Summary Provided my Goodreads:A modern retelling of the German fairytale "Tristan and Isolde", Tris & Izzie is about a young witch named Izzie who is dating Mark King, the captain of the basketball team and thinks her life is going swimmingly well. Until -- she makes a love potion for her best friend Brangane and then ends up taking it herself accidentally, and falling in love with Tristan, the new guy at school.
I so wanted to love this book. Since I first heard about it I knew that I wanted to read it. The cover was beautiful and a modern retelling of Tristan and Isolde seemed intriguing and promising. I even did a happy dance when I saw it on netgalley. But sadly, Tris & Izzie did not meet my expectations at all. The writing was not good, there were too many inconsistencies and too many things that pissed me off about it. The characters were flat and dull, and the only thing that was from the original story were the names of the characters, and even that didn’t work b/c Tristan’s real name wasn’t even Tristan!!
I don’t want to spend this entire review talking about what I didn’t like, but the writing for me was the worst part. For example, when Izzie and her mom learn that Tris is an orphan and is living on the streets and underpasses, Izzie's mom actually lets him leave her house:
Izzie: Where are you living then?
Tris: On the streets.
Mom: Ok then, well goodnight!
Really? What mother would do that? I just didn’t understand and it really bothered me. Then, the way that Tris and Izzie fell in love, along with the way some other characters got together (no names since I don’t want to give anything away) just didn’t add up. Everything was just so forced that it didn’t make any sense.
I think if the writing was a little better and made more sense, I could have liked the story better. I felt that the premise was there, but the execution just wasn’t right. I enjoyed the magical aspects of the story and liked learning about the background of the magical land where Izzie’s parents and Tris were from.
Overall, I was disappointed with Tris & Izzie. I think maybe younger aged children would enjoy it more because they might not realize all of the inconsistencies throughout it, but even then, it wouldn’t be fair to them to have to read it.
Tris & Izzie is set to be released October 11, 2011 by EgmontUSA.
Oh noes - I have this on my wish-list. I might get it to see if it is suitable to add to the MG books at school. Thank you for the honest review :D
ReplyDeleteI didn't enjoy it either. You're right, a lot of things didn't make sense and for a while there I thought I just wasn't getting it. It almost felt like it was written in a really short time span and never was fleshed out.
ReplyDeleteMy sister and I have this on our TBR list though now that I've read your review, maybe I should put this book off for later. Thanks for the honest review though:)
ReplyDelete-leslie
booksandmakeup.blogspot.com
I couldn't agree more....I was so disappointed with this one.
ReplyDeleteI've read a few similar reviews on this book, so I'll hold off on reading it for now:)
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Tania
I've heard the same things which is really disappointing - before reading the reviews I was thinking that this book had a lot of potential! Great review!
ReplyDeleteBonnie @ HandsAndHome
I've been seeing this book on IMM posts all over the place lately, I'm sure because it was automatically available on Netgalley, but yours is the first review I've read of it. Given how much they seem to be pushing people to read it I'm not that surprised that it isn't very good. But do think it's disappointing because I think it could have been good with such an idea, and the cover is so pretty too.
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