Today I'm going to review the book: "The Last Princess", by Galaxy Craze.
Info
Title: The Last Princess
Author: Galaxy Craze
Genre: Science Fiction (Dystopian) Year Published: 2012
Audience: Teen Series: 2 books
Pages: 295
Place of Purchase: Dollar Tree
Cost: $1.00
Read: June 3, 2017 - September 26, 2017
Description:
(Official)
A series of natural disasters has decimated the earth. Cut off from the rest of the world, England is a dark place. The sun rarely shines, food is scarce, and groups of criminals roam the woods, searching for prey. The people are growing restless.
When a ruthless revolutionary sets out to overthrow the crown, he makes the royal family his first target. Blood is shed in Buckingham Palace, and only sixteen-year-old Princess Eliza manages to escape.
Determined to kill the man who destroyed her family, Eliza joins the enemy forces in disguise. She has nothing to live for but revenge, until she meets someone who helps her remember how to hope--and love--once more. Now she must risk everything to ensure that she does not become...
The Last Princess.
The Good
I'm just going to start with the best features of the book, because there aren't many. This is a "fast read". The book moves along swiftly and if you don't get annoyed easily or have nothing else to do, you could probably read it in a day or 2. It's also a light read. Even with the main topic of the book being "war", there's really not a dark tone when you read it. While, I didn't care for the book, I did find some memorable quotes, as well.
(SPOILER ALERT! DO NOT READ FURTHER IF YOU WANT TO AVOID SPOILERS!)
The Rest
I found this book to be very unbelievable. I realize it was written for a teenage audience, but I feel that most teenagers would be beyond this lowly level. This book lacks imagination, where it is desperately needed for lack of any sort of facts or fact-based information. For example, Craze never provides any sort of explanation for these so-called "natural disasters" that occur and to be honest, I was confused while reading it about whether it was actually natural or caused by main antagonist, Cornelius Hollister. If it hadn't actually said that on the publisher's description, I wouldn't have been able to decipher that. Conveniently, for the author, the UK is cut off from the rest of the world, so she never has to give us any world view or response from the world. However, we also never get an explanation for this. Not even in the end.
Throughout the book, I just couldn't shake off that this was some literary piece written by a tween in their spare time. That would have been fine if this book had indeed been written by a 12 year old and not an adult woman. Aside from what I just mentioned, the book is nonsensical emotionally and event-wise. Eliza loses her family and her first thought is revenge, but she honestly has no real training or skills to carry this out and yet somehow the little bit of practice she was given as a child makes her able to lead a revolutionary war and take back her kingdom. She also easily falls in love with a guy who is clearly on the enemy side and even before knowing he is Hollister's son, it really doesn't make sense at all. I will say, I'm glad that Craze left out any sort of sex or sex related content in the book. It's truly left up to the reader's own opinion/imagination if that happened or not.
The description is confusing in that they call Hollister and his army "revolutionists", when in fact they're just trying to take over. They have no real cause. Hollister says that the royal family is selfish and all that jazz, but he acts the same way. He's just another dictator. So, really, Eliza is the one who carries out a revolt.
The whole book is just one big eye roll and a bunch of "really?" sighs. I can only see tweens with wild imaginations and/or little life experience able to enjoy this book and feel any sort of enjoyment out of it.
There is actually a part 2, as this is considered a "series". I have no desire to read it though. It may explain a lot of holes in this book, but I have a really good feeling that it does not.
That concludes my review. If anyone has read this book I would love to hear your thoughts, whether you agree with me or not. Also, if anyone has read part 2, I'd love to know if there is any sort of explanations to a lot of issues in this book! Overall, I'd say this book is a pass, unless you have nothing else to do or read and you're a fast reader.
Memorable Quotes
"- That's when I realized that Heaven doesn't exist in another place, and neither does Hell. It's all here on Earth. We live them both right here with one another. It's just sometimes we have to go through Hell to get to Heaven." - Eoghan (The Last Princess - page 255)
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