The more I think about this book, the more I dislike it…which is really bumming me out because I did enjoy reading it for awhile! Toward the end it started to really fall apart for me though.

I thought the storyline was interesting. It was a pretty fun retelling. The description and writing style was nice, very easy to read. The characters were okay, but just okay in my opinion. I also really liked the mention of different fairy tales throughout the story.

There are just so many things that are irritating me about this book…A few of these include:

**SPOILERS**

The first, is that I just couldn’t get behind the characters from the very beginning. It all seemed so rushed that I didn’t feel any sort of attachment to any of the characters at all. And I really disliked the main character, Snow. She made so many assumptions about things. She also held back telling people some “secrets” that didn’t seem like that big of a deal, but quickly revealed others that I thought she would have kept to herself. Snow was also just so headstrong or so selfish when it made absolutely no sense to me, so I was very confused.
Example:
Then fished something out of her pants pocket and tossed a glowing blue vial at me.
“What is it?"
“You’re going to be a better fighter. Fast.”
“I have my snow,” I said defensively.
When I read this, I said aloud, “Are you KIDDING me?!” Snow had very minimal training before now. Just a few pages ago she was worried about going on this heist because she didn’t feel like she could accomplish anything. But now she thinks she can fight with just her snow? What?!

Second, I know Snow spent a lot of time wishing she could experience “real” romance while at Whittaker (specifically with Bale), but my god. The three love interests were just too much for me, especially considering the one month that this all occurred during. I mean, can't she just be friends with them? Why does the female YA main character always have to fall for every guy she meets?! I didn’t even really care for how much she said she loved Bale, because I didn’t feel like we really saw WHY she cared for him in the first place. Sure he held her hand when she had an anger burst... But he also broke her wrist.

Third, how Snow felt about her powers drove me absolutely crazy. One second she was whining about how she didn’t know how to use it or even contain it, the next she was all full of herself saying she didn’t need help and that she could take on the world with her snow. She hardly ever seemed afraid, even though she had no idea what she was getting herself into.
For example, when she attacked the Enforcer- she had very little training so far, but still thought she had it under control? Silly.

Fourth, there was a lot of repetition. Especially when it came to Snow thinking about Bale, or Snow thinking about her past life. A few mentions here and there would have been sufficient.

Fifth, instances like these:
"Miss me?” he said, kneeling down and pulling me to safety.
I threw my arms around his neck. I have never been so happy to see him in my life.
Oh come on. “I have never been so happy to see him in my life.” Oh you mean the ONE MONTH that you knew he existed?

…that made me want to just him. And more.
But you’re oh so in love with Bale, aren’t you?


And sixth, the lack of knowledge but sudden expertise annoyed me. Sure, Snow was being trained by various people over the course of the month…but she still didn’t feel ready toward the end. But of course when she needed her powers the most, suddenly she’s got it all figured out…

Would I recommend this book? Probably not.
Would I read the next book in the series? Again, probably not.

Favorite passages:
I didn’t know where I belonged, but it wasn’t there.

So basically I was supposed to fulfill some kind of major destiny in a month. And I had no idea this place even existed until now.

"Mirrors reflect what we want to see, or sometimes they reveal what you really are or what you really want. You have to be very careful with a mirror.”

Maybe if we didn’t believe in the story and instead just believed in one another, things would be so very different.

He ruled the Snow Beasts with arms raised, conducting his symphony of pain.

My whole life turned on a sentence.

(Reread) Not one of my favorites of the series, but I loved that things are starting to come together in this one! A few of the pages in this book are wonderfully laid out, typography wise.

Favorite Lines:
Deciding whether or not to trust person is like deciding whether or not to climb a tree, because you might get a wonderful view from the highest branch, or you might simply get covered in sap, and for this reason many people choose to spend their time alone indoors, where it is harder to get a splinter.

Some people think destiny is something you cannot escape, such as death, or a cheesecake that has curdled, both of which always turn up sooner or later.

I loved this book when I thought it was all factual. It's not cool that a lot of this turned out to be fabricated...

I really enjoyed reading the third volume of Lumberjanes! I love each of these characters so much, especially Ripley. I absolutely love to see what she is doing in each frame and her shenanigans are hysterical.

I liked that each ghost story at the beginning had it’s own style of artwork that matched up with each storytellers personality. But overall I didn’t really love the art in this volume. It seemed more cartoonish than the other volumes.

The storyline was good. I loved that we were seeing a split story- one with the girls at camp desperately trying to earn normal badges while the other two (Mal and Molly) were in a lost world. Plenty of the dialogue or things that were drawn into the comic made me chuckle.

This is a darker comic with strong language. It is one that you really just need to dive into, so I won't give any of the plot away. I will say that the storyline was simple, but captivating. The entire volume was action packed with bits of humor sprinkled in.

I thought that the characters were all wonderfully developed and their personalities are very interesting. I can't wait to read more about them! I haven't yet decided if I have a favorite character; they are all so unique.

The artwork in this collection is absolutely stunning! It’s so detailed and very, very gory at times. One comic panel actually made me flinch because it was so graphic (if you've read this, I'm sure you know which one I'm talking about).

I cannot wait to get my hands on the second volume!

This book IS NOT for readers that want to hurry through the last book of a series simply to get the answers that they are craving.

This book IS for readers that have absolutely fallen in love with Lemony Snicket’s writing style. If this is you, you won't mind the run on sentences, the numerous summaries that bring us back to books 1-12, the various “well known” facts and definitions sprinkled through, or the passages that seem to serve no purpose at all other than adding to the anxiety of finishing the series.

“…some things are better left in the great unknown.”

Mr. Snicket is a clever one indeed.

My favorite passages:

The Baudelaires looked out at the sea, and saw what Olaf was talking about. Spilling across the sky, like ink staining a precious document, was an immense bank of black clouds.

The moral of the story is that if you tell yourself you can do something, then you can actually do it, a moral easily disproved if you tell yourself they can eat nine pints of ice cream and a single sitting, or that you can ship wreck yourself on a distant island simply by setting off in a rented canoe with holes sawed in it.

As you know if you've ever skimmed a book, you end up getting a strange view of the story, with just glimpses here and there of what is going on, and some authors insert confusing sentences in the middle of a book just to confuse anyone who might be skimming. Three very short men were carrying a large, flat piece of wood, painted to look like a living room. As the Baudelaire orphans searched...

"It was okay" is the best explanation for how I feel about this book. I didn't really enjoy reading it because I felt that the first half was just so boring. The story did pick up for the second half, but not enough to really capture my attention.

The continuation was a bit off in this book for both timeline and character traits. I had a really hard time keeping track of time, so the progression of the characters travel left me a bit confused from time to time. I also had issues with the pain tolerance of the main character. For example, one second the main character has been slammed to the ground from a moving train and she's in agony and can hardly breathe, but the next minute the next she’s running and acting like nothing is wrong.

There were also a number of YA cliches that I didn't really care for, so they may have affected my overall feeling of the book.

However, I did really enjoy the overall storyline, the idea of the powers, and the personalities of the main characters. I just wish this book had more oomph.

I think this book is definitely worth a read, but I wouldn't read it again.

Favorite passages:
But the champion was swaying on his feet and downing another drink. I wasn't sure he could hit the ground if he tripped, never mind anything else.

My bullet caught it square in the chest. Black guts scattered across the sand. The thing screeched again. And this time, from the deep of the night, a hundred identical voices screeched back.

…there was no arguing against belief. It was a foreign language to logic.

I made it to page 100 and then had to call it...DNF.

I wanted to like this book! After all, a secret society of librarians that act as spys to steal rare books in various worlds and times, complete with mythical creatures like Fae and Vampires?! It sounded so interesting!

But unfortunately, this book just did not interest me at all. I liked the first chapter, where we saw Irene in action. But after that it just felt like one major information dump after another. I understand that the author was trying to build the world, but it was all just so bland to me. And talk about repetitive! My goodness...

I also didn't care about Irene or Kai as characters at all. I found that they irritated me more than anything else. Especially in one scene in a dumpy place where they were staying. That scene was just so lame and it felt super awkward and totally unnecessary. That scene is what finally made me put the book down.

Passages I liked:
“…Lets just be grateful that corsets aren’t required wear any longer.”
“Why should I be grateful?” Kai asked, raising an eyebrow.
"Because you don’t have to deal with me while I’m wearing one,” Irene said flatly.

She did find that the books displayed prominently in every chamber had been dusted, but the spines were pristine and uncreased. They had the sad, untouched hit of literature paraded for display purposes but never actually used.
It was profoundly depressing.

Exactly like my reviews for the first three books in this series- Everything in this collection was wonderful- the storyline, the character development and expression, the artwork, the coloring, the flow... and the DETAIL! Oh my goodness, there is so much detail in every panel. You can tell how much planning and work went into the creation of this series. Very well done.

I am very sad for this to have ended. I would love to see graphic novel editions made for the rest of the books in the series!

This was a fun read! The main storyline was all there. The creepiness factor carried over well. However, I thought that the pacing of the story was a bit funky... especially at the beginning.

I also just didn't really care for the illustrations, and that had a major effect on my overall feelings about this graphic novel. Some panels I liked more than others, but most just felt like they were lacking. But perhaps P. Craig Russell's style just isn't for me.

Favorite line:
When you’re scared but you do it anyway, that’s brave.