City of Masks by Mary HoffmanMy rating: 3 of 5 stars
I had this book in my classroom library for years. I always thought it looked good. I don't think any of my students ever finished it, but I thought maybe it matched my taste more than theirs.
Not really. Took me 3 months to push through it. :(
I'll say that the last 60-80 pages are very good. *That* book is a 5. But the first 250+ pages don't go anywhere. If you asked me every 50 pages or so what I thought the main conflict of the story was, I'd have a different answer each time. I don't think the author had settled on one.
I don't mind that the characters aren't super round or dynamic, as this is meant to be an entertaining middle grade or YA novel focused on setting and adventure, not character, but I wish I had liked them a little more. The Duchessa is not sympathetic at all. And Lucien doesn't seem to have any purpose. The cool idea of him traveling from modern England to a medieval sort-of Venice is very cool, but until the end of the book it hardly seems to matter at all.
It must get better in the numerous sequels. We start to have movement and opposition and stakes, so maybe that carries through in book 2 and 3, etc.
I probably won't ever know. Putting it back in the bookshelf for tutoring students.
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