The Emerald Atlas:The Books of Beginning 1

Es war eher okay, bis zur Hälfte war es irgendwie klassisch, nur das gewisse etwas hat gefehlt. Doch danach wurde es richtig spannend und ich konnte das Buch nicht mehr weglegen.

I first tried reading this book as a child around 15 years ago and stopped reading around 30%. I thought I give this book a second try...It seems my younger self had the same problems with the book.First of all I really liked the premise of three orphans going from orphanage to orphanage and finding a magical book. I also like the magical book itself as a device. But there are so many weaknesses. Most characters are really flat, most of the time I didn't feel any emotion from them. <spoiler>Come on guys your brother is missing why aren't you more mad or sad about it?!</spoiler> Also the adults don’t really care about the children and their wellbeing. There are a couple of characters who remind of characters of other classic children's books: <spoiler>like Dr. Pym as Dumbledore and the villian as the Red Queen from Alice in Wonderland.</spoiler>Additionaly, the plot is also a bit boring, because it happens to much. I don't know if this makes any sense haha. There is not really a progression but more like problem after problem. And last the "magical world" in the book didn't feel magical to me. This was a big problem. I wanted <spoiler>time-</spoiler> traveling to a whimsical and mystical world with magical creatures and so on. <spoiler>And yes you could also have a gruesome queen in a whimsical world (see Alice in Wonderland)</spoiler> And everything is a bit forgettable. I mean I only remembered three children going with a magical book into another world after 15 years and I read 30% of the book. <spoiler>All this other stuff with the orphanage, pictures, monsters and queen I just didn’t remember anymore.</spoiler>So this time I DNF this book for good.

Handlung an sich war interessant, aber mir fehlte ein bisschen die Spannung.