Top 5 Fantasy Creatures

*Note* Top 5 Wednesdayis a Goodreads group where blogger/vloggers post about a bookish topic every Wednesday. You can check it out right here. https://www.goodreads.com/group/show/118368-top-5-wednesday

     Although this week’s topic is monsters, I decided not to feature spooky or scary creatures. Why? Because I am a skittish young woman who still can’t even read the synopsis of a horror novel without getting nightmares. However, that isn’t to say I don’t like any fictional creatures at all, just the ones that keep me up at night. As a self-proclaimed folklore expert* I enjoy looking into fantasy creatures and the culture that imagined them.

 Centaurs

  I find the concept of a centaur as something so ridiculous I have to like it. It’s a man with horse legs! Also, centaurs have two ribcages. Which would mean centaurs have two hearts. Therefore, centaurs are time lords. 

Wild Haggis

     A creature living in the highlands of Scotland. Satirically it is referred as the source of haggis a traditional dish in Scotland that I have no intention of trying any time soon. However, the wild haggis is just too cute for me not to love. They either have a longer set of right legs or a longer set of left legs so that they can walk perfectly balanced on the uneven hills in which they live.   

Mermaids 

     What I love about mermaids is that they appear in the folklore of almost every continent. Mermaids are also associated with peril at seas, flood, and pretty much every other disaster that resulted in water going out of control. Other traditions present mermaids as the bringers of good fortune.

 Unicorns 

     In medieval-European folklore, a unicorn wasn’t strictly a horse with a horn. According to tradition, a unicorn was a wild, often white, four-legged creature that looked kind of like a cross between a goat and a horse. Describing unicorns like that make them sound goofy, but unicorns were symbols of grace and purity. Their horns were said to be capable of healing sickness and removing impurities from water! 

                                                                                           Phoenix 

     Not the X-man or the capital of Arizona. A phoenix is a bird that dies in a burst of roaring fire and returns from the ashes. If that isn’t hardcore then I don’t know what is. In traditional art, the Phoenix is often depicted with a halo as the bird is associated with the sun. However, there is no consensus on what color a phoenix should be, but many speculations say the phoenix’s coloring makes it stand out from other birds. Given its ability to regenerate, the phoenix is a symbol of renewal, resurrection, and even Christ. 

*Note* I do not have a bachelor’s degree nor have I ever taken a class on folklore. All my knowledge of oral traditions is based on my own imperfect research. 

The Breeziest Epic I Have Ever Read

     

From the description on the back of the book, Chosen sounds like an epic fantasy story. Although the books itself is very short, when I think of epics they are normally longer than 300 pages. I should mention Chosen is the first in a series, The Lost Books, which takes place in between two books in another series by Dekker, The Circle Series. I haven’t read Green, the book that comes before Chosen, and I am not entirely sure I need to as Chosen's plot is easy to understand without it.  It’s hard not to when the author constantly tells you what happens in the simplest terms.

       At many points in the story, a character will point out something that is obvious and then the narrator will say “stating the obvious”. Because the reader already knows what the character is saying is obvious there is no reason to bring this to his/her attention. On second thought, if it is obvious then why have the character say it in the first place?

      Another flaw that stood out to me is how long it took the author to mention certain details the reader should know from the beginning. The story starts during trials where new leaders of The Forest Guard (the good guys) are to be picked. This event is crucial and everyone is in attendance. If the entire town was watching I would like to know what Jonas’, the main character, sister was doing during this event because there was not mention of her until several chapters later.  The sister is not incredibly relevant to the plot of this book, but I don’t think the author should wait more than 50 pages to mention the main character has a sister. Another time where Dekker misses some important details happens is a spoiler so if you haven’t read Chosen I recommend skipping over the next paragraph.

  *Spoiler* Towards the end of the first quarter of the book we learn Jonas is a chosen one of sorts. Evidence for this is a birthmark Jonas has behind his ear. This isn’t mentioned until over 60 pages into a short book and it is never spoken of again. I felt something this important could’ve been mentioned earlier in the story. It’s clear Jonas is concerned about his size in the beginning. The birthmark could’ve been introduced here as something else he’s self-conscious about.

     Throughout the story, Dekker is building up tension between the forest people and their enemies, the horde. Towards the end of the book the leader of the forest guard sets up a trick to make the forest army are much larger than they actually are and the horde just retreats when they notice the forest has more soldiers than normal.  I wouldn’t be bothered about this except there were many chapters building up to this with both armies plotting and to end it in such an anti-climactic way was very jarring. *End Spoiler*      

     I didn’t find Chosen to be an extraordinary book, but it isn’t a terrible book either. It’s just okay. I read it for book club and I was able to get through it very quickly both because the story is easy to follow and the writing is addicting. Although I flew through the chapters there is a glaring issue with the story. It pretends to be something it is not. Chosen acts like it is a grand epic on par with the old masters, but it's not. It's a breezy YA fantasy and that is all it needs to be.