ARC Review: Game Of Shadows

Game of Shadows

Author: Erika Lewis
Publisher: Tor Books
Pages: Hardcover, 400 pages
Genre: Fantasy
Release Date: February 28th 2017

Summary:

Ethan Makkai thought that seeing ghosts was the worst of his problems. Between his ethereal gift and life with a single mother hell-bent on watching his every move, he feels imprisoned. When Ethan sees a chance to escape, to leave the house by himself for the first time in his life, he seizes it, unaware that this first taste of freedom will cost him everything.

Ethan is thrown into a strange and eerie world, like nothing he's ever seen. He's assaulted by dive-bombing birds and rescued by a stranger who claims to be his bodyguard. His apartment is trashed, and his mother is kidnapped to a place Ethan never knew existed—a hidden continent called Tara.

Travelling to Tara in search of his mother, Ethan discovers that everything he knows about his life is a lie. His mother is royalty. His father is not dead. His destiny is likely to get him killed.

Confronted by a vicious sorcerer determined to destroy the Makkai family, Ethan must garner strength from his gift and embrace his destiny if he’s going to save his mother and all the people of Tara, including the beautiful girl he’s fallen for.

Review:

Sadly this didn't quite work for me, there are several reasons for this and to be honest I think I might like this as a movie. In fact this did remind me of some beloved childhood favorites...
Alas I ain't no child for a long time now so maybe I am just too old for this one? Who knows.

The storyline is the best and only redeeming part of this book in my opinion. It's fast paced, though some things are very predictable, it's never dull and has many entertaining twists and turns.

Now the writing style is simply put not exactly to my taste.
The dialogues were cliche to the point, that they are corny. And I actually thought that maybe it was done by purpose, you know the craptastic kinda vibes, but no matter how hard I tried, they still were just corny.
Then there were inconsistencies- they small mind you- but they annoyed me. As example Ethan's reaction in the beginning? Well, actually there was no reaction. It was like someone told him, you just thought the sun would shine today, it's going to rain. So he thought to himself, yeah that makes sense... No shock, no fear, no fury, no .. well there was nothing zip, zero. There are quite a few more actually. But I won't list them all. Let's just leave it at the inconsistencies annoyed the hell out of me. And yes I know I am being picky and all that, but they just did.
I think this was enhanced by the character building. Don't misunderstand me, I quite like the cast, all of them. But the problem was that they were all a bit flat. There is no real substance to them. And I think that's why I found their action/ reactions at times totally inconsistent, out of character and basically made no sense- even if they were cliche deluxe.

Maybe this is meant for a different reader? I would however go watch this in movies, cause it does promise a whole lot of corny fun!

Rating: 


ARC was provided by Publishers through Netgalley in exchange for an honest review