Monday 9 October 2017

Review: Runes

Runes Runes by Ednah Walters
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Runes is one of those books that spent way too long sitting on my Kindle. At the time when I downloaded it, I was intrigued. However, when I finally had the chance to read it the feeling had lessened. Thus, I put the book aside until the feeling of interest returned. Although the interest did return, it was never quite to the original level.

For me, I feel as though Runes is a story made up of far too many young adult tropes. There is a good story to be found, but it is buried under layers of clichés. Thus, my emotions were constantly changing. There were parts of this story that I found to be really interesting, yet there were also parts of this story I did not care for at all. It was a confusing read, in terms of my emotions, hence my three star rating. I wasn’t over the moon about this one, nor did I hate it. It simply was.

As I said, there is a good story to be found within this one. It does provide us something different when we get down to the small details of the story. We finally have a story dealing with Norse mythology. I adore any kind of mythology, yet I feel as though Norse mythology does not get all the attention it could. At least, not as a whole. Certain elements have made it into the mainstream, but there is much more to Norse mythology than most stories will show. I loved how Runes was willing to take more than just the most well-known elements, building a much bigger picture. It was a refreshing change from the seemingly endless Greek mythology books out there, giving us an entirely new mythology to work with.

I also enjoyed the way we were slowly given the information regarding the mythology. If you have the knowledge, certain aspects will give you clues. You can make educated guessed, you can see what is hidden behind the details. Even with my rudimentary knowledge, I’m unable to work out all of the specifics. I guessed some of the big elements of this one, but there is a lot of mystery waiting to be found in the future. It is nice to be working with a mythology that is lesser known, a mythology that will leave people curious as to what is coming next.

However, it felt like a bit of a battle to reach these interesting elements. A lot of this story felt as though it was pulled out of a bag marked ‘typical young adult fantasy moments’. It was a case of ‘scenes we have seen before’ altered ever so slightly to fit this situation. The new guy at school with the bad attitude, the one that seems interested in our main character for no apparent reason. Our main character having some hidden special snowflake element, something that sets them apart. The clearly supernatural creatures that have it out for our main character, providing those heroic moments where our female can become even more confused about the male character’s intentions. I could continue, but a lot of the details felt as though they’ve been done too many times before. I was losing interesting as I read through the details of teenage life that have been done a thousand times over. It’s due to this that I’m so picky when it comes to my young adult reads – for me, those set within the confines of high school are too alike for me to truly enjoy.

Overall, this one had potential. There were some enjoyable elements, enough to leave me intrigued, but I wasn’t crazy about it. I may go on to read the second book, but I’m unsure – there is some interest there but whether it is enough for me to purchase book two remains to be seen.

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