Book Review: The Reader

Summary: Once there was, and one day there will be. This is the beginning of every story. Sefia lives her life on the run. After her father is viciously murdered, she flees to the forest with her aunt Nin, the only person left she can trust. They survive in the wilderness together, hunting and stealing what they need, forever looking over their shoulders for new threats. But when Nin is kidnapped, Sefia is suddenly on her own, with no way to know who’s taken Nin or where she is. Her only clue is a strange rectangular object that once belonged to her father left behind, something she comes to realize is a book. Though reading is unheard of in Sefia’s world, she slowly learns, unearthing the book’s closely guarded secrets, which may be the key to Nin’s disappearance and discovering what really happened the day her father was killed. With no time to lose, and the unexpected help of swashbuckling pirates and an enigmatic stranger, Sefia sets out on a dangerous journey to rescue her aunt, using the book as her guide. In the end, she discovers what the book had been trying to tell her all along: Nothing is as it seems, and the end of her story is only the beginning.

Review: Unfortunately, my thoughts on this book are kind of fuzzy because I finished this book around two weeks ago. However, I will do my best to remember what I thought of this book.

For the plot, I'm going to give it half of a star. A lot of the events that happened occurred at a snail pace and this sort of made the story drag for me. For example, in the beginning  there is a lot of backstory about what happened to her parents and her searching for Nin. I almost put the book down because of that. Plus the events that did occur weren't nearly as exciting as they should have been, especially the ending. I was kind of disappointed with the ending. I think the reason that I didn't like it, though, is because of the fact that this book is written where there are a lot of different perspectives and you really don't know how they connect. Trying to figure out how everything connected could have been really interesting but sadly, the main events in this story's plot wasn't what made me want to keep reading this book.

I think this book deserves three quarters of a star for the characters in this book. This book would have gotten a full star for this part if it wasn't for the main character. Sefia is one of those main characters that was really average when compared to other characters from other books. I didn't think that she was horrible, if anything, she was a person that I just watched go through her life, not someone I I was rooting for. However, the reason that I think characters should receive three quarters of a star is because of Captain Reed and Archer. I loved them a lot and honestly, their stories and looking into their lives is what made me continue this story. Captain Reed is a guy that has adventures and cares for his crew. Archer doesn't speak for most of the book but his actions with Sefia were very sweet (I also imagined Archer as Arabian for some reason but I like him like this). These characters seemed more fleshed out to me than Sefia and that's why I loved them.

This book definitely receives a full star for diversity in this one. A lot of the characters are described as having bronze skin which honestly could be a lot of different people and that's great! The main character is  Japanese, or at least I assume she is because of the cover. However, while I did give this a full star, I can say that I didn't see any LGBTQ+ characters in this book. Seeing as though, I'm not from the LBGBTQ+ community and I don't know everyone on that spectrum, I could have missed some very obvious signs planted in the book. There was a character with a disability, though. He didn't come up until the middle of the book and even then, he was kind of a minor character that may have bigger role in the future books.

I think I'm starting to realize that I really like pirates. First it was Heidi Heilig's, The Girl From Everywhere and now this book. My favorite parts of this book was on board the ship and I think that's why I liked this book. Other people have commented on the reading aspect of this book and how it didn't make any sense. However, I was able to look past it because of the pirate aspect of this book. So I will give the setting of this book half of a star since   majority of the book didn't take place on the ship.

On the basis of my enjoyment, I give this .75 of a star. This book kept me reading even though I have been in a reading slump. Of course it was because of Archer, Captain Reed,  the other pirates in this book and some of the events in the plot. There was also the fact that this book had cool artwork throughout the book to make it seem like it was the actual book everyone was trying to find. There was also words on the bottom of some of the pages to create a full message that I won't spoil for you. But I actually enjoyed reading this book, despite some of its flaws.

After all of that, my rating comes down to 3.5 stars. I recommend this to fans of The Girl From Everywhere because of the pirate aspects and there is a sense of adventure in both of those books. Thanks for reading!