book review

                                                                          Coriander by Keely Bibeau


About :Plastic dolls, gnomes ,metal deer , fuzzy toy bears,  and figurines. Animated by Moira and her animate soup she can make toys that aren't alive come to life !Not only do they come to life ,they talk ,they eat, they sleep, they have feelings and experience pain .Cori is one of them along with Pj Shaunessy and O'henry they all live in Moiras house .Life for them is keeping an eye on the glass jars filled with figurines that Moira has animated and staying out of trouble while Moira works on her creations. But how does she do it ? There is a creepy side to this tale one with dark twists, betrayals and science you couldn't imagine coming out of a simple book.



What I liked : This book was a cross between toy story and Frankenstein ,fun in the way of imagination and the scope of which the author took this book. The ideas and story line for this book were amazingly  thought up and put together which is why I liked it so much. I have always liked the idea of things that aren't alive coming to life and taking on their own personalities thoughts and feelings . The book has a good flow to it as well I didn't find my self sitting around waiting through ten pages of extra fluff or too dull moments . This book has many surprises and plot twists , I liked that the characters were well defined once they made there debut in the book and I found my self rooting for their successes . I thought from reading the books original description that this book would just be sunshine and rainbows and a little bit of laboratory magic and then that was it . I got much more than that .I have also always been a fan of being able to imagine where a character lives and seeing into their world with the authors description I was able to do that bottle caps for drinking cups ,half of scissors for a weapon a safety pin for a sling shot and old trunk in the attic for a home .I like how realistic this book felt when I read it .


What I didn't like :Starting off the book itself from the beginning kind of just throws you in .At times I didn't know who or what was talking ,where they were what they were .You would get a character talking and no description about what was talking was it a human or a toy .So that made it a bit of a confusing read at the beginning . I would have like a little more something I'm not sure what -added to the beginning of the book before the story started happening. I suppose it almost felt as if you were dropped into the mid beginning of the book not the very beginning if that makes sense.



To wrap it all up : I didn't have any problems with the rest of the book the middle was full of twists and turns you could sink your teeth into and  the end of the book was polished and well rounded which I look for a lot in a story  because cliff hangers and I don't get along .Its a good read for those out there looking for something different than what's out on the shelves right now I feel as though this would satisfy the readers who are being let down by other Frankenstein works or steampunk novels that don't quite hit their mark and yes while this isn't steampunk it felt similar in a way with out the metal cogs and springs .

Age range the audience I'm guessing it was geared toward was maybe more 8-13 but I believe any age from 8 on up could read it.