Thalia @ Pictures in the Words

Unlike my other reviews, I’m not going to feature a Like/Dislike section–it’ll only be this little blurb (which will end up as a long blurb), due to the fact it’s such a short little story, and there’s not too much to talk about, let alone separate into bullet points and whatnot. This is the mini prequel to The Knife of Never Letting Go, showing us how Viola came to be on the New World.To be perfectly honest, I wasn’t impressed with this prequel. With Viola’s narrative, all the reasons I hate present tense narration came flooding back to me, despite the brilliance of its execution in Todd’s narrative in the first book. Even while the ship was crashing, Viola maintained a sane and connected narrative, which just isn’t realistic. Plus, there were so many flashbacks that, I felt, didn’t have any significance. I would have preferred brief references to the past, on her ship, and focused more on the crash and maybe even Aaron’s first attack on Viola. I think that would have provided far more insight to Viola’s character than who she liked in her class and who she didn’t.It wasn’t completely awful though, which is why I gave it two stars instead of one. I just unimpressed and expecting something better; but I didn’t get that. I just read a boring story about Viola crashing and having a mini birthday party and whatnot. It only alienated the sci-fi aspect of the novel even more, and it did nothing to make it make anymore sense to me than it did before. The Knife of Never Letting Go might have been better off with this awkward prequel.See it on my blog?http://thaliasbooks.tumblr.com/post/42710241563/the-new-world-review