The Children of the King

The Children of the King by Sonya Hartnett

A World War II novel. Hmmm....

An amazon summary, "Cecily and Jeremy have been sent to live with their uncle Peregrine in the English countryside, safe from the war, along with a young refugee named May. But when Cecily and May find two mysterious boys hiding in the ruins of a nearby castle, an extraordinary adventure begins." AMAZON LINK OF JUSTICE

Honestly, after reading this book, it put me off of blogging for a bit. I really hesitated to dislike this book as someone I know well adores this book. But alas, I just cannot agree with them.

As the story unfolds about Cecily and Jeremy, it grapples with the situation with integrity for realism. It wholeheartedly captured a lot of the natural, childish innocence that slowly becomes obliterated by the war.

However, when May is introduced, there's an element of unknown mystery and almost magical realism added.

Then Peregrine starts revealing more about his back story as well as tells a story about a kingdom from old.

The story becomes warped with magic in what was once a starkly realistic setting.

The book did a great job of capturing the war of emotions within children as they're faced with a world-changing situation that they have no direct influence over.....

But it pretty much threw it all away when magic was introduced.

The book didn't really accomplish anything that hasn't been said before and almost belittles the gems of inescapable truths woven throughout the story.

I really struggled to finish the book as I wanted to know how it ended, but the text was hard to get through as the pace of the story horrendously dragged a lot before having bursts of vivid activity.

All in all, I'm really just kind of going 'booooooooooooo' at this book.

Happy reading!