Tag: dark hills divide

Stargazer by Patrick Carman

stargazer

the Land of Elyon series: book four

genre: children’s. fantasy. christianlit.

The Review

What a surprise! Stargazer is a great end to the Land of Elyon series. I absolutely fell in love with the Dark Hills Divide and was then extremely disappointed in the books that followed. However, Stargazer is so good it almost makes up for the previous three.

Characters:

Alexa is so much more mature in this final book. She is directly responsible for almost every outcome in this story (which was one of my main issues with the previous books) and really comes into her own. We see her do a lot of things in Stargazer that she would never have done in the earlier books. I have a few more comments on this in the spoilers section below.

The other characters are just as well-rounded. The other characters are just as well-rounded. Yipes, Matilda, Marcus, and the ever present cast of animal characters are interesting, unique, and adorable (Grump was one of my favorites even though he barely spoke at all).

Set-Up:

The year between Into the Mist and Stargazer must have been spent doing an extensive amount of writing exercises or something, because Carman’s writing is just that much better! The wording is more mature, more filling, and more entertaining. Stargazer doesn’t feel so much as a children’s book, as a young adult adventure.

However, the ending wasn’t quite as good as the rest of Stargazer. I felt like Carman sort of lost his groove and almost reverted back to the writing of the previous books. I won’t spoil too much, but the final climax felt corny and kind of like a cop-out. It’s also super quick and some long-distance journeys take little to no time at all.

That being said, Stargazer is definitely a great read. Was it worth reading Through the Valley of Thorns , the Tenth City , and Into the Mist ? I’m not so sure, you tell me.

Spoilers below: highlight text block to view

Alexa finding her “home” in the air was something I found to be really satisfying and might have been the best part of the book/series as a whole. It felt right with Thomas and Roland Warvold being masters of the land and sea (respectively) it was fun to see Alexa become the master of the sky.

approx read time: 4 days flat. Loved this one!

Rating: 4 out of 5 Screems™

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Previous book in the series: Into the Mist

Ownership: this series has been donated to my local library!

Links: Author. Goodreads.

Into the Mist by Patrick Carman

into the mist

the Land of Elyon series: prequel

genre: children’s. fantasy. christianlit.

The Review

Technically, this is prequel, but the story is being told to Alexa Daley in between the space of the Tenth City and Stargazer. To me, this is more like the fourth book of the series with really large flashback scenes. It’s set up as a story-within-a-story and takes you to an entirely different kind of tale. Overall, it’s not a bad addition to the Land of Elyon series, but I’m hoping Stargazer really brings it home with a solid ending.

Characters:

The characters for this part of the series are pretty good. Roland and Thomas are both interesting. The brotherly dynamic is a nice touch and makes for relatable interactions throughout the story. Thorn, to me, was the best part of the story. As with the previous three books, I seem to really like the animal characters the best. I just really want a big cat for a friend, okay?

Set-Up:

However, as with the previous two books of this series, I still have problems with the plot. The adventure itself is fun and entertaining, but … I feel bad saying it almost seemed unnecessary. Since I’ve already read the following book, it’s easy to see that Carman wrote this afterwards (or in tandem) so that he could explain what was going to be present in Stargazer. Which is totally fine, but some of it seemed very over the top.

By biggest issue was the idea of these boys experiencing so much responsibility and hardship. I understand the need for characters to “go their own path” and learn on their own, but a lot of things (like literal child abuse) was unnecessary to the story as a whole. There are some other fantasy aspects of the story that are a little ridiculous, but this is targeted from young readers so I can’t really criticize too much here.

Spoilers below: highlight text block to view

There was one other bit of plot in Into the Mist that I found difficult to take. The whole business with the Lost Children was over the top. I loved the idea that Armon was saving them from the reign of Grindall and taking them to safety. But was it really necessary to take them all on a 12 day voyage into the Lonely Sea and then dump them on an uninhabited island? Why couldn’t they have set them up somewhere near the Wakefield House even? Considering how small the Land of Elyon actually is, maybe they would be found easily, but I just don’t think sending 10 year olds out to an abandoned island seems like “saving them.”

approx read time: less than a week

Rating: 3 out of 5 Screems™

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Next book in the series: Stargazer

Previous book in the series: The Tenth City

Ownership: this series as been donated

Links: Author. Goodreads.

The Dark Hills Divide by Patrick Carman

The Dark Hills Divide

the Land of Elyon series: book one

genres: children’s. fantasy. christianlit.

The Review

This is one of my absolute favorite children’s fantasy books. Pretty sure I read this like 25 times. It’s been sitting on my bookshelf for years and I couldn’t resist re-reading. Thoroughly entertaining, The Dark Hills Divide has a little bit of everything a young reader needs: adventure, mystery, secrets, magic, puzzles, and a little bit of rule breaking. The mysteries and puzzles are intriguing enough for anyone to follow and I found the animal magic to be adorable. It’s not an overly-complicated or particularly original story, but it’s fun and that’s good enough for me when it comes to a kid’s book. As an adult, I was hoping for more information on the Land’s background and history, but I’m looking forward to reading the next three books again to fulfill this need!

Characters:

Alexa is a wonderful 12 year old character to follow in her adventures through Bridewell. She’s brave, smart, snarky, and really shines through in this story. I absolutely love that this series is led by such a great female character and there’s no allusion to her needing a male companion. I’m all for girl MCs! The other characters are just as colorful and easily distinguishable — something I sometimes struggle with in children’s books.

Set-up:

Have you seen that cover art? I’m not gonna lie, that was art was 100% why I picked this up as a kid. The writing is very easy to follow — a children’s book through and through. I remember some of the anecdotes or inferred sentences went over my head as a kid, but nothing so complicated that it ruined the story for me. I didn’t notice any typos or missed edits.

Spoilers below: highlight text block to view

The only thing I wish was different about the book was something that happened in the last few pages. [ Both Yipes and Alexa lost their ability to talk to animals! It’s a great way to show maturity and character growth but I thought the animals were such rich characters themselves and I would have liked to hear more from them in the future books.

Additional notes: The Christian aspect to this book is pretty obvious, but I didn’t find it to be overwhelming in any way. It’s certainly worth the read even if this genre addition makes you leery.

approx read time: less than 24 hours (although idk if this is an accurate time considering I blasted through this in one sitting. #SorryNotSorry)

Rating: 5 out of 5 Screems™

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Next book in the series: Beyond the Valley of Thorns

Ownership: I used to own this, but have since donated it to my local library

Author Goodreads