Review-Earthbound

I was browsing the shelves of ARCs at a local indie store and came across this book, and I decided that I would give it a shot. Having never read any of her other books, especially her other magical series, I was not sure what I was getting into when I started this book.  What I found was a very complicated story, and while I'm in awe at all of the little details she managed to connect and the strings she brought together I'm...confused.  It was a wholly original story, and for that I applaud her, the plot was so intricate that I think my brain would have broken trying to come up with it, because lord knows it almost broke trying to keep up with it.  It took about 250 pages (out of 340 ish) to finally know what specific creature the book was about (ie vampires, werewolves, fairies, ect), and for most of those pages I was thinking "the only thing I can think of is fairies.  Cause she did a series about fairies, right?  And the cover looks kinda fairy-ish" but no, it's not about fairies.  There was also this whole Stone Mason conspiracy theory going on, which I enjoy as much as the next person, don't get me wrong (did anyone else want to go steal the Declaration of Independence to see if there was a code on the back?), and the conspiracy was VERY thorough, it just, it was a lot to take in.  Sometimes an author takes on so much in a book and they pull it off, and sometimes they don't.  While Pike definitely didn't fail at pulling everything off in this book she didn't, in my opinion, hit the bulls-eye.  Despite these things it was an interesting story and I was curious to see how it all played out in the end.  I'll probably pick up the sequel when it comes out, but it's not on the top of my to read list.  If you like Pike's previous series I would think you enjoy this one, and fans of rich story with unexpected twists would do well to give it a shot.  I also hope to pick up Pike's other books in the near future, although I can't promise anything with the crazy number of books I need to read first.

Out July 30, 2013

4/5 dust spirits

*Thanks to Secret Garden Books for providing me with an ARC to read