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Curse of the Griffin: Daniel’s Pride (Book) Review

 
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At a Glance...
 

Page Count: 440
 
Genre:
 
Author:
 
Year Published:
 
Final Score
 
 
 
 
 
2.5/ 5


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We liked?


An imaginative new world where vampires run the show, and one creative teen holds the key to a better world.

Not so much?


There's just too much new information at every turn, which overwhelms more than it engages at times.


Final Fiendish Findings?

The Curse of the Griffin: Daniel’s Pride is an ambitious undertaking, introducing readers to a new type of world that is governed by cold blooded vampires, and the young man who may just find enough magic within himself to change things for the better. While it suffers at times from just trying to do too much, it offers an imaginative story line that will likely appeal to young adult readers.

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Posted February 10, 2014 by

 
Full Fiendish Findings...
 
 

Daniel is all alone in the world. If not for his unusual artistic talent, he might be inclined to just gave up his Unturned status and join the Family.

The world that Daniel lives in is vastly different from ours in some fundamental ways. It is a world where regular humans are seen as Commoners who have little going for them. The city is cut off from the rest of the world by a desolate wilderness, and so people are left to drearily work the days away, or work their way up in the company to a better life. The Family is the group of true blood vampires who run the city, and being “turned” is one of the few ways that Commoners can achieve a better life for themselves.

Tempting though that is, Daniel has promised his adoptive father that he will stay far from the vampires. He was found cradled in the arms of a statue as a toddler by a priest who raised him to adulthood before their different views caused a falling out. Now, Daniel has no home, no family, and no money. His drive to create art is all that sustains him, and he hopes to use that to win an art contest at the animal sanctuary. The contest is being held by his favorite author, a young woman who has done much to try to save the animals from the harsh environment of the city. But as Daniel gets closer to Jessica, he begins to uncover some discrepancies in the facade the Family shows the city – and some unusual facts about himself and his past come to light as well.

Daniel’s Pride is the first book in the Curse of the Griffin series, and it is an ambitious undertaking that suffers at times from trying to do too much. As we are introduced to the extraordinary young Daniel – a teenager who has a mysterious background, a love of art, issues with his adoptive father, unusual powers, and a crush on his favorite author – we find that just getting to know him is worthy of a book alone. But in Daniel’s Pride, we also have to understand the environment Daniel lives in, the social structure between the normal humans and the vampires, the toll on the environment that creates harsh living conditions, and so much more.

As we work our way into the book, we find even more unusual characters, all of whom need to be explained in different ways. We aren’t expected to have everything figured out by the end of the book (it is a series), but there is so much introduced at once that it actually makes a little difficult to lose yourself in the book. It’s just too much to fully take in at once, and so you are left with a few too many questions as to how everything fits together to really feel like you are engaged in Daniel’s story. There were also a small number of distracting editing mistakes in the version I was given (it is unclear whether my review copy was a final version), which proved distracting.

The Curse of the Griffin: Daniel’s Pride is an ambitious undertaking, introducing readers to a new type of world that is governed by cold blooded vampires, and the young man who may just find enough magic within himself to change things for the better. While it suffers at times from just trying to do too much, it offers an imaginative story line that will likely appeal to young adult readers.


Amy

 
U.S. Senior Editor & Deputy EIC, @averyzoe on Twitter, mother of 5, gamer, reader, wife to @macanthony, and all-around bad-ass (no, not really)


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