Serafina and the Black Cloak - book review

 Wow, I am actually posting regularly. This is my sixth book review in a row (wow) and I'm actually keeping track of all my homework (wow) and I manage to live a little at the same time (wow). I have also used the word wow four times in the past two sentences. I think my mom gave me Serafina and the Black Cloak because the synopsis was so interesting, and I thought it was too. Unfortunately, the synopsis is rather different to the book's actual plot.

Okay, so I was super thrilled to read this at first. It sounded like historical fiction mixed with urban fantasy and a touch of horror, so naturally, going in, I was pretty excited. But midway through the book, my expectations started to decrease.

This book tries to be horror. It tries to give me nightmares and have me looking around in the shadows for someone there. But it doesn't succeed. I doubt that I would have been scared of this even when I was seven. I can't understand the idea that this is a bestseller. 

I think my main problem with Serafina and the Black Cloak was Serafina herself, and how she interacts with the things around her. When we are introduced to the first action sequence, Serafina squeezes herself into a machine. Even though machines were noticeably bigger in those days and Serafina is tiny, I doubt she would have been able to do that. I doubt my two-year-old brother would have been able to do that without leaving any evidence or breaking the machine. Another thing - in one scene she is calling horses "hoof-stompers" as if she has to make up names for them, and the next she is telling us she reads books, and not just any books, but classics. I have a hard time reading classics, and I'm pretty well-read in English. Seriously.

How does she does all this crazy fighting with a lion and a man with her tiny frame and malformed bones, anyway?

(Also how has she never made friends with Braeden before, or when he arrived? And anyway, it's kind of hard to hide a growing child in a basement for TWELVE YEARS. TWELVE YEARS).

The synopsis hints to something about the forest, but we never really explore it that much. Sure, we get a great quote out of it, (Our character is not defined by the battles we win or lose, but the battles we dare to fight) but there's no explanation as to if it's a magical forest, what creatures live there, etcetera. 

Also the thing about Serafina being a creature of the night, and how everyone thinks a creature of the night is evil. Ugh. Stereotypes. Again. I thought maybe Serafina proving that a creature of the night doesn't have to be bad would be cool, but no, she literally thinks that she might be evil for a bit. Why does dark always have to be villainous, and light good? In the end, the Black Cloak is literally black, and nobody associates black with light. So it doesn't change the fact that black is evil. If I wrote Serafina and the Black Cloak, I would have changed it to Serafina and the Grey Cloak. Or Rainbow Cloak. Or Sparkly Cloak. 

I still read it every once in a while, and I definitely liked this better than Secrets of a Sun King. But I'm still giving two-and-a-half stars to this book.