Isobelle CarmodyReviews

2nd in the Obernewtyn Series, I liked this better than the first one.

I loved this SO MUCH and the only thing I was sad about was that there wasn't more of the last third of the book; I felt like the first third was so intricately detailed and then by the end it was a wee bit rushed. Not enough to take a star off though!

Banana, anyone?

Love Isobelle Carmody. Would have loved the book a whole lot more if I wasn't dealing with depression right now, because I didn't cotton on going in that I was going to be reading about depression and suicide. OOPS. She still deserves four stars though because it's not her fault I read it at a bad time and as usual her prose was fab and the story all fit together beautifully.

Representation: N/A
Trigger warnings: Imprisonment, near-death experience, fire, death of a person from a weapon shot, disappearance of a person
Score: Seven points out of ten.
This review can also be found on The StoryGraph.

I wanted to read this for a while and when I saw one of the two libraries I regularly go to have this I picked it up and read it. This was again, another piece of Australian literature like the last book I've read but this is different from that though it is, dare I say it, not that original since it reminded me of The Prison Healer by Lynette Noni. The novel starts with the backstory explaining superficially and vaguely I might add about how the world in this story came to be and then it cuts main character Elspeth Gordie or Elspeth for short who has powers that no one knows about yet. Elspeth soon finds herself in a prison called Obernewtyn, hence the title where she stays for most of the book and that part is where the novel slowed its pacing. At least I got to see what living in Obernewtyn was like but the vague worldbuilding dampened my enjoyment and I struggled to connect to any of the characters. There are six more books in the series but I'm not rushing to finish the series.

My copy of Obernewtyn doesn't look like the cover image to the left, mine is of an older printing, but Random House released the first 3 out of print volumes to coincide with the release of books 4-6 back in December of 2008. I like the new covers--they definitely fit the story better.

This first book in the Obernewtyn Chronicles is the shortest--the other five are all above 350 pages with Books 5 and 6 being over 500 pages each--but packs a lot of punch. Unlike with Fall of a Kingdom or Elske, Obernewtyn loves action. How could it not with coups, seditioners, rebellions and teenagers all thrown into the mix? Its not quite a non-stop thrill ride, but it can sometimes feel like it is.

Elspeth grows greatly, she's forced to by the religious zealots of the Council who fear her (and those like her) power, but never the less she grows beyond what I would have expected of her at first. She's definitely a reluctant hero archetype at first; she wants normal, wants to blend in and never noticed so that she can get away. Unfortunately she's too powerful, too untrained and willful to truly be the type of person she needs to be to be considered 'normal'. She tries though. I could feel her struggle to just lay low and let it all pass.

The cast of characters she meets is rather large, but the numbers dwindle as the adventure progresses and plots are made. Some of truly annoying, others I love immensely. I don't want to say who's who, since some of it can be considered a spoiler. Take a guess and I might tell you the truth!

The magic of the world is pretty basic--nothing too hard to grasp or comprehend--the peoples however are diverse and confusing if you don't keep close attention. The book originated from Australia (by an Australian writer) two decades ago. For the first half or so slang terms or idioms not familiar to American make no appearance. Somewhere after the middle though, when Elspeth begins meeting more people like herself and traveling beyond the lands she knows (which aren't that many to begin with) there's a slight shift in the narrative voice. Told from the first person POV of Elspeth throughout, I didn't expect for her 'tone' to change. It did however just enough to make me scratch my head at times.

My only regret is that the book is too short. Even though a lot of my questions are answered in later volumes, I still would have liked immediate gratification. Que Serra!

7/10, like the pencil art.

6.5/10, seems a bit slow paced.

Fascinating. Goodreads says that I read this ten years ago, which I don't remember at all. I guess that says something about the impression it left on me. I hate reviewing old fantasy, because I feel guilty saying that this has been done one hundred times before and better, knowing that Obernewtyn may well have been one of the first instantiations.
Nonetheless, there is nothing original for the modern reader - society got too advanced, set off a nuclear weapon, destroyed society back to medieval times; some people were mutated and therefore have magic (every bone in my geneticist body is twitching to point out how very unrealistic this is in several ways, but I'll defer); one girl is The Special-ist and she Will Save the World with the help of her Magic Cat and the Ruggedly Handsome and Terse, but Ultimately Loving Love Interest. Along the way, we will be "surprised" to know that civilization was destroyed by itself and the nuclear war. Her friends, of course, involve the Boy Who is Super Magic to compensate for his Blindness and The Boy Who Mopes after his Dead Girlfriend, the Very Delicate sacrificial lamb. Sorry, if I want a post-apocalyptic fantasy world with strong, yet loving female characters and brusque but lovable male love interests, I'll go back to reading [a:Sharon Shinn|28544|Sharon Shinn|http://photo.goodreads.com/authors/1218995575p2/28544.jpg]

Well this was an oddly compelling little read.

Despite the lack of character development, or world building, or explanations of mysterious capabilities that people had, I weirdly still enjoyed this. It is quite short so there was definitely room to flesh things out a bit more. And guess what! There are animals that the main character can talk to! Another animal book in my booktalk repertoire.

The obligatory dolphin book in the series!

I love Isobelle Carmody and I adore fairytales - so I really couldn't even imagine turning this book down. But wow. I enjoyed all of the tales but my favourite hands down Eternity by Rosie Borella. It blew me away. The premise was so utterly riveting and it was so well written and it had me glued to the page the entire time - I was devastated at the end. The rest of the tales were fantastic and definitely worth reading if you enjoy fairytales.

This had a folklore/fairytale moral vibe. It was very preachy about the environment and the damage humans are doing. It was a bit strange and kind of depressing. I liked Little Fur though and I may even continue to read the series.

This is a book that I was really looking forward to and it turned out to be a great disappointment. The premise has all the things I like-- a dystopian post-apocalyptic world where science and knowledge has crumbled and people struggle to cobble together an existence, humans discovering their newly-developing supernatural powers, conspiracies and the search for truth, even talking animals... I see so much potential in this series but I was really let down by the author's writing.

One of the cardinal rules of writing is tell, not show. Now, there are plenty of books I've read that break this rule quite a bit and I still enjoyed them but this particular book isn't one of them. Instead of giving us the actual scenes wherein important information is revealed or important conversations occur, we are simply told afterward that this or that happened or so-and-so had a talk and said these things. It meant that there was very little action in the book because we're just given a summary of what happened only after it occurred. This made for such an incredibly frustrating and boring read and I no longer feel interested in the series.

LOVED this book! Scary, but not too scary...

The re-naming common objects thing is very very 80's, and since that isn't in style anymore, dates the book a lot. Other than that it's a decent book, pretty simple, not going to be a lot of surprises here. Aimed at a younger audience.

Not as good as the first in the series. Elspeths "Grand Destiny" is actually rather boring. The plot of the moment suffers because of too much series arc interrpting it. And really, that healing scene.... giant bird hospital in the mountaintops? Too silly. I think they're supposed to be birds of prey, but I can't see them as anything but pigeons, which doesn't help. Disappointed. May not continue unless there's absolutely nothing else to read.

The High Path is a road of sorrow. With all good intentions we are led on a path of sacrifice, hardship and loss only to find that in the end we are left alone in the world, separated from those we love through the choices we have made, and left to face the consequences of an unknown future alone. But even when all is lost the will to go on still remains.

The Way Of The Beast speaks to the darker side of our human natures. Beneath the smiles and kind gestures lurks a darkness that is capable of causing great pain to those we care for through broken promises, crushed dreams and shattered hearts. At times there are no answers, no prays heard, only the darkness and the lost innocence of youth.

The Worldroad teaches life lessons, and while some are able to inspire and bring hope, others maybe learned all too late. It is our choices in life that make us who we are, lead us where we are going and teach us what we need to know. There are no right or wrong paths, only choices that must be made.

Green Monkey Dreams is a beautiful collection of short tales that are full of hope, tragedy and bittersweet moments that haunt you long after their reading. A skilfully written collection of magical tales of the fanciful, the quirky and the everyday. Each story is a doorway to another land, another time or anther reality where everything is at once both new and familiar in just the same way that these stories are at once both unique and timeless.

4.5

It's a bit duller the second time as I know what's going to happen, but I still love this series and can't wait to finally know what happens at the end. This world is so cool and creepy and everything I want it to be.

Reading this the first time it was ny least favourite. Rereading it in full knowledge of what was to come wasn't very enjoyable but it was nice to refresh my memory, though I was surprised at how much I remember.

It probably has to so with the fact that my favourite book, [b:The Keeping Place|47905|The Keeping Place (The Obernewtyn Chronicles, #4)|Isobelle Carmody|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1194379724s/47905.jpg|3268254], coming right before and my favourite character Dragon taking a side line and not being very present after being the focus.

Read this again because Isobelle Carmody has a short-story in it. It's not Obernewtyn related, but I still liked it. Also, I really enjoyed all the stories in here. They're all retelling/fairytale esque stories. Enjoyed them all very much.

Oddly, this book wasn't as enchanting as the second one, A Fox Called Sorrow, was. I found it was less interesting and a lot more of a set-up for the rest of the series. It's probably because it is targeted at a younger audience. I feel like I'm clicking less and less with Middle-Grade books.

The images were stunning though. They were in the same vein as the illustrations in How To Train Your Dragon by Cressida Cowell, except they were a bit more refined.

3.5

Wow, I still don't know what to think! I'm gonna go with 3.5 stars because of all the typos. Most weren't horrible, but a few had me re-reading phrases. And this is so long! I still don't know whether I'm happy or not about that because it was slightly annoying while I read it but at the same time I was dreading the end of the book yet I just wanted to know what happens.

The book did a great job wrapping up all the loose ends from the series prior, but it also did an amazing job at leaving me with more questions. Now I just want a novella about what happens in Eden and another series on Dragon's rule over the Redlands (a nice long one please, maybe 'till the end of her days?). And a novella on what happens to Myrium (though I guess that could be cover in the series on Dragon's rule) and also I want to know if they ever use the beforetime computermachines to build communications between all the lands, and I also want to know where the white-faced lords came from in relation to the Redlands and such. This is what happens when I'm left with an open ending... At least mostly everyone seemed happy enough or at least they got enough closure for whatever they wanted.

This book did Dragon justice though, and that I'm thankful for. She has always been my favourite character and the one I sympathized the most with.

The ending got me and I feel like it was a bit dramatic and unnecessary for Elspeth not to be able to ever come back. Sure, it was a reward, but I think she should have and could have stayed.

I believe that's it.

4.5 This was a slight bit of a repeat of the previous instalment [b:The Farseekers|47906|The Farseekers (The Obernewtyn Chronicles, #2)|Isobelle Carmody|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1312026259s/47906.jpg|3282469]. I also noticed a few flaws I did not the first four times I read and reread this when it was the only Obernewtyn book I owned. Still, one of my favourite of the installments as it sets up well for the events to come in [b:The Keeping Place|47905|The Keeping Place (The Obernewtyn Chronicles, #4)|Isobelle Carmody|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1194379724s/47905.jpg|3268254], which is so far my favourite of all the books. I'm so glad I decided to do this reread of the series instead of just jumping into [b:The Sending|6000352|The Sending (The Obernewtyn Chronicles, #6)|Isobelle Carmody|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1358564866s/6000352.jpg|6175207]. I can't wait to find out more. And poor Dragon, she's one of my favourite characters. That scene makes me sad every time I read it :(.

I honestly love this series. How can I not? This really has everything.

Long, long adventures - much coercion and far seeker with some beastspeaking - too many mind trails but interesting subplot about the beforetime - Elspeth gets to use a bathroom! Even after 1000 pages I am still a bit confused about what the keys are that she needs for her quest (to come in next two books).