10.12.2007

REVIEW: 100 Cupboards by N.D. Wilson

I’ve been soooooo happy with my reading lately. It seemed I hit a dry spell for awhile, and I just wasn’t enjoying anything I opened up. I’m glad to report that this is not the case anymore.

First up was 100 Cupboards by N.D. Wilson. I’ll admit now that I haven’t read Leepike Ridge yet. However, nearly every review I’ve read of 100 Cupboards so far has said that it’s good…but not as good as Leepike Ridge. Which is great news because I really liked 100 Cupboards. So I’m sure I’ll love Leepike Ridge!

This is just the perfect boy book. The cover (of the ARC, anyway) is all dark and mysterious and foreboding; I adore the cover. The plot is fast-moving and interesting. The antagonist is appropriately creepy and evil. The descriptions of the different worlds are thorough – I got a real sense of place. There’s some clever dialogue and some really cool characters (the cats!). The length is good too. See? Good multiple-world fantasy doesn’t have to be 500 pages!

That said, there are some problems. There are plot holes all over the place (i.e. there wasn’t a better solution to closing off the cupboards than plaster?!) and the character development is not nearly what it could or should be. I didn’t emotionally connect with anyone or anything in the book.

But I’m being nitpicky by pointing these things out because the kids that are looking for a fun and fast read most likely won’t care about these things. This is the fantasy book for kids who don’t like fantasy. Or for those kids who do like fantasy, but need to give their little muscles a rest from the thick tomes they normally lug around.

Check out N.D. Wilson's website, in particular his hilarious bio where he shares with us that he was born to "a couple of Jesus People hippies" and that "not everything I write is for children, but all of it is childish." I sense a crush developing...

COMING UP: My Miss Spitfire review and some other stuff.

2 comments:

Erin said...

Glad you liked it! I thought it was quite a bit different from Leepike Ridge, yet with the same feel to the writing style.

Anonymous said...

Good Job! :)