On the Edge of the Dark Sea of Darkness

As opinionated as I am, you may be surprised to know that I really don't like being negative. I've avoided writing a review over Andrew Peterson's book, On the Edge of the Dark Sea of Darkness, because I really do respect the author on so many levels. But, like homework you know you haven't finished, this book has been glaring at me all weekend. It's time to just wash myself of this work and move on. My over all grade for this book would be a solid "C-". And here are my critiques.

First of all-the title should have alerted me to the fact that this book may have an unhealthy dose of redundancy. Reading this book was like talking to someone who answers questions with questions and never gets to the point. Constant contradictions made this tale a chore. I was offended by the way the author wasted my time with ridiculous statements such as "That evil was a nameless evil, an evil whose name was Gnag the Nameless." For another example, "The Fangs...looked exactly like humans, except for the greenish scales that covered their bodies and the lizard-like snout and the two long, venomous fangs that jutted downward from their snarling mouths. Also, they had tails." How does that resemble a human?

Every chapter of this book was soaked in sarcasm. So if that's your "cup of tea" this is the book for you. The book was also full of footnotes, which would have been helpful if the footnotes gave real descriptions or pronunciations of the hundreds of made-up words throughout the book. But that would, of course, be too much to ask for from this book. I basically stopped reading footnotes after a few that resembled this: "A handwritten lable on the candle said SNOT WAX.1 1. Snot wax is too repulsive a thing about which to write a proper footnote."

The characters were endearing and I found myself really caring what happened to them. However, one tragedy and trial followed the next and I found myself thinking that I could rescue the characters by just putting the book down! The good news is that I finally found out why the main characters were being pursued and I only had to wait until the LAST CHAPTER to find out! Ha! If I happen to lose some horrible bet or am forced to read the second book in this series, my guess is that more of the same will follow and that if you cut out half of the first and second books you might have one decent story.
With that said, my husband did enjoy this book more than I did. What I found ridiculous and insulting, he found amusing.
To the author's credit, there were moments of beautiful imagery and strong themes of making the most of what you have and protecting family at all costs.

Well, there you go! You have my review, friend.
Read this book at your own risk!

Lesson ideas, should you chose to read the book despite my review, will soon follow.