Title: The Eye of the Crystal Ball
Author: T.P. Boje
Format: Paperback 387 pages
Authors Website: www.tpboje.blogspot.com
Summary
When Sara was newborn her parents left her at the doorstep at Mr. and Mrs. Schneider’s house.
When Sara was ten she discovered she was telekinetic. She began to move stuff around when she got angry just by her will alone.
When Sara was twelve her real parents came for her and took her with them to live like the Gypsy that she was – or Romani as they. like to call themselves. They told her she was going to fulfill a prophesy. That it was once said that out of the Romani people the greatest sorceress who had ever lived would be born. When Sara was thirteen she had a baby brother and when she was fourteen he got very sick with a strange illness. To save her baby-brother Sara sets off on a quest to find his cure – well knowing that it will cost her dearly. Soon Sara finds herself going through the Singing Cave, crossing Wild Witches Valley, talking to a ten foot giant snail, rescuing the Beads of Souls from the Hell-hounds, escaping a spell in Vamila, the Forest of Vanity, visiting the king at the City of Lights before she finally reaches the Black Castle where she is told the Eye of the Crystal Ball can tell her how to cure her brother’s strange illness.
But nothing is free in this world – and as Sara soon will know – everything has a price.
My Thoughts
I tried really hard to like this book. The Eye Of The Crystal Ball has a great story idea and interesting characters but this book was really hard for me to read. Honestly this book should have taken me an evening to read but it took me MUCH longer then that. I just couldn’t get into it.
The main reason being the spelling and grammatical errors. It was brutal. This book is in desperate need of an editor. The other thing that really bugged me was the way the story was written. In the beginning the story is mostly a narration. It was jumpy and moved really fast. The author just kind of dumped the back story onto the pages without any additional information. You know those movies where the narrator is telling a story, then the characters say two lines and then it jumps back to the narrator? Well it was like that with a complete lack of detail so your just not really sure unless you can see it. This being a book of course you can’t.
One of the things I enjoyed about the book was the authors references and information on the Romani people. I also liked the folklore and myths that the author incorporated into the story. The mythical creatures that the author created were imaginative. They were really unique and at times I found myself wishing that there was more about them and less about the main character. I know that sounds strange but I really felt no connection to the main character Sara whatsoever. You never really get the chance to get in her head and figure out why she does what she does and very rarely do you get a glimpse of how she feels.
The ending was rushed and over far to quickly in comparison to the quest that made up the middle of the book. There was so much build up to the grand finale and the climax well, it just wasn’t. I did however enjoy the fact that the author stayed true to her promise of “everything having a price”. Which gave you an ending that was not typical but was definitely refreshing.
I would recommend this book to a younger reader age 14 or so. With some fine tuning this book could be really great.
Rating: 2 Stars
I was in no way compensated for this review. I was provided a copy of this book free of charge for review but the opinions expressed are 100% my own. Please see the disclosure policy for more information.
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