Alex Zangeneh Azam Zangeneh Azam من عند Kržava, صربيا من عند Kržava, صربيا

I hope that Donohue writes more novels after this one because if they are as unique and well-written as The Stolen Child I will be first in line to read them. With The Stolen Child being his first novel Donohue definitely does not burst quietly on to the scene. The only problem he may encounter for any future novels is that he now has set the bar pretty high for himself now. A problem not uncommon in the writing world. What drew me to this book was the unique storyline and I was not disappointed. Plot, characters, writing, you name it, were all fully developed and interesting. You find yourself drawn to both Henry's and liking them both equally, which was another thing I liked about the book, it didn't force you to choose one over the other. At times the book did drag a bit, parts seemingly forced in to create a bridge between plot points or something. At least those bits weren't that long and I still wanted to continue reading. The most remarkable thing about the novel were the changelings themselves. Trapped in the unaging bodies of children, they often act like kids, mischeivous, playful, but they also spoke and acted like adults, conversing sometimes like a group of people you would expect to find in wheelchairs at a nearby rest home. The combination was perfect, never seemed forced and always believable. Had it not been that way, I think the novel would have been awful. But it wasn't, so yay! It was a good read. If you like folk lore and Lord of the Flies you'll more than likely like this book. Even if you don't like either I'd still suggest checking this book out, you may surprise yourself.

I only read part I. Part II? Un-freaking-readable. So bad. So bad.

I was expecting a lot out of this book since it’s always had a lot of publicity. It was a real let down, I got almost nothing out of it. I was expecting much richer and interesting historical detail. When compared to The King’s Grace by Anne Smith (set in the generation before King Henry Vll) that I read the year before or even what I remember of Doomed Queen Anne by Carolyn Meyer read years ago it does a poor job of portraying the time period, which is more of a shame since historical fiction is my favorite genre. It seems to me the whole storyline and plot was just flat which doesn’t make any sense. Which brings me to the writing. It wasn’t horrible, it didn’t annoy me or anything but I just didn’t enjoy it like most writing. The suspense should have been more built up and executed (haha) with more drama. The voice was unmoving and weak, while there was almost no narrative. What I’d like to know is does anyone think there's much better Philippa Gregory novel that I should give a second chance? It'd have to be much better, but I knower authors sometimes have hits and misses or write books that are just very different from each other. She seems popular enough and I do love the genre so if you think she does have other higher quality books let me know.