see it’s set in a small South African coastal town! They peppered in SA references – which was also fun to see! It’s a really cute story, as well. Focuses on freedom and poaching, and the line between what’s right and what gives one more money. 

Pearl was a great main character. I felt connected to her almost immediately and enjoyed seeing everything through her eyes. I want to read more of her! I think I probably also loved her almost instantly. 

The illustrations were done so well. I loved the design of the sea creature the most, I think. I could definitely see this as a movie and since it was created by Triggerfish Studios – an animation studio in Cape Town – I really hope they have it somewhere in the pipeline! Not only is it a great story about nature, creatures, and how we must protect it; it’s also needed representation – in animation, in kids, in just about everything! 

Short read but very cute. I know it was adapted to TV which I hope will keep the crayon/kids drawing look because I like it! It’s a kid’s book so it made a lot of sense (to have the look be childlike). Even though the drawings are more childlike they still show emotion on the characters’ faces – which I like seeing in older graphic novels so I’m glad to see it here too. 

It’s just really cute and I smiled all the way through (the very tiny bit of reading) and I recommend it to others. 

This was such a wild ride and I hung on for dear life and enjoyed every minute. I could definitely see that Springer is a fan of the horror genre. I could see a lot of influences from the different movies in the book – which I really liked to see.

The plot was good, obviously very fast paced as this is a slasher book – I think the slasher genre is always faster than other horror subgenres. You can have slower horror, especially if it’s more cerebral. But generally I prefer a fast-paced horror film. Slashers work well then!

Not to brag or anything (she says while preparing to brag) but I predicted something correctly! Obviously, I can’t tell you (unless you’ve read this too then we can talk about it) and also this isn’t to say “oh the author isn’t good if the reader can predict something correctly” – my predictions are like 50/50 and it’s all good fun. But also that’s something I love about the horror genre – there’s always a lot of places for you to predict. Especially in slashers because there is always the mystery of who the killer is and why they’re after the main characters. And I love that! I love solving the mysteries, learning any secrets about the characters and trying to figure it out (the mystery/killer).

Springer wrote the death scenes so well! Gruesome, even for a YA, and I loved it! How do I say I love death scenes… without saying I love reading people die? 😂 Anyway! As I keep saying I can see that Springer loves the horror genre and it’s extremely visible in the death scenes.

She created characters that weren’t just the standard main characters in horror. They were well-fleshed out and I started to care for them even though, unfortunately, some/most of them were going to die. Good characters in a horror book is important because you want them to survive, you want them to solve the mystery.

Noelle was a great main character to follow because she’s such a big horror fan and I think I liked her almost immediately. She’s a strong character who takes charge – not because she has to but because she needs to, because she knows the best way to get out of this alive. She leaned on her horror movie knowledge to help her – I would do the same, after screaming, I think.

It was a fast read (might’ve said that already) and I really liked that. That was definitely due to Springer’s writing – the easy way of it and how that transferred to easy reading. And I enjoyed it all so much! I can’t see what else Springer has up her sleeve!

 My review copy was SO bad I had to loan it out of a library I thankfully had access to through my sister. I’ll show you some pictures (which I luckily had because I sent them to a friend as I removed the arc from my Kindle). It was so bad. I would’ve actually preferred a pdf I had to read through ADE or something than have to go through this pain.

My name is Sorceline… is supposed to be IN THE WHITE BOX. Every single panel’s dialogue all had the text underneath. Same with the other page. I tried to read it and I just couldn’t do any of it. 

 I was so looking forward to read this and then was let down. They focused more on the plot than characters and that resulted in an imbalance that made me not interested in the characters. It also felt like there were multiple plots in this one SMALL book. It’s not even 150 pages and multiple plots (subplots included of course) are not worth it. I would mix up the names with the faces and didn’t care. Which should tell you a lot. There were lines that were said and then they wouldn’t be followed up on even though the line… should’ve been followed up. The main character, Sorceline, was written out to be this super cool and important character (didn’t feel like it to me) and it was hard to be interested in her (or anything, really).

It wasn’t the art -the art was great and I loved all the panels. I could definitely feel the emotions on the characters faces and I could see that the illustrator enjoyed drawing it. So for that (the art) it gets 2 stars (and everything else, literally nothing lol). I loved looking at all the fantasy creatures as they were beautifully illustrated. I liked that the colours weren’t bright and the graphic novel felt like a cute animated movie. I know I would’ve loved this graphic novel – had it just been written differently. I love the idea of a cryptozoologist and we’re in the classes, learning about the creatures – that I enjoyed. Maybe even more emphasis on the classes instead of the characters. 

I thought I was going to like it and then I just couldn’t get into it. The one time I thought they were talking about one character and it turned out to be a whole ‘nother character. While a lot of times that’s happened before, I just knew this wasn’t a special case (where I would like it if I just carried on).

Some likened it to Stranger Things, which I would’ve really liked to have seen. But ultimately I saw i was forcing myself to carry on and I’m really trying to not do that anymore. 

Okay, so I realised why this book didn’t work for me; even though it’s really good. I read the synopsis but I kept thinking the two girls (Chloe and Natalia) would team up and solve all the mysteries. Maybe it’s because I’ve been reading more mysteries? See, the synopsis says Chloe and Natalia form an uneasy alliance and then you pair it with a mystery. 

So, I was annoyed for a bit because I viewed it differently. It affected how I read the rest of the novel; but also I rated it 3 stars because of the writing style and the characters. The writing didn’t flow easily in my opinion. I would read and the way the paragraphs flowed from one to another – it wasn’t natural. Most of the time it felt stilted – like Hall didn’t work enough on ensuring paragraphs were linked to each other. 

It’s a dual-pov but I much preferred Chloe’s chapters to Natalia. I couldn’t get a feel for her (Natalia’s) personality. She first came off as a mean girl and then she was distant. But then she really cared, then she didn’t seem like she cared. It was too confusing for me. Chloe I understood and also cared about more. 

I felt for them, for the characters involved, for the story and the fact that this type of subject unfortunately happens all over, all the time. 

Extremely quick read! I would’ve liked more but I’m happy with what we got. Even though I really liked it I rated it that because of all the supporting characters. I didn’t like them much at all. I liked them a little bit and then definitely not and then back to like, etc. I felt they (the cheer squad) wanted to look all supportive but… they weren’t so much? And her parents, yeah, not a fan of the way they approached it. I felt it was “eh, we suppose you can do it. But only if…”

While I very much understood the anxiety and not wanting to make a fuss over yourself; I felt like she could’ve… spoken up a bit more regarding her parents and cheer squad?

All in all, this was an incredibly cute graphic novel, very expressive with the faces – which, even though I’m not an artist at all – for me that’s important. And I got that here.