Book Review: Weave A Circle Round by Kari Maaren
I received a review copy from the publisher. This does not affect the contents of my review and all opinions are my own.
Weave A Circle Round by Kari Maaren
Mogsy’s Rating: 2.5 of 5 stars
Genre: Fantasy, Young Adult
Series: Stand Alone
Publisher: Tor (November 28, 2017)
Length: 336 pages
Author Information: Website | Twitter
Weave A Circle Round was a book I’d been really looking forward to, but I realized almost as soon as I picked it up that it was going to be very different from what I had in mind. As a result, I found it to be a difficult read, though to be fair, my struggle with it was not so much in a “this is a terrible book” kind of way, but rather more in the sense that “This isn’t what I signed up for, and I want off this ride.”
And to be honest, this story did feel a little like a roller coaster—albeit a nauseatingly chaotic one which would get bogged down and stuck at times. It follows fourteen-year-old Freddy, an awkward freshman who just wants to get through the next four years of high school without drawing too much attention. At home, she also prefers spending time by herself, making little effort to get to know her stepbrother Roland, who is deaf, or to get involved in her little sister Mel’s interests. Their parents are never around, so the kids are mostly left on their own to take care of themselves.
Then one day, a woman and a teenage boy move into that peculiar house down on Grosvenor Street. There’s only one word that can describe Cuerva Lachance and Josiah: Strange. Impossible things seem to happen whenever they’re around, and nothing they say ever seems to make any sense. True to form, Freddy wants nothing to do with her new neighbors, but to her horror, Josiah turns up at her school the next day, and he’s in all her classes. Suddenly, all her efforts to stay under the radar are going out the window as Josiah seems bent on making a spectacle of himself in front of all the students and teachers while dragging a mortified Freddy along with him. Very soon, it becomes clear that Cuerva Lachance and Josiah are more than just a couple of your typical run-of-the-mill weirdos—they might not even be completely mortal. And for some reason, they seem way too interested in Freddy, Mel, and Roland.
Beyond this, it’s really hard to describe the story without giving away some serious spoilers, so I’ll just leave one more little tiny nugget of detail here: Weave A Circle Round involves time travel. And yet, it’s not really a time travel book—at least in not in any conventional sense. Although we get to travel through a time portal, visiting such places and time periods such as Prehistoric China or Medieval Sweden, at its heart this book is a coming-of-age tale about growing up, accepting yourself, becoming a better person. As such, it wasn’t too surprising to find a lot of YA themes.
That said, my main issue with Weave A Circle Round was the overall juvenile tone of the story, specifically the adolescent voice of the protagonist making this book feel more Middle Grade than Young Adult. By itself, this wouldn’t have been an insurmountable problem, as I actually quite enjoyed the mystery of the earlier chapters. Unfortunately, the childishness combined with the hot mess that was the time traveling sections eventually crushed my interest in the book’s second half. Moreover, the dialogue and antics of Cuerva Lachance and Josiah were so absurd that the characters came across more idiotic than endearing, making them both extremely unlikeable.
Granted, I don’t always do well with “weird” books, and this one really tested my limits in that regard. There was just too much going on, with all these topics ranging from classic English poetry to Norse mythology simply thrown together without much coherence. The book’s themes of chaos vs. order also meant that the plot itself involved a fair bit of confusion, and at times I found it sluggish and hard to follow.
All told, while Weave A Circle Round had a few high points, ultimately it failed to draw me in. I struggled to connect with the story or any of the characters, who either felt way too young or way too weird. Quite honestly, this was just not a book for me, but if you enjoy bizarre or uncanny stories with a lot of imagination and quirk, then you might want to take a look, and hopefully you’ll enjoy it more than I did.
Weirdness has never been a problem for you, at least judging by your past reads, but I understand how too many elements, combined in a chaotic way, and the childish dialogues might have turned you off this story.
Better luck with the next one? 😉
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I’m weird with “weird”, lol! I am not a fan of the overly abstract, but if the author is extremely talented and the writing is really good, sometimes it works!
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Oooh, that’s not promising…
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It was so disappointing!
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I can empathize with you, this book just isn’t working for me at all. I basically stopped reading after the first 10% I think. At this point, with so many other books staring me in the face, it’s a DNF for me, especially with your low rating I don’t see any reason to continue.
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If I didn’t insist on finishing every book I start, I probably would have DNFed this too. Just not the kind of book for me.
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Oh I think I liked it a lot more than you for this one
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I think so! It was just all wrong for my mood, I guess 🙂
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Disappointing books shouldn’t get beautiful covers – it’s too confusing!
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LOL! It’s true, I loooove the cover to this one. Too bad the story itself was disappointing.
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Ah this does sound a bit confusing to be honest, so I get why it was hard to connect- I find that a lot with books that are a bit all over the place tbh. Great review though!
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Based on the tone of the story, I also think I might not be this book’s audience. I hope it’ll resonate more with MG/YA readers though! 🙂
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Ah I can understand that 😉 Yeah hopefully!
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The parents never seem to be around
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One of the most annoying YA tropes ever!
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I actually liked this one – but, it definitely isn’t what I thought I was going to get and it has a decidedly young feel to it – I enjoyed the quirky feel though. Definitely not a book for everyone.
Lynn 😀
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I remember your review, and I did have a feeling that I might have trouble with this one because of your warning about how young it felt. I took a gamble anyway, and while it didn’t work out, I’m glad I gave it a fair shake 🙂
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