Holy hell. You mean there's just a whole town of...trolls? In Minnesota? And nobody ever noticed?
It was a little weird reading this book right after Stephen King's On Writing because I found myself counting adverbs. After a nap, however, I got into the story and couldn't put down the book (note the dates). The self-publishing phenomenon, Amanda Hocking, is a decent storyteller and writes dialogue well, but she needs to mature as a writer. I was a little put off by the rushed ending, the overuse of terms like "icy" and "foxy" (thankfully not in the same sentence), and Hocking's tendency to explain people's motives instead of letting actions speak for themselves. For a fantasy novel, the Trylle (troll) world isn't well-developed; with a few modifications, zombies or vampires could easily have been substituted for the trolls. Finally, although the main character, Wendy, has a backbone, I found her to be very selfish and spoiled.
In sum, I won't continue the series or watch the movie, but the quote above is priceless.
Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
Dates: 4-5 Feb 2012
