Another Faust by Dina & Daniel Nayeri 2009 Rating: 3.5/5
IQ "Teaching her was like excavating the library of Alexandria-you didn't have anything to add, only hoped to discover what was already there, hidden under a sea." pg. 195
Another Faust wasn't as great as I expected it to be. The premise sounded really good, but something just fell flat for me. The characters were generally well-developed and you learned a lot about their personalities. But at the same time, something felt a bit off. I didn't love any of them, I disliked who I was supposed to dislike, but I wasn't rooting for everything to turn out ok.
The redoing of the Faust baragain was interesting (I never knew what that was until this book came out). It did make me wonder what I would give my soul up for? Nothing that I can think of at the moment (perhaps more time to do what I love or beauty). Tthe childen give theirs up for beauty, brains, athletics and writing. It was sad though how their gifts affected the children and they didn't even realize how it made them awful people and they hurt those they loved (although some did learn this at the end). The writing was excellent for the most part, a few bits and pieces could have been better explained (especially the ending scene). I liked reading about the side effects of all the children's gifts and trying to guess what would happen next, although I felt a bit detached from it all. I didn't always understand the beginning parts of each chapter that started with excerpts and conversations, I'm presuming they were examples of the Faustian baragin throughout history. I wish the authors had explained where the quotes came from.
I'm eager to read the next book in the series, Another Pan because I love the concept of the series and I think the authors' writing style is really good. I also love this cover. It's what first drew my eye to the book. High school and up.The authors were born in Iran and I really wanted to read this book so I made it an off-color review (these will be rare).
*Note: No new books this week and generally, when I'm away from the blog for long periods of time assume it's school related.
I really wanted to read this book, it sounds good.
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I loved the cover of this book!
ReplyDeleteI just wanted to let you know that I gave you an award over at my blog! http://hookedonyabooks.blogspot.com/2009/11/bunch-of-awards-d.html
oh man I remember this book! I thought it was a lot of fun, personally, the whole powers thing being called cheating, lying, etc. Yeah, the characters were kind of distant, and I'm not fond of the ending, but I still really enjoyed the novel, mostly, like you, for how the powers affect them so much. It made me curious enough to want to try reading the original Goethe's Faust play, at the very least. Can't wait for the sequel! =D
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