LitPick Review
Aine (pronounced Ah-nee) has always thought of herself as a normal teenager in Depression-Era Alabama. With her blind brother Spenser, she lives in her grandmother's farmhouse, playing in the woods, reading books, and going to school--but never going outside the farmhouse other than school. But on the one day that their grandmother lets them go to town, Aine and Spenser return only to find that the person they call grandmother isn't actually their grandmother at all, and that she's been murdered. Not to mention that they've actually been living in a book all along. Soon Aine and Spenser are on the run from their grandma's killer, Biblos, with the legendary Gilgamesh. The two siblings hop from novel to novel as they embark on a quest to find three objects to save their world.
Opinion:
There were a number of things that hindered me from enjoying The Toadhouse Trilogy: Book One. First of all, the narrative was told in the present tense and in the third person. This is not automatically a bad thing for a book, but the style of the prose constructed really awkward sentences at times, eg. "The size of her failure feels epic." The premise for the book felt incredibly uninspired at times; I truly had a lot of trouble getting into and finishing the book. We also never find out what book Aine and Spenser were living in. Speaking of Aine and Spenser, I thought that their characters could be developed a bit better. However, Jess Lourey did do a wonderful job creating Gilgameshs character and using her vivid imagery. The Toadhouse Trilogy: Book One is not a bad book, but I wouldnt recommend it to my friends.
