The Field on the Edge of the Woods Book 2by Sheena McNeilReviews may contain information that could be considered 'spoilers'. Readers should proceed at their own risk. Publisher
Credits Grade: 4 From the cover it looks like this is Book Two of four. I absolutely loved Book 1, but Book 2 falls short of that reaction.It's been almost four years since I read and reviewed Book 1. While I appreciate the "characters thus far" page (and I really like the map with the "you are here"), it would have been more beneficial to have a "story thus far" page at the beginning. It was hard to remember that the story that begins happening on the bottom part of page 1 is a story within this story; it becomes obvious later on, but the overall story is lost here. It's also a hard book to follow. The story seems to jump all over the place, and I don't have a good feel for the characters or what's happening. There's also a discrepancy of describing the Indian girl as mute, and having her tongue cut out, and then having her say "shush" a lot; having your tongue cut out doesn't make you mute, and being mute means you can't say anything. I don't like that the good-natured banter at one point dissolves into a gender-based insult. There are also other insults and comments that seemed unnecessarily harsh or bothered me, as a woman. While I like who the salt pixie is, her personality seems out of place, both in the story and with her actions. When she started talking almost like a valley girl, I rolled my eyes. I'm not sure why the "sowers" are reaping with scythes rather than sowing or being called "reapers" (though, they certainly don't seem like reapers like we typically think of reapers or like the actual Reaper in this story). Poopsie doesn't have money for the toll, but he does for beer? The karaoke is a random addition to the story as it proceeds that actual distracts from some of the other things going on. That's an unfortunately long list of issues with Book 2. I'm still hopeful that the bigger picture will pull together by the end, but there's a drastic decrease in story quality between the first two books. The Dark Nasties continue to be fun to read, though the Hair Band Dark Nasties are not as funny as they were probably meant to be. The art and fonts (different for different characters) are still pretty good, but don't seem to be at quite the level they were in the previous Book. Really, the battles and the Dark Nasties are the best parts about the art. I was hoping for much more after reading Book 1. There is still some good stuff in this Book, but it's overshadowed by the various issues. I am still interested enough to check out Book 3 when it comes out, but Book 2 was just a let-down. Written: August 16, 2013
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