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Review: The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry

Now, I should probably start by saying that I did read this book in Spanish; it was given to me as a gift to help me develop my skills.  Nevertheless, although I suspected that I may not have sufficiently understood the storyline at some points in the book, after reading the plot on Wikipedia it turns out that I had, in fact, gotten the general gist.

The reason for why I suspected that I may not have completely understood various aspects of the plot is because the entire story was really quite strange - cute and entertaining, but strange.

It starts with an airplane pilot telling the reader about how he used to draw pictures when he was a young boy and how no one ever understood what they were.  One day his plane crashes in a barren desert where he meets a young prince who claims to be from another planet.  The two strike up a friendship when the little prince requests that the pilot draws him a picture and the prince informs the pilot all about his past while the two struggle to survive in this new deadly landscape.  The little prince goes on to tell his new friend, and the reader, about his own planet and how he met a variety of strange individuals, on various other planets, on his way to Earth.

The story was quite odd and I really failed to see the point of it in general; apparently the story was supposed to reflect various dark aspects of society at the time that it was written although I didn’t see it myself.  Nonetheless, The Little Prince is referred to as a classic, so I suppose I can’t be too critical!  What’s more, overall, I did quite enjoy it as it was really quite endearing and it’s a perfect book for improving one’s language skills because it has been translated into dozens, if not hundreds, of languages and the language of the book is quite simple.

Therefore, despite the oddness of the story I found it relatively enjoyable and especially useful for enhancing my Spanish.  So, I have given The Little Prince...

Rating = 4 stars.

Review: Silence by Becca Fitzpatrick

Plot

Nora wakes up in a graveyard not knowing why she’s there or how she got there.  She soon discovers after a stint in hospital and encountering her mother and various policemen that she has actually been missing for months.

As Nora gets to grip with her situation and reintegrates herself into day-to-day life she starts to realise that this wasn’t a normal kidnapping.  For one thing, her amnesia stretches back two months before she was kidnapped.  Secondly, her mum is dating Hank Millar – the father of her school archenemy, Marcie – who’s a particularly dislikeable and suspicious individual.  Lastly, she meets a few mysterious characters – who, she later finds out, are part of the ‘Nephilim’ species – who have various inhuman powers, including Jev, someone who she finds herself attracted to and who seems to have links to her past.

Positives

Unfortunately, the part that I enjoyed the most was the beginning because it was different; a protagonist waking up in a graveyard not knowing where she is or how she got there was quite intriguing.   I especially appreciated this unique start as Silence is the third book in a four book series so it was nice to have it mixed up a bit.

Negatives

Apart from that I had a lot of issues with this novel...

Firstly, the plotline was quite poor.  It seemed quite interesting at first but then I realised, as Nora’s amnesia cleared thanks to her best friend Vee and her growing relationship with Jev, she started to remember parts of her unmemorable past the majority of the plotline consisted of the reader basically being retold what happened in the previous two novels.  Not quite the gripping storyline I was hoping for.

Secondly, the characters were so incredibly infuriating.  To begin with, Nora was one of the most annoying protagonists I have ever encountered.  She was so illogical! I nearly cried with frustration when she was threatened by one of the Nephilim and she, ya know, fancied going back to investigate; as you do when you’re nearly attacked by a random, scary guy.

I was also totally unimpressed by Nora’s two love interests.  There was Jev, who Nora finds out is her fallen angel boyfriend from her past, who was NOT the generic charming and funny guy you usually find in these types of novels.  He was actually a little aggressive in places and quite forward; he kept telling Nora that he loved her and he would do anything for her even though he knew fair well that she couldn’t even remember who he was!  Another character was Scott – a Nephilim but also Nora’s friend – who, at first, seemed quite friendly but, like Jev, later became a little forward with Nora including a couple of sexual comments which I thought were completely unnecessary.

There was also no character development and the storyline, in general, just simply wasn’t gripping.  I found that the novelty of the whole angel/Nephilim (etc) concept had worn off and, consequently, despite some potentially exciting action scenes, I was left relatively uninterested.

Summary

I’m not sure what I was expecting really.  I enjoyed the first book, Hush Hush, but the second one, Crescendo was quite a disappointing sequel so I suppose I wasn’t surprised that I was equally, if not more, dissatisfied with Silence.  Its main downfalls were the unlikeable characters and the repetitive and dreary storyline.  However, I will give Becca Fitpatrick a bit of credit for an engaging beginning. 

Therefore... 

Rating = 2 stars

Additional points

I think the main reason for why I read this book is because I hate getting half way through a series and then stopping.  There is a fourth (and final?) book in the Hush Hush series which I will be reading simply for closure but if you’re like me and feel that you have to finish a series once you’ve started it, I wouldn’t recommend starting this one.  Sorry Becca!



If you've read this book feel free to leave your comments below.