Serafina and the Black Cloak

Serafina and the Black Cloak by Robert Beatty is a junior fiction book that was very well written. It is about a young girl who is never seen by anyone. She is a "creature of the night" and hunts rats in Baltmore Mansion in Virginia in the late 1800's. Serafina is a smart girl and has really never been seen in by the household staff or the Mr. and Miss. who own the manor.

It isn't until one night after her father--the houses machinist--goes to sleep behind the boiler down in the basement (no one knows he lives down there after his duties are done), she sees a mysterious cloaked figure chasing down one of the children of a visitor of the manor. The child becomes enveloped by this cloaked man and disappears. She later finds out that more children have gone missing without a trace. Serafina has to help find them even though no one believes her beside her one new friend and his trusted dog. 

Overall, it is a fair book, written well, with believable characters. There are some instances of cheesy-ness, but I think that may have to do with its originally intended audience (approximately ten year olds). Things get wrapped up neatly and everything is made out fine. Even when her cover is blown and the adults of the house find out she has been living in the house for her whole life, the don't seem to mind... That is a bit bothersome. 

I will say though that unlike many of the other junior fiction I've read, this has a lot more adult conversation and presence than most. Though many of the adults are faceless and they are clumped up together, there is a lot more dialog from them that Serafina overhears. 

Like most younger fiction, the few people she does tell about this black cloaked man don't believe her or don't believe her suspicions about the person she believes he is. She is all on her own to save the day. I, personally, don't really care too much for this. She does get a help from an unexpected source, the the reasoning behind this source was more fantastic (full of fantasy elements) than was hinted at. I think there needed to be a little more foreshadowing on the "creature of the night" that she is instead of the quick wrap up that left me hanging more than I wanted to. We believe these characters talk afterward and more of an explanation is given, but we, the reader, don't get that. Foreshadowing or flashes to another POV or some type of mythology about these "creatures of the night" would have been more helpful and more believable to me. 

Serafina as a character I thought was intriguing, though some of the other characters seemed faceless to me (as well as a lack of description in the setting).  There was a lot of third person narrative from her viewpoint and her thought process which was done well and accurately. 

I probably won't pick it up to read it again. I may recommend it to younger kids, but not very many adults even though it has an interesting concept. 

Red Queen

The Red Queen by Victoria Aveyard is a quick read. It is a Young Adult book that follows the love-triangle/maybe-a-third-person-likes-her-in-a-romantic-way kind of book. Though I felt kind of cheated. Mare is supposed to be torn between two worlds: the Reds (people who don't have super powers and have red blood) and the Silvers (people who do have super powers and, you guessed it, bleed silver), torn between the life she knew of poverty and practically slavery, and finding out that not all Silvers are bad people. She is told that anyone, especially in this political agenda filled noble class, could betray her, but she doesn't get the hint. Mare falls, literally, into a bad situation and in order for the nobility to cover their own skims, make her a princess so they can watch her and make sure she doesn't do anything stupid. Little do they know, she has already joined the rebels, the Scarlet Guard, and now she's forcefully and accidentally walked into the middle of the political games.

While it was an interesting concept, I felt kind of jipped (though it is a debut novel, so I'll give it some slack). Most of the time there is a running theme in a novel, a small one but something that will want to make the reader better. Something like "trust" or even the cliche "love wins out" or something. The only theme I was able to catch was "watch your back because betrayal is everywhere" which is more than a little disappointing.

The other big problem I have with this is why do they actually like her? Because she's a curiosity? Because she's pretty? Because she's witty? I didn't get the feeling from any of the guys--except maybe Kilorn who was a childhood friend and knew her forever--actually had fallen madly in love with her. They have their "oh, cute" scene, but they never actually even complimented her or bantered back and forth or anything. It was a "love at first sight" that I'm not buying. One of the boys is supposed to love her so much that he'd choose her over his father and country, but I saw no reason why he would actually do that. The progression of any love between them was not developed well.

Although I wouldn't call her a damsel in distress because she can be a sneaky thief and can get away from guards and, once she's trained a little, is able to handle lightening pretty well, she still seems like everyone needs to save her. She even comments on it herself in the later end of the book when she does something really stupid thinking it will help and it doesn't--ends up getting someone(s) killed. All she does to help her people, help her friends, only ends up getting people hurt. Again, she comments on this. It could just be that she is in a bad situation and she is really over her head, but still. A girl can get a few things right, whereas Mare seems to get most things wrong. Mare's big emotion motivator seems to be anger. She's angry at everything almost all the time, which is kind of a turn off for me. Anger and "Must. Help. Everyone!" (which she fails at often enough).

The book was also fairly predictable in my opinion. Though I should have gotten the major plot point and twist, but didn't, many of the other little things that happen, I saw coming. (Again, debut novel, I get it.)

And lastly I felt like things went too quickly. We get one lesson of Protocol, one lesson with Julian, one Training session, on dance lesson, brief moments at balls when things go wrong, and quick fight scenes (the final battle at the end was well done though--except I predicted what was going to happen). I feel like Aveyard could have elongated it a little bit to give us more of this world and the people more than just the love interests. I would have loved to get to know the King more. I guess the biggest thing to help this book out would have been to not stick  solely in Mare's mind but venture out to other characters. While we get a good idea about what is going on in their heads because Mar is perceptive, I feel more could have been added that would have helped character development and world/society building that this was lacking.

Over all, I'll probably read the next few that are supposed to come out, this is the first of four, because I am interested in this world and I know there can be a lot of progress in her writing style. I do also like the characters and want to get to know them more. The more you write, the more you learn, the better you become. I will give her other ones a shot.