Review: Silver in the Blood by Jessica Day George

Series: Silver in the Blood

Publication: July 7th 2015 by Bloomsbury

Genre: Young Adult, Fantasy, Historical Fiction

Format: Hardcover, 358 pages

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Dacia and Lou are cousins and best friends who've never known much about their Romanian heritage. Raised in America, they are on their first ever journey to meet their mysterious Romanian relatives. But as they draw closer to Romania, strange things start happening, and they begin to suspect their family of having some terrible secret- suspicions that in no way prepare them for what they learn when they arrive.

Jessica Day George really seems to write for a younger audience, in a way that doesn't translate well to other age groups.The writing very much feels geared toward a more juvenile audience. There's just something simplistic about the way in which the story is told, which was a bit of a weakness in this case. I'm always hesitant about making a comment like this, because books written for younger audiences can absoloutely be enjoyed by adults- it just depends on the story and how it is told. This story is told in a slightly juvenile way, which reduced my engagement.

Moving on to the story. There isn't anything technically wrong with it, its just not interesting to me personally, I'm not sure why. Dacia and Lou go to meet their Romanian family who are more than a little strange. At first the girls have no idea what is going on, of course, and eventually they uncover their magical legacy. The way this story progressed just... didn't intrigue me, the plot structure just dropped off- the flow of the plot didn't work. Sometimes a weak plot can be pulled along by engaging characters, but that wasn't the case in this story.

The thing with Lou and Dacia is they both go through somewhat rapid character changes, and I found myself slightly left behind by how quickly some of those changes happened. I think the main reason for that was mostly because their most fundamental character traits weren't satisfactorily established. If you're going to have some of a character's traits change that rapidly, you have to have a pre-established basis for the sudden change (ex. their values drive them to react a certain way that would seem contradictory to some of their personality traits), if that makes sense. I also definitely found myself enjoying one character point of view more than the other, which is always a risk in dual POV novels.

All that said, I still enjoyed parts of the novel. There were moments of humour that I found myself really enjoying, and there were some aspects of the girls' characters and journeys that did interest me. It was just that a lot of the story and the storytelling didn't keep me engaged. There was no connection there.

Overall, it was alright as a light read, but wasn't terribly impressive as a book. There was nothing about it that will stand out to me when I look back on books that I read this year.

Kelly

I'm a reader and reviewer from Ontario, Canada, which mean that sometimes library trips take place place through a foot or so of snow. I'm going into my third year of university, studying Environmental Sciences, which I juggle with my almost constant reading. I've been blogging at at my own blog since 2012, and I'll be helping Yani out here on Paper Boulevard as a co-blogger.