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Emma Engel
, December 08, 2012
(view all comments by Emma Engel)
This book intrigued me. Most books I can read through and decide easily whether I liked or disliked it. I might even be able to label it “good” or “great.” With Halflings, not so much. I found myself equally drawn in and pushed away as I read through a book the jacket blurb had made sound so straightforward. After mulling it over for several days, I decided that what troubled me was the question of originality. I’ve lent my copy to friend who I know hasn’t read some books that I have been exposed to just to see how she reacted to Halflings without that particular filter. And in fairness to what really was a good book, I’m going to review first and then rant.
Halflings is mostly the story of one, normal human teenager girl Nikki Youngblood. The story starts though, on not so normal of day. Fleeing through the forest after randomly being set on by four dog-like creatures, Nikki receives help from a most unexpected quarter, three Halfling boys. Drawn into a world of angels and half-angels, Nikki starts to realize how complicated the world really is. Hellhounds want to kill her, secrets her parents had kept from her start coming to light, and what is she to make of the three gorgeous boys suddenly assigned to protect her? Mace, Raven, and Vine are having problems of their own, and not all of them are centered around the human girl they think is their heavenly assignment. For one thing, they’re trying to figure out how they fit into a heavenly world they are banned from and an earthly world forbidden to them �" and what’s really left for them without those two.
Halflings is well paced, well written book that breathes life into a variant world. The characters are well drawn, although a few of the secondary characters never really got enough page time for them to really shine. I felt a few of the romantic moments seemed a little forced and slowed down the plot, but not to the point they detracted from the story. I can, and have, recommended this book for high school age readers with the warning that it is primarily a romance, and a love triangle at that. I’m going to guess it falls a little more on the girl book side of things even though I’m sure boys would enjoy it too.
Now for the problematic.
First, this really is a book for teenagers. I would say that close to ninety percent of the YA fiction I read successfully bridges age gaps. They make good read alouds for kids younger than their target audience, and they are an enjoyable, if somewhat easy, read for adults. Halflings didn’t quite pull this off. I still enjoyed it, but the entire time a little voice was saying, “what a good book for teenagers.” Not, “what a good book for me.” Naturally, there isn’t anything wrong with a book appealing to a small audience, but it did impact my satisfaction in the story.
Secondly, this book screamed Twilight. A little bit of Mortal Instruments too, but mostly Twilight. At first, I thought I was being ridiculous, and that two books from the same subgenre of YA Paranormal Romance are bound to have similarities. After all, how many high fantasy stories seem like Lord of the Rings spin-offs? Most of the books that come to mind to be honest. So of course the three boys are unreasonably handsome. Or course the level headed young lady who has never been preoccupied with boys before becomes obsessed with them. That’s the bread and butter of Paranormal Romance. But more and more there seemed to be small details, unnecessary to the story, that bore a striking resemblance to Stephanie Meyer’s books. The eye color being an indicator of whether a Halfling was choosing a higher path or giving into his more base nature. The intrinsically good but deeply tormented Halfling rivaling for Nikki’s affections with the more natural, but more dangerous boy. The reveal of “how we really look.” The fact that the price of their love was damnation. The predatory vibe the boys give off. In all fairness, they did spark instead of sparkle, but still.
What I think really bothered me was the fact that this was a good book. Occasionally, I’ll read something that has a great deal of potential that it ultimately falls shy of, and I realize that it could have been an amazing story in the hands of someone else. Twilight was like that. The series had the potential to be a truly epic saga. By the second half, I would say that it started to really come into its own, but the weight of the first two books, which are impossible to skip if you want to have a clue what’s going on, still drags it down.
Yet, Ms. Burch has taken essentially the same story and done it justice. In all the ways Twilight failed, it succeeded. Don’t get me wrong �" there is never a moment I feel like I’m reading Twilight fanfic with the names changed. It is its own story. But I can’t help but feel there are deliberate parallels with Twilight written in just to encourage Twihards to read the book. And I just can’t help feeling that Halflings will never get the chance to shine in its own right if readers keep seeing Twilight behind its pages. Even it’s by far the superior book.
Reblogged from myrdan.com
My thanks to Zondervan for sending me a review copy of Halflings, in exchange for my honest opinion of this book.
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