The 39 Clues: One False Note
by Gordon Korman
Things going in favor of this book:
- Two words: Vienna. Venice. I'm loving the travel/adventure elements of this series.
- The fact that the clue was hidden in sheet music handwritten by Mozart. Yeah, I'm a music nerd.
- That the plot had good continuity, despite the author switch.
- That they're going to make movies out of the series and Steven Spielberg is going to direct.
Things going against it:
- As I expected, the characters/dialogue didn't seem to be as strong. I blame it on the different author. Not that it wasn't well written, but, for me, writing is so personal. You really get to know the characters you invent, and having someone else take over for you would just be awkward. They (the characters) just seemed to be lacking the sparkle they had in the first.
- The dialogue suffered a bit from what I call over-editorializing. Too much clutter. Example: "Blah, blah, blah, blah." (insert synonym for said here) (insert character name) (insert adverb). Understand? When every line is followed by a description of how it was said it tends to interrupt the flow of the conversation. Severely. Not to be punny, but the words should speak for themselves.
Overall, though, I liked it. I think the plot is great. I love a good mystery/adventure series. So long as they doesn't end like the Series of Unfortunate Events, I think I'm going to enjoy the next 8 books.
2 comments:
You have so many good book reviews, I have to add them to my list of must-reads. But at this rate, I'll never get through them all! Thanks for the fun blog.
Okay, I wasn't going to read the 2nd book. The first one was a little too juvenile for me. But, since the setting of this one takes place in Vienna and Venice and has a lot to do with music, I'll just have to read it. Have you done anything with the cards that come with the books?
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