Jo's Reviews > Behemoth

Please Note: This review will contain mild spoilers for Leviathan so if you know want to know zilch avert your eyes please.


“Do I look like a ninny?” she asked Alek.
“You do indeed, Mr Sharp.”

Initial Final Page Thoughts.
I’m not supposed to be buying any more books until after Christmas... *bites nails* but this series is just too good. It would be a crime not to buy the final book, wouldn’t it?
WOULDN’T IT?!

High Points.
Ninnies. Dummkopfs. Mr Sharp. Beasties. Bovril. Lilit. Costanipole Istanbul. Libraries. Hotels. Taxis. Spices. Dress uniforms. Perspicacious. Elephants. The best love triangle since Green Wing. The illustrations that just get better and better.

Low Points.
There were a few points in this story that I got a bit lost with what was actually happening. This has absolutely nothing to do with Mr Westerfeld’s writing…. just my small brain.
All the plotting and the attacking and the whatnot….some of it went over my head. But I still enjoyed it immensely.

Hero.
OK, Alek.
I’m going to spend some more time with you because I’ve been feeling guilty about overlooking you in my Leviathan review.
You are so sweet and so goodhearted and so loyal and so sensitive and so completely oblivious
So sweet and goodhearted and so completely oblivious to everything ever.
But that’s what I love about you. You’re so sensitive and honest and true and I love that even though you’re jealous of Deryn’s Dylan’s boyish ways (and good looks ;-) ), you never pretend to be anything you’re not.
It would be at this point where I’d be a bit nervous about what will happen when…. Y’know… you find out about Mr Sharp, but I’m not.
Because I think (pleasepleaseplease) that you’ll handle it like you have handled everything else: with tact, intelligence and by just being a little sweetheart that I just want to cuddle.

Heroine.
I think I’ve said everything that I want to say about Deryn in my Leviathan review and my love for this lady has not changed one squick.
If anything my love has been multiplied from this book.

I would pay infinite amounts of money for Mr Westerfeld, Mr Ness and Mr Pullman to meet up and put their brilliant brains together and write a series of stories where Deryn, Viola and Lyra go on adventures across the world.
I swear if that ever happened I would be the happiest girl in the world.
Every now and again they could give Alek, Todd and Will a chapter where they just sit and talk about how fantastic their better halves are. You know… crack a few jokes or something.
Can you imagine how much fun Pan and Bovril would have together, too?!
And um… Manchee, too.

Lilit.
This girl needs a medal and a high-five for creating the only YA love triangle that didn’t make me want to lunge wildly at people screaming “HOW MANY NORMAL TEENAGERS ARE INVOLVED IN A LOVE TRIANGLE ON A DAY-TO-DAY BASIS?!!!??!?!?”
Lilit was ace.
And if I didn’t love Alek so much I would be quite happy with that development. ;-)

Theme Tune.
Considering I’ve been listening to Christmas songs non-stop over the past few days… I haven’t really come up with a suitable song for this.
So I’ll choose

Big Girls Don't Cry by Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons.

For Deryn.
I know, I know Leviathan’s song was for her too. I’ll try and pick one for Alek in my Goliath review.

Sadness Scale.
6/10.
I swear if Alek doesn’t react in the way I hope he’s going to act in the next book I’m gonna throw him to Tazza.
Or at least lock him in a room with Volger so he can get glared at disapprovingly until he sees sense.

Recommended For.
People who love continued brilliance in a YA series. People who turn “dead girly” when they think of Austro-Hungarian princes. People who think their library system is complicated. People who hate it when fabricated animals tell your secrets to people. People who feel that the word “ninny” just isn’t strong enough sometimes. Girls who refuse to let some stuck-up prince outlast them in holding their position in fencing training.