For the first time in a long time I am truly glad to have finished a book and never have to read it again.
Sometimes books are bad due poor character growth, slow story telling and errors which could have easily been avoided by doing something called RESEARCH.
This book and it's author clearly failed to do their fact checking.
The book began slow, and i grew annoyed with the time jumping between chapters in the beginning.
Having finished the book I understand why there was time jumping as it's relevant to the story of the 3 main characters, however it could have been done much better. Don't get me wrong, i do love a good story with time traveling but when a story goes from one character set in 2001 to another character set in the 1600s, it does get tedious.
I think the main character of the story was called Honoria, or something along those lines, her parents were killed in the terror attacks of 11/09/2001 in New York City. She and her brother move in with their aunt and uncle and move out of the city to start a place called Arnn.
Naturally this kid is depressed, her whole world has been turned upside down after losing her mum and dad in such a horrific way. Having lost my own father I get the longing to do anything to be reunited. There is potential to make her suffering and frame of mind at that time, something more. A story for young adults should try and take the opportunity to help raise awareness of things like depression and grief. Yet this just seems brushed over.
Witchwood Hollow is a forest that, according to local legend, is haunted by a witch from the 1600s. Th "witch" is a British immigrant who runs off into the forest after being hunted by her kinsmen
for a crime she didn't commit. Yes she was magical, so she put a curse on the forest. But why? Because she was a lonely misunderstand young woman, she longed for a true family, again more could be done with her story.
As the story jumped and bumped its way with progression, you learn of some of the people who became trapped in the woods. But you don't learn much.
What annoyed me most about the book was not the lackluster storyline, the predictable ending or lack of character development/story, no it was the failure to check the facts!
Here's the two that really made me angry:
1. At the start of chapter 14, it says something along the lines of Honoria was listening to Green Day singing about a boulevard of broken dreams. This chapter was set in 2001. Boulevard of Broken Dreams wasn't even released until 2004! Hell it wasn't even recorded until November 2003! Whilst I get the fact that Honaria was going through a difficult time and the American Idiot album
would have been a perfect soundtrack to her life, it still wasn't released therefore Honoria would not have been listening to it. The author could have chosen from either the Nimrod (1997) or Warning (2000) albums by Green Day.
2. Towards the very end of the book, one of the characters gets stuck in a well for a while and then has Pneumonia. Seriously that has to be the biggest old wives tale I've ever heard. Hello, Pneumonia is caused by infection. Not by being cold and wet.
You can not catch Pneumonia, the flu or a cold by just being cold and wet! And what the hell is the deal with the masks people were wearing when the kid came out of hospital? When I had Pneumonia I was held hostage in hospital for a week, on a ward with 5 old ladies, there were visitors coming in and out of our ward, not one of them or the doctors or nurses wore masks, also when I was freed and sent home no-one wore a mask. Even after being home for 4 months I was still as weak as a kitten that going out was too exhausting.
Oh now I'm all mad again. It's not difficult to check information if you add it in your story. Google is your friend. Unless you want to know if Toads sneeze, then it doesn't know the answer.
Overall I give this book 1 out of 5. Just don't bother.
So in the words of Green Day "Good Riddance."
The next book I will be reviewing is the Maze Runner series, starting with The Maze Runner by James Dashner as requested by Jessica. Remember you can email me at truthaboutthebook@gmail.com with any requests, recommendations, etc.
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