1 out of 4 stars
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What if your world was turned upside and you realized the existence of supernatural creatures? What if your life was at risk? What would you do? Through the themes of revenge, homosexuality, family, and death, the young adult fantasy read, The Blue Raven by J.D. Beales, takes readers to another type of world.
Sixteen-year-old Dylan Andrews isn’t the most popular or well-liked kid in high school. However, one day, he stumbles upon another dimension, giving him the power of creation. No longer afraid of the bullies in school, Dylan’s attitude and confidence changes.
When Dylan meets Matthew Stadding, suddenly his life is turned upside down. Not only does feelings stir inside of him toward this sweet young man, he learns about the true dangers of Morphed Ones, Humanoids, shapeshifting, and so much more. Can Dylan and Matthew stop the evil ones trying to destroy Earth and the other dimensions?
Told in the third-person omniscient perspective, readers are introduced to quite a number of characters. Regrettably, all the characters here were one-dimensional and weren’t given backgrounds. In turn, it made it difficult to care about any of them. The other aspect that made the text challenging was the long-winded, complicated names some of the characters and creatures were given. For example, Craheaantugh, Otrtecwuar, Ecerrhhethgutaa, Rcuroafhhgutnaae, Ghinhankaagf, and others were merely a few included. Keeping track of these peculiar names took away from the story and potential enjoyment.
Though there was much action within this very short book, the amount of content presented became overwhelming. Not only were there times when readers weren’t given a chance to breathe, the plethora of storylines presented led to choppiness to the overarching plot.
In addition, themes were presented in a very weak fashion. The essence of revenge was there, but it seemed superficial. Also, the theme of homosexuality was almost nonexistent, given a few very small scenes. When looking at the theme of death, the reaction to those deaths were so quick I had to reread certain sections to confirm certain deaths actually occurred. In general, the over-the-top action sequences, unfortunately, overshadowed the book's themes.
Lastly, the number of errors presented leads me to believe the book was not professionally edited. Errors varied from punctuational issues, fragments, inconsistent name usage (“Raven” versus “Revan”), misused words, misspelled words, and capitalization issues.
Considering all the above, I have no choice but to give The Blue Raven a 1 out of 4 stars. In its current state, I cannot truthfully recommend this book to anyone.
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The Blue Raven
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