Tuesday, August 9, 2016

Review of Starfire by Jennifer Lynn Alvarez

Read for: Mount TBR & I love equine books
 
Synopsis: "Once every hundred years, a black foal is born, prophesized to either unite or destroy the five herds of flying horses that live in the land of Anok. He is fated to become the most powerful pegasus in all of Anok.

Star is this black foal.

Even though Star has malformed wings that make him unable to fly, the leaders of each herd will take no risks and want to execute Star before his first birthday. With the help of his friends, Star must escape the clutches of the powerful leaders, and his epic journey of self-discovery turns into a battle between good and evil that will keep readers eagerly turning the pages.

A gripping new animal fantasy series!"


My Review: When I was younger I was an avid fan of horse books, I read nearly everyone I could come across (and honestly still do to a degree) and this book would have been right there in that list. I downloaded this one for free or next to nothing on my kindle some time ago and decided to pick it up. I was rather shocked at this book, I understand that this is a wild animal book along the lines of The Warriors by Erin Hunter, it was an unbelievably violent book for young readers. Nearly every chapter was filled with some kind of attack or blood shed and it is rather graphic in the description of those events as well. It was fine for me to read but I would be hesitant to hand this book to a middle grader reader (the target audience) unless I knew they could handle the content. With that said this still a wonderfully constructed fantasy world, you almost don't notice the world building, it is so well integrated into the story. You also connect with the characters even though they are equine in nature. The underlying message throughout the book about the gray area with what is right and wrong and the greed for power is a very powerful one. I really do think this is a great book just not entirely appropriate for the target audience.
 
My Rating: I am having a really hard time rating this book, I would give it a high rating for my own reading enjoyment and the quality of writing but then it not in anyway appropriate for the target audience.  In the end I am giving it a rating of Three Paws.

2 comments:

  1. Well, hey, I'm an adult and it sounds good. So I guess it would be ok for me to read. It's too bad about the violence though. I hate when books are too mature for the target audience.

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    1. It was okay as an adult, it was just shocking to read when you have a middle grade audience in mind. It was a great adventure story and had some unique ideas.

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