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DOUBLE FEATURE
Reviewing book two in the Keys of Candor series, Sea of Souls, by Casey Eanes and Seth Ervin.
Hey there guys, tonight I am doing a special double feature plus a special treat on our Facebook page.
By double feature I mean that this is the review for the last two chapters of the book. The review has actually been done for a while but blogger has been really wonky lately and the scheduled post didn't work so I didn't realize this was so late. Sorry about that.
This is really exciting and bittersweet so lets hop to it!
~~~~~~Double the usual amount of time later~~~~
First I will do the usual hot topics and my personal responses, the more "professional" angle will be further down.
"Son of a.." What? Son of a what, Willyn? Do tell me where you were going with that. Son of a Queen who tried to helped you guys? Hmm.. It's such a shame that she was interrupted right there. I really wanted to know where she was taking that.
*Insert innocent smile*
Aft? Whats an Aft? *googles* Oh, look at this new found knowledge!
The difference between aft and stern is that aft is the inside (onboard) rearmost part of the vessel, while stern refers to the outside (offboard) rearmost part of the vessel.
Obviously the Rooks aren't a ship but they are some type of machine. I would actually be very interested in seeing a design for them.
Moving on!
The young feller that came to get Willyn is gonna die. Its bound to happen. The authors have added another heart wrench and his name is Mundi. Such a sweet and dedicated Grogan with a promising life- Oh wait. Never mind. He is dead. Sometimes being right hurts.
Luken.. Sweety, be strong. I do hope we hear more about that torture though. Haha no.. um, everyone knows I like a good torture scene but I am glad we didn't have one for Luken. I feel like if Seth and Casey really wanted to they could make a gruesome and cringe worthy torture scene and that would have been wayyy too many feels in 2 chapters.
Okay, this next part was probably my favorite.
Best. Mom. Ever.
"When I see you next, my son, it will be in a coffin!" I love it. The queen is one hard core woman and I respect her so much!! That is just the coolest thing. Put her in charge of Candor! Heck, can she lead America? Aleigha 2016!!!
Alright... Things got serious.
That's just cruel. Making Kull kill his dad in a way where he wont even remember its just... Literary beauty and emotional carnage.
Luken saved Willyn... can we just take a moment to squeal about that!!!! I think the proper fangirl text terminology is "asdfskmnejkdlsk!!!!!!!!" which basically means "The feelings I am getting from this is preventing me from functioning properly." That is a huge honor to make me fangirl. (Note* fangirl is more or less a universal term and not entirely gender strict. It is not excluding other guys from being fans it is just stating that fanning does not sound appropriate so we use fangirl.)
That was a really sweet and well delivered scene that proved this ship might sail.
Okay.. Once again I got to be right!! I was thrilled, confused and disappointed.
Hagan was not real. That was a shameful moment even for the reader. I kept trying to find the right word for the emotions that could be felt while reading and I bounced between embarrassment and a "face-palm" moment but in the end it went further than a mistake or a comical error. It was shame, she screwed up so bad that it probably can't be easily fixed.
Isphet, or Maet or whatever was going on there, is something else. Personally I find that show of power and devious if not down right deceitful nature to be majorly compelling.
(TL;DR= His attitude is hot.)
Okay major spoiler alert!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Kull is the all important Keeper! The main protagonist has been identified! Notify the press, wrangle the paparazzi, we need coverage on that young man right now!
Let be honest though, he always screamed main protagonist. It isn't a shocking development it is just the final satisfaction of knowing the truth, what we all believed. Kull is the Keeper.
That is all of the bullet points that I noticed so now we move onto the overall progress this book has made in relation to the story.
This installment answered a lot of questions about the plot but for each one it answered we got at least two more. However this time around there wasn't a lull in excitement that The Red Deaths had a little of. The story was very fluid and did a wonderful job of linking one tragedy to the next.
Once again one of the most unique parts about this book was successful and that would be the multiple Points Of View that were being delivered. I think that over all there were at least 11 POV's that all had to make their voices heard and I still think it is one of the best qualities of this book. It is so rare to see this done properly and Seth and Casey have this form of story telling down pat.
Now I don't want you to think I am just telling you all the good things about this book, there were some flaws from my perspective.
There were a few typo's and minor errors but this book was written by humans so that's to be expected. My biggest problem with this book was the sudden discovery of cuss words at the end.
They never actually said many of the words they just led up to them. I had a problem with this because I personally don't like cussing. I don't think it is an effective way to communicate. My favorite statement on it is actually from another YA book that read many years ago. I think it was called Lion Boy by Zizou Corder and the MC in that book said something to the affect of,
"If I feel that strong about something then no amount of curse words will convey my feelings." Now I mind you that I am heavily paraphrasing and conveying what a certain paragraph in that book meant to me. I will have to go rent that series again sometime so that I can find the exact quote.. Either way, cursing to me is a no-no so its not a flaw with the book just a difference in opinions.
Back to singing the praises, One of the best subtle details in this book was the timing of which they revealed information. It doesn't all happen at once so it you aren't overwhelmed with information. Its a nice balance of timely info explosions that keep the read fast paced and full of suspense. I do not recommend reading only a chapter a day haha.
Obviously the Rooks aren't a ship but they are some type of machine. I would actually be very interested in seeing a design for them.
Moving on!
The young feller that came to get Willyn is gonna die. Its bound to happen. The authors have added another heart wrench and his name is Mundi. Such a sweet and dedicated Grogan with a promising life- Oh wait. Never mind. He is dead. Sometimes being right hurts.
Luken.. Sweety, be strong. I do hope we hear more about that torture though. Haha no.. um, everyone knows I like a good torture scene but I am glad we didn't have one for Luken. I feel like if Seth and Casey really wanted to they could make a gruesome and cringe worthy torture scene and that would have been wayyy too many feels in 2 chapters.
Okay, this next part was probably my favorite.
Best. Mom. Ever.
"When I see you next, my son, it will be in a coffin!" I love it. The queen is one hard core woman and I respect her so much!! That is just the coolest thing. Put her in charge of Candor! Heck, can she lead America? Aleigha 2016!!!
Alright... Things got serious.
That's just cruel. Making Kull kill his dad in a way where he wont even remember its just... Literary beauty and emotional carnage.
Luken saved Willyn... can we just take a moment to squeal about that!!!! I think the proper fangirl text terminology is "asdfskmnejkdlsk!!!!!!!!" which basically means "The feelings I am getting from this is preventing me from functioning properly." That is a huge honor to make me fangirl. (Note* fangirl is more or less a universal term and not entirely gender strict. It is not excluding other guys from being fans it is just stating that fanning does not sound appropriate so we use fangirl.)
That was a really sweet and well delivered scene that proved this ship might sail.
Okay.. Once again I got to be right!! I was thrilled, confused and disappointed.
Hagan was not real. That was a shameful moment even for the reader. I kept trying to find the right word for the emotions that could be felt while reading and I bounced between embarrassment and a "face-palm" moment but in the end it went further than a mistake or a comical error. It was shame, she screwed up so bad that it probably can't be easily fixed.
Isphet, or Maet or whatever was going on there, is something else. Personally I find that show of power and devious if not down right deceitful nature to be majorly compelling.
(TL;DR= His attitude is hot.)
Okay major spoiler alert!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Kull is the all important Keeper! The main protagonist has been identified! Notify the press, wrangle the paparazzi, we need coverage on that young man right now!
Let be honest though, he always screamed main protagonist. It isn't a shocking development it is just the final satisfaction of knowing the truth, what we all believed. Kull is the Keeper.
That is all of the bullet points that I noticed so now we move onto the overall progress this book has made in relation to the story.
This installment answered a lot of questions about the plot but for each one it answered we got at least two more. However this time around there wasn't a lull in excitement that The Red Deaths had a little of. The story was very fluid and did a wonderful job of linking one tragedy to the next.
Once again one of the most unique parts about this book was successful and that would be the multiple Points Of View that were being delivered. I think that over all there were at least 11 POV's that all had to make their voices heard and I still think it is one of the best qualities of this book. It is so rare to see this done properly and Seth and Casey have this form of story telling down pat.
Now I don't want you to think I am just telling you all the good things about this book, there were some flaws from my perspective.
There were a few typo's and minor errors but this book was written by humans so that's to be expected. My biggest problem with this book was the sudden discovery of cuss words at the end.
They never actually said many of the words they just led up to them. I had a problem with this because I personally don't like cussing. I don't think it is an effective way to communicate. My favorite statement on it is actually from another YA book that read many years ago. I think it was called Lion Boy by Zizou Corder and the MC in that book said something to the affect of,
"If I feel that strong about something then no amount of curse words will convey my feelings." Now I mind you that I am heavily paraphrasing and conveying what a certain paragraph in that book meant to me. I will have to go rent that series again sometime so that I can find the exact quote.. Either way, cursing to me is a no-no so its not a flaw with the book just a difference in opinions.
Back to singing the praises, One of the best subtle details in this book was the timing of which they revealed information. It doesn't all happen at once so it you aren't overwhelmed with information. Its a nice balance of timely info explosions that keep the read fast paced and full of suspense. I do not recommend reading only a chapter a day haha.
Overall Sea of Souls has been a thrilling journey through Candor. We have explored emotions and stereotypes that have remained untouched and/or unchallenged in YA fiction until now and we have learned so many new words.
The tides have finally turned as we look forward to the next/last? installment entitled... Dominion's End.
Just a little side note, I love the titles for all of the books. Usually every series is like "The.." this and "The.." that and it gets really annoying to say and type that word so many times. Keys of Candor has given me a lovely break from that.
With this I sign off for the last time about book two in the Keys of Candor series, Sea of Souls.
Goodbye.
~Aki Ame Okami
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