Thursday, December 17, 2009

Eyes Like Stars (The Théâtre Illuminata: Act 1)


Jacket:
All her world's a stage.
Beatrice Shakespeare Smith is not an actress, yet she lives in a theater.
She is not an orphan, but she has no parents.
She knows every part, but has no lines of her own.
Until now.

Welcome to the Théâtre Illuminata, where the characters of every place ever written can be found behind the curtain. They were born to play their parts, and are bound to the Théâtre by The Book—an ancient and magical tome of scripts. Bertie is not one of them, but they are her family—and she is about to lose them all and the only home she has ever known.


First up, let me say that I love the concept.  An abandoned girl grows in a magical theater where the characters in the play are not actors, they are actually the characters is so cool.  And I liked Bertie too.  She was feisty and conniving and, dare I say, a little sexy.  It was nice to see a strong female protagonist who isn't afraid to push down the boys and make them cry if she needs to.  And I loved the little fairies who followed her around like a little demon posse.  They were so cute. 


It was interesting to see Shakespeare's, and other, famous characters brought to life in a different way.  So while they all retain their personalities as written, it's fun to see them outside of their own plays although this is mostly with Ophelia and Ariel.  I wasn't very fond of the love triangle between Nate and Ariel and Bertie though.  While Ariel might be charismatic, Nate is obviously the best choice.  Anyway, I'm curious for the sequel now especially with the great surprise at the end.

5 comments:

  1. I have seen this one several times at the book store but have yet to pick it up, after reading your review I think I will...Love the idea with in it!

    Thanks!

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  2. I'm not sure this one would work for me.

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  3. Oh, I've been wanting to read this! I'm a little put out by the unconvincing love triangle, but I think my inner theater geek will overcome that.

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  4. You hit the nail on the head - about everything I liked and even with the only thing that bothered me (and you!) about the story. I have hopes that this trilogy (I think it's a trilogy, anyway!) will eventually clear things up and lead Bertie somewhere we can be happy with...at least romantically. :)

    Great review!

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