Sunday 29 August 2010

Book Review - Capt Hook: The Adventures of a Notorious Youth

Synopsis
Arriving at Eton amongst the blue-blooded students, James Matthew is different from his peers in style and presence, yet determined to make a name for himself. The school is divided into two groups: The Collegers - the upper class bullies and The Oppidans - who get tormented by the former. James is instantly put into the Oppidan category, but soon turns the tables on others. Paired up with a fellow student, whom he nicknames 'Jolly Roger' he takes on a dangerous persona that precedes him throughout his school years and beyond when he decides to set sail on a ship with a dangerous crew to points unknown. Turning the tables on the bullies and seeing the world in a whole new perspective carries him to places outside reality.




My Review
I was really looking forward to this book, I love all things Peter Pan and Captain Hook, so i htought this would be a treat, so I sat down to enjoy a good read, however within the first 30 pages i was bored, I hate giving up on books though so tried to persevere, I got to page 75 and was still bored out of my mind and frustrated. I then began to skim read for the next 20 pages and by only reading 4/5 sentences on each page i could still tell exactly what was going on, the problem was i still didn't care. I then began to skip ahead Chapters, and I could still figure out the story line, but couldn't make myself care, so in the end I have to confess, I just gave up, put it down and picked up my next book. The writing was very old fashioned, which I don't have a problem with as I read a lot of classics and older books and  am fine with it there, but in this book, it just sounded like they were trying too hard and wanted to be posh. The story seemed silly to me - James (Capt Hook) doesn't have red blood but yellow, which causes panic in all his fellow students, and pupils can dish out punishment like whippings to other pupils and there was no mention of teachers knowing about it or stopping it, even when the screams rang through the hallways. I was just very bored and couldn't make myself get into it. Very disappointing

My Rating
I would give this book 0.5/10 half a point for illustrations, the cover is attractive and some pictures inside.

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