Title:
Alistair Grim's Odditorium
Series:
Odditorium #1
Author:
Gregory Funaro
Genre:
Middle-Grade, Fantasy
Publication:
January 6th 2015
Pages:
412 Pages, Paperback
Source:
Thank you to Alma Books for sending me this book in exchange for an
honest review!
Rating: 2.5/5 Cupcakes!
Twelve-year-old Grubb lives a hand-to-mouth existence in Victorian England, working as a chimney sweep under a cruel master. After an incident at an inn, he hides in the trunk of one of its guests, the enigmatic Alistair Grim, and is whisked away to his Odditorium, a wonderful flying house full of incredible mechanical features powered by an enigmatic substance called animus. Now apprenticed to Grim, Grubb begins to settle into his new life and find a new family in the eccentric crew of the Odditorium, when suddenly his new world comes under attack by the evil Prince Nightshade and he is propelled into a perilous quest. As he gets caught up in the struggle, Grubb will learn valuable lessons and discover remarkable secrets about himself and his new host.
When
the opportunity arose to review this book I seized it excitedly. It
sounded incredible, with wonderful characters, a flying house
and magical adventures that I couldn't wait to embark on. However, I
found myself sorely disappointed in this novel. Perhaps it was a
case of it being me and not the book but I just didn't end up loving
this book as much as I had hoped I would.
I
think the biggest problem that kept me from loving this book as much
as I could have, is the detachment I felt regarding the characters.
Character connection is vital in order for me to love a book and
whilst I liked the characters I never felt like I got to know them.
Perhaps it was due to the premature arrival of calamity and disorder that
the characters encountered several pages in which left me floundering
in a haze of black faeries and skeleton armies, or maybe it was
because I wasn't given enough of an opportunity to delve inside the
cast's heads. I never felt like I got to know them, which makes me
quite sad. There was minimal background information for the
characters, minimal scenes that involved the characters expressing
their emotions, the book seemed to lack the ability to welcome me
into the characters' minds and my enjoyment levels plummeted because
of that. The author created characters with an abundance of
potential: Grubb, a kind and courageous chimney sweep, a mysterious
sorcerer called Mr Grim, a mischievous banshee, gentle-hearted Nigel,
a wonderful witch, a sassy fairy whose love of chocolate rivaled
mine and a spunky talking pocket watch. These characters are
incredibly interesting, of that I'm sure, I just hope that in the
sequel I'll be able to see more of that.
The
main thing that initially drew me to this book was the concept – a
lonely, underfed chimney sweep who unlocks a mystical world filled
with magic, adventure and a family of sorts. However, I felt like
this book was being pulled in far too many directions for me to fully appreciate it. There were
many steampunk elements, Greek mythology, Chinese mythology, dragons
and samurai, banshees and fairies and sirens, ogres and trolls, the
walking dead and skeleton armies...it was just too much. Too many
things were either occurring at once or in rapid fire succession
after the other which left me with a sore head and a feeling of
disorientation as I tried to take in everything. Not only did this
leave me feeling confused but it severely affected the pacing and my
ability to become immersed in the story. Action scenes were
haphazardly thrown around and I never felt like I was given time to
recover from the conglomeration of activity before I was hurled into
the next scene. I also felt as if, due to all the movement in the
chapters, this detracted from the characters and their emotions. I
felt as if I was never allowed time for me to settle into the story
and form a bond with the characters and find my bearings. This also
had an affect on the otherwise charming writing style. The book
initially began with a style that echoed that of classics I've read,
it oozed character and I found myself loving the way the book was
written, however, as the action unfolded, it morphed into a
disjointed style with lots of telling and not showing.
This
turned into quite a negative review, didn't it? It wasn't all bad - several of the characters were spunky and charming and I enjoyed the
relationships that developed between Grubb and the other quirky
characters in the Odditorium and there were
moments that had me turning the pages slightly faster. Like I said, I
also loved the writing style for the first few chapters of the book.
All
in all, when I picked up Alistair Grim's Odditorium I was certain
that I was going to fall in love. However, all the genres it tried to
include seemed to be haphazardly sewn together, the pacing felt far
too fast which left me feeling as if I was constantly being hurried along, wrapped in a flurry of chaos; the lack of character expression and character development also meant that there were several things that prevented me from adoring
this book as much as I thought I would. However, despite me not being
able to appreciate it fully, this book has many good ratings, maybe
I'm just being a black sheep again!
I give it: 2.5/5 CUPCAKES!
