Review: Pegasus: The Flame of Olympus by Kate O'Hearn

Title: Pegasus: The Flame of Olympus
Author: Kate O'Hearn
Pages: 400
Publisher: Aladdin
Series: Pegasus #1
Released: May 22, 2012

 

The Story

"It's really you isn't it?" Emily whispered softly as she stroked the soft muzzle. "You're Pegasus, aren't you?"
The stallion...nudged her hand, inviting another stroke. In that one rain-drenched instant, Emily felt her world changing. Forever. (p. 33)

One stormy night Pegasus crashes onto the roof of Emily's apartment in New York City. She soon learns that there is a war going on in Olympus and that the gods are being overthrown by the vicious, monstrous Nirads. These creatures have followed Pegasus to earth, along with a thief named Paelen who is after the stallion's golden bridle.

Emily must work together with a boy named Joel and the goddess Diana to return Pegasus to Olympus and defeat the Nirads before it is too late and both of their worlds are destroyed.

Our Heroine: Emily

"No!" Emily cried. "This is impossible!"
More lightning lit the rooftop, confirming what Emily was trying so hard to deny.
A white horse with golden hooves and vast white wings was lying on its side in the middle of her mother's rose garden. (p. 29)

 Emily was a sweet, caring girl and the relationship between her and Pegasus was really cute. My favorite part was when she brought him carrots and apples and a tub of ice cream for herself, and Pegasus ended up eating the ice cream. It was also sweet how protective Pegasus was of Emily.

However, while Emily did have likeable and sympathetic qualities (she is mourning the death of her mother), her character wasn't very developed. I also didn't feel like her character had changed at the end of the story as a result of her adventure. 

Our Villain: The Nirads

"Emily could see that the Nirad's eyes were jet-black with n o whites or color at all. Its teeth were large, sharp points, and it was drooling as it made ferocious, guttural sounds...it flexed its four arms, which ended in filthy hands and fingers with long, sharp claws." (p. 132)

The Nirads are the main villains of the story. They are four-armed monster warriors that appear to be indestructible and in the beginning of the story they have taken over Olympus.

They weren't really the best villains honestly. It's never explained where they came from, or what exactly they were after. With no motive, it felt like they were there just for the sake of the story having a villain.

Another villain of the story is a secret government agency called CRU, which researches strange phenomenon such as aliens and UFO's. They end up capturing one of the Olympians who accidentally came to earth with Pegasus early on, which leads to a series of interrogation scenes.

Basically the same questions and answers are repeated over and over and over to the point where it gets really annoying to read. The agents believe in aliens but refuse to accept that the Olympians could be real despite all the obvious evidence that continues to pile up (a winged horse, winged sandals, the toga).

I mean come on how thick could you be??

Main Characters

• Paelen

"But Paelen had no intention of fighting. He wasn't a warrior. He was a thief with plans of his own, which didn't include getting killed in a battle they couldn't possibly win." (p. 2)

Paelen was probably one of the most interesting characters. He's a cowardly, selfish thief who accidentally follows Pegasus to earth. He wants to steal Pegasus's bridle for himself so he can control the stallion and leave Olympus because he feels like he doesn't belong.

He also has a talent for being able to escape any prison, because he can stretch his bones. I felt like Paelen was one of the character's who had more depth and who developed the most throughout the story.

• Joel

"Finally someone came to mind. Someone from her school who would be strong enough to pull out the spear. Someone who was always sketching pictures of winged horses in his textbooks. The trouble was, he was the meanest boy in Emily's class. He was probably the meanest boy in the whole school." (p. 55)

Joel is an angry, troubled foster kid who Emily knows from school. I found it a bit unbelievable that she would go to him for help with Pegasus since she didn't know him at all he wasn't a very friendly person.

Joel had a bit more depth than most of the characters, and he also developed some throughout the story. He and Emily become friends, and the friendship between them was sweet.

To Read Or Not To Read? 

 The initial idea of this book is very intriguing, but in all honesty the writing needed a lot of work. The dialogue especially was very weak and awkward (and often cheesy), and a lot of times characters would state things to each other that they already knew solely for the reader's benefit. There was also lots of repetition of the same information.

I still enjoyed the story itself despite this, though it would have been much better had the writing been polished up. It was a fun, heartwarming, light read and I think that younger kids would really enjoy it.

I think though, with a younger audience in mind that this book should have been shorter because 400 pages can be daunting for younger readers, even if it is larger text that reads quickly.

All in all, a cute story!


Writing: 2/5
Characters: 2/5
Plot: 3/5
Creativity/Originality: 4/5
Kept me interested: 4/5

Review: The Prisoner of Cell 25 by Richard Evans

Title: The Prisoner of Cell 25
Author: Richard Evans
Pages: 326
Publisher: Simon Pulse/Mercury Ink
Series: Michael Vey #1
Released: August 9, 2011
First Line: "Have you found the last two?" The voice on the phone was angry and coarse, like the sound of car tires over broken glass.

From Goodreads: "My name is Michael Vey, and the story I’m about to tell you is strange. Very strange. It’s my story.

To everyone at Meridian High School, Michael Vey is an ordinary fourteen-year-old. In fact, the only thing that seems to set him apart is the fact that he has Tourette’s syndrome. But Michael is anything but ordinary. Michael has special powers. Electric powers.

Michael thinks he's unique until he discovers that a cheerleader named Taylor also has special powers. With the help of Michael’s friend, Ostin, the three of them set out to discover how Michael and Taylor ended up this way, but their investigation brings them to the attention of a powerful group who wants to control the electric children – and through them the world. Michael will have to rely on his wits, powers, and friends if he’s to survive."

 My Thoughts:

The Prisoner of Cell 25. The title alone was what initially grabbed my attention. Who was the prisoner? Why was he/she being held prisoner? What was cell 25? Hmmm... And what was with the electric-hand thing going on on the cover? The premise sounded interesting enough, so I decided to give it a shot. 

I didn't really know what to expect going into it, though I had thought it was a book for teens. It turned out to be for Middle Grades, and I could see that age group enjoying this book much more than I did. What I don't understand, though, is that if the author intended his audience to be Middle Grades, why did he make the characters 15 year olds? These characters did not act or sound like High School students to me--they acted and sounded like Middle Schoolers. So why not just make them the same age as your target readers? *shrugs* Because that just makes too much sense.

First off, the idea of special powers isn't anything new. It's been done a million times before. But Richard Evans brings a new angle to the table by having the characters all have electrical powers, and each character's power works differently. For example, one can 'reboot' people like a computer, another can throw lightning bolts, and another can see through walls using a sonar type deal. (I can't remember the exact name of it.)

Michael was a good main character who wasn't perfect. I liked that he had Tourett's syndrome, which made him blink a lot when he was nervous. This made him more sympathetic/relatable. His best friend Ostin (as in Austin, Texas but unfortunately his mom couldn't spell) is extremely smart and funny, and is teased for being overweight. Both of these characters struggle with bullies in the beginning of the story, and I can see Middle Schoolers really being able to relate to them.

However, Taylor's character seemed sort of shallow and cliche--the beautiful, popular cheerleader who Michael of course has a crush on but is out of his league. Later we meet Nichelle and Zeus who also have electric powers but are sort of 'bad guys', and when I say 'bad guys' I mean the really cheesy/cliche sort of bad guys. Their dialogue--especially Nichelle's--was really over the top with the cheesy insults and threats.

For the most part The Prisoner of Cell 25 is well-written, but the biggest problems I had was that sometimes the plot could be cliche and unbelievable, and the dialogue was cheesy and often awkward. It is told mainly in first-person and Michael's voice is very well-defined. However, sometimes the story switches perspectives to Taylor and is then told in third person. I found this weird and it threw me off.

By the time I got to the end of the book and found out about the prisoner in cell 25, I was very disappointed. I won't say why because I don't want to give anything away. But I don't see why the author used that as the title, I felt cheated. The only reason I can think of is that it's the sort of title that hooks readers. Even though it's deceiving >.<

To Read Or Not To Read?

 Overall, The Prisoner of Cell 25 was a light, fun read but not really anything special. I would definitely recommend this book for Middle Schoolers, though. I think that age group would enjoy this one much more, especially the guys. As a future Middle School English teacher this is a book that I would add to my classroom library.

My Rating: 

Writing: 3/5
Characters: 3/5
Plot: 3/5
Creativity/Originality: 3/5
Kept me interested: 4/5