To laugh, or not to laugh...
Arc provided by Harlequin Enterprises Australia through Netgalley
Well, the way I see it, there are two ways of looking at this story:
First one... I could just mention the fact that there's no character development, the characters in it are basic stereotypes of a lot of fantasy tropes, the world building is kept to a minimum, and then there's the fact that practically all characters are insane!
Bottom Line, this reads as a long farce... and did I mention that my sense of humour is practically undeveloped when it comes to what I see as a long combination of... crazy things?!
The thing is, I'm one of those people that after the first stand up comedy routine number, would get bored senseless with the whole thing!
This means that after having read the first pages of this, I started to get worried...
Insanity was flowing around like large elephant clouds, the main character with her crazy and at times incomprehensible grammar was getting on my nerves, and I was ready to admit that I was not this book's intended audience.
In fact, I may even have whinned *a little* to my co-blogger:
Isa, you like comic books! I have just the story for you! :)
But here's the strange thing, after a while Bremy's insane "way of being" started growing on me (a tad like a fungus).
Okay, it helped that I started seeing this in my head as a movie, or even a cartoon!
There were dashes of Sailor Moon villains, scenes "a la Batman" (first movie with Jack Nicholson), Kim Possible and so on and on...
Second one... Well this is a story inspired by comic books _Right? lol _ with a comic book feeling to it, in which the main character is a hero "wanna be".
This means that the characters are stereotyped as they normally are in these type of stories. The fact that the author managed to create an interesting story based on stereotypes, is something to give credit for.
Being a hero isn't easy, which translates into a long number of oddities and disasters just waiting to happen to our reckless and impetuous heroine!
Things that every self possessed hero must be in possession of:
• A master: That Obi-wan/rat that trains the Kun Fu Panda/or even what's the name of the Ninja Turtles sensei guy?
Yes, that exists in here, with his very zen characteristics. So, master... thing? Check!
• The nerd/geek electronic friend able to produce magic with his fingers... Check!
• The strange friend who hates her guts but is willing, from time to time, to tolerate our heroine's presence.
Yes, also here... she's also a little scary o_O
• The pose/charm/hair/OUTFIT that very girl needs in order to be a proper heroine... check, check and double check!
• The idol, that elusive person that inspires our wanna be heroine to be... greater than what she actually is... Check (hopefully in the next book there will be more Ryder... yes?)
• That attractive dude who looks remarkably like Clark Kent... except this guy's blonde! lol
This was wickedly amusing!
• Oh, and let's not forget the villain, who is much more close to Bremy than she would like...
And did I mention the twin sister who is in a wheelchair?
As you can see I decided to go with the second perspective.
It's a book that needs to be approached in a very particular way (just let yourself go with the flow), but whose imagination needs to be cheered.
I still think this would make a great tv series or movie (Hey, someone directed "My Super Ex girlfriend" and this is so much better!) for a younger audience.
As an actual book, with another editing (to rid it of some grammatical errors), some basic character development, keeping in mind, that it's always a positive thing when a story keeps some sort of equilibrium between the more insane parts and the story development, this would make an awesome story!
This means that despite its somewhat "off to a rocky start", I'll definitely be reading any follow up to this story.
Buy "Sidekick" ebook's
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