The Story

Seeing Redd picks up not long after where The Looking Glass Wars ends – Alyss has recently defeated Redd, who has escaped into the Heart Crystal, and Alyss has been crowned Queen of Wonderland. Hatter Maddigan is nowhere to be found, and Dodge is still so in love with Alyss. Soon, though, Glass Eyes are appearing in Wondertropolis again, and everyone suspects Redd is behind this. King Arch from Borderland, up to no good, and manipulating the Diamond family. Meanwhile, when Alyss’ bodyguard, Molly, gets kidnapped, things start to get full of intrigue.

The Review

Bah. Boooooooring.

I don’t get it. I loved the first one!! But this one, I just found sooo slow, and the characters seemed so one-dimensional, and the plot was really rather predictable. Bother. I suppose part of that is due to the fact that it was so far away from me reading the first one… and I lost the intimate knowledge of the characters that made me fall in love with them in the first instance.

There also didn’t seem to be the same amount of discovery and magic this time around – and I know that doesn’t have anything to do with the time period between finishing the last one and starting this one. There was just no real exploration of the world… and you’d think, hey, it’s Wonderland!! There’s lots of zany stuff going on in other worlds all the time that we do see here… but we didn’t get to see it at all. Alas!!

The book didn’t even start to get exciting until the last quarter of the book, when Redd actually appeared back in Wonderland. And even that felt a little more flat than it could have been. My biggest problem with the Redd situation is that she meets all of these new people, and she gets them all to join her forces… and while they are mentioned a few times, se don’t get to know ANYTHING about them at all.

The Bottom Line

So the book was a disappointment – I bet I would’ve liked it better if I had read it closer to having finished the first book in this trilogy. I found it a lot less exciting than the first book, unfortunately, and due to my lack of interest during this one, won’t be reading the third in the series.

Other Reviews

Bookshelves of Doom, Fantasy Book Critic, Muse Books Reviews. Have you reviewed this book on your blog? Let me know and I’ll add your link.

I started enjoying literature taking place during the Napoleonic Wars thanks to the wonderful Horatio Hornblower books by C.S. Forester. Since then I’ve had my eyes open for other books in that time period – unfortunately, though I’ve had my eyes open for them, it doesn’t necessarily mean that I’ve yet read them, as Rachel would most likely point out (especially in relation to Patrick O’Brian’s books).

Anyway! Ten books that take place during the Napoleonic Wars, for your perusal:

1. Horatio Hornblower series by C.S. Forester. First book in the series, The Happy Return, published 1937. LT.
2. Aubrey–Maturin series by Patrick O’Brian. First book in the series, Master and Commander, published 1969. LT.
3. Pink Carnation series by Lauren Willig. First book in the series, The Secret History of the Pink Carnation, published 2005. LT.
4. Richard Sharpe Series by Bernard Cornwell. First book in the series, Sharpe’s Eagle, published 1981. LT.
5. Set the Seas on Fire by Chris Roberson. Originally Published 2001. LT.
6. Persuasion by Jane Austen. Originally Published 1818. LT.
7. Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell by Susanna Clarke. Originally Published 2004. LT.
8. An Infamous Army by Georgette Heyer. Originally Published 1937. LT.
9. Vanity Fair by William Makepeace Thackeray. Originally Published 1847-1848. LT.
10. War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy. Originally Published 1869. LT.

Have I missed one that you think should be on this list? Let me know!

Do you like this feature? You should also check out Librarian’s Book Reviews’ Listless Monday and A Bookshelf Monstrosity’s Books By A Theme.

The Story

It isn’t until homeschooled twelve-year-old Ari makes her first real-friend that she realizes that there’s something strange about her father. Being raised as an only child in a single-parent home, and living a very sheltered life, has led to Ari being educated in Edgar Allen Poe, not in pop culture. So when she sees her first vampire movie, things start to click. Soon she discovers the truth – her father is a vampire, her mother is a human, and she may or may not be a vampire.

In a search for the truth about her mother, and what happened between her parents, Ari leaves home one day and starts on a road trip that will take her to her mother’s doorstep, with a few stops along the way, including the emergence of Ari’s own vampirism.

The Review

This book was on my TBR list since it first came out, and yet I was a little bit afraid to read it because of how much vampires got unvampirized in the past few years. For The Society of S, on one hand, there is still the thick gothic atmosphere that I love about Dracula but the vampires aren’t scary monsters in it – they’re sympathetic creatures and aren’t much different than humans.

I loved everything about this book while I was reading it, but the more I think about it the more I can pick out a few things that I didn’t particularly enjoy. I think that is the beauty of Hubbard’s writing in this book (can’t say about all her books, as this is the only one I’ve read so far) – it is so gorgeous and lyrical that I’m more interested in the actual act of reading than I am with what’s going on in the book. Her writing is amazing and I would gladly read anything else that she’s written if her writing style is even a fraction as enjoyable as it was in this book.

The Society of S was part gothic novel and part coming of age story – both of which I typically love, so I was thrilled that this book had a little bit of both going on. Ari’s self-discovery, and her realization of who she is and what her family is, is thoroughly enjoyable to witness. She grows so much through the book that it’s hard, thinking back now, to realize that she’s the same character at the beginning that she is at the end… even though she changed very gradually through the book.

And yay gothic feeling of the book! But it was strange – the gothic feeling in this book seemed to disappear pretty much as soon as Ari reached Florida. Looking back, this is disappointing, but while reading it I didn’t notice too much at all.

The one thing that really bothered me while actually reading it, though, was the epilogue. Oh, how I do not enjoy epilogues, and this one is no exception. Would’ve worked better just leaving the book at the end of the last chapter – there was closure, so I don’t know what the point of it was. Bother.

The Bottom Line

But as mentioned, I thoroughly enjoyed the book while actually reading it (except for the epilogue). I loved the little bit of mystery that was thrown in, I loved the feeling of Ari’s family house, I loved Ari’s self-discovery. It was quite good, and I would definitely highly recommend this to non-romantic-vampire fans. And I’m definitely going to be on the look-out for other books by Hubbard.

Other Reviews

Fantasy Book Critic. Have you reviewed this book on your blog? Let me know and I’ll add your link.