Review: Dangerous by Shannon Hale

March 5, 2014 2 stars, Book Review 17 ★★

Maisie Danger Brown just wanted to get away from home for a bit, see something new. She never intended to fall in love. And she never imagined stumbling into a frightening plot that kills her friends and just might kill her, too. A plot that is already changing life on Earth as we know it. There’s no going back. She is the only thing standing between danger and annihilation.

From NY Times bestselling author Shannon Hale comes a novel that asks, How far would you go to save the ones you love? And how far would you go to save everyone else?

Contrary to what I rated Dangerous, with 2 stars, for the right reader I think it would have been a much more enjoyable read.

The points that I believe might have helped find the right readers:

  • If the book description for Dangerous were more forthcoming about the content, theme and or plot line of what it actually was about! – Then it would have been better able to appeal to the right readers.
  • My opinion on the target audience for this book would be tweens, not teens, because originally I had thought this book was supposed to be young adult and yet it felt more like some of the outrageous adventure plot lines I normally see in middlegrade fiction. In addition to the fact that the kids are actually around 14 or less, go to space camp, then end up with crazy super hero like powers (with a sci-fi twist). Albeit there is more violence and death in Dangerous then I’ve normally seen in other middle grade books, I still think that is where this book belongs and should be targeted.
  • Dangerous is a mix of science fiction, comic book style super hero/villain fiction and romance. Now ask yourself folks, did you get that indication from the book description? I sure as heck didn’t.

Things that didn’t work for me:

  • The adults. Some of their actions, dialogue and overall behavior was just ridiculous. I can not realistically see some of these things going down. Immediately things like that would pull me out of the story.
  • Super smart children I can absolutely believe as there are definite prodigy kids out there. But their personalities coupled with the plot line just didn’t mesh well. It would have been better for me if either one or the other were toned down.
  • The bad jokes and puns. They were cute for awhile, but the further I along I read the more tiresome I found them.

Ultimately, I don’t think Dangerous was a bad book I just thing it was the wrong book for me. Almost half of what I read is young adult fiction and the other half is adult, then maybe a very few middle grade books each year. This particular one I likely wouldn’t have picked up if I’d had a more accurate idea of what was in store for me.

Dangerous

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Tabitha (Pabkins)

When I'm in the zone I can flip book pages faster than the eye can see - screaming "More Input!" I'm a book, yarn, & art supply hoarding goblin who loves to draw, make toys and craft all sorts of creepy cute things. My current habit is to listen to audio books while I'm arting it up!
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17 Responses to “Review: Dangerous by Shannon Hale”

  1. Jessica @ Rabid Reads

    Pretty sure I’ll be passing on this one. I’m already not a huge Shannon Hale fan–I think I was the one person in the world who didn’t think Princess Academy was amazing. Also–ridiculous/unrealistic adults in conjunction with genius children<—–not my thing.
    Jessica @ Rabid Reads recently posted…Review: Clean Sweep by Ilona AndrewsMy Profile

    • Tabitha the Pabkins

      I haven’t actually read anything else by Shannon Hale, but I did recently just purchase Goose Girl on kindle daily deal awhile ago. So maybe someday I’ll get around to it. Yep – wouldn’t recommend this one for you.

    • Tabitha the Pabkins

      Thanks – I’m glad I came off ok. Cause I really do think it had merit I was just the wrong audience…but then by the time I was into it…I have this thing you know where I just usually must finish. Unless its just terrrrible then I don’t. But this wasn’t terrible. Just not the right tea =)

    • Anya

      But kids are dumb so we need to write adult characters that they can understand 😉 (definitely sarcasm for the record, I get so annoyed when people underestimate young readers’ intelligence)
      Anya recently posted…Way of Kings Read-Along Final Week!My Profile

    • Tabitha the Pabkins

      I agree, the lack of an adult presence is just not realistic. Unless I guess if they live in never neverland lol. See and you read the entire trilogy of Divergent…each time you mention it , makes me want to read it less and less lol.

    • Tabitha the Pabkins

      I completely agree. Well good thing I know that going in with Alienated. Personally its not big on my must read radar so who knows if I ever will.

      Usually I don’t like to read alot of MG I prefer YA and adult. The occasional MG catches my eye but it has to sound fabulous to me and usually I prefer it to be fantasy not sci-fi.

  6. Charleen

    I just read another blog recently that was complaining about books not marketing themselves to the right readers. This is something that happens to me… if not often, at least more often than I’d like. It’s so frustrating. How does it help to misrepresent the book and get a bunch of lackluster reviews because of it?
    Charleen recently posted…Specific Criticism and Vague PraiseMy Profile

    • Tabitha the Pabkins

      Exactly! In this case I don’t even feel like it was represented well at all by that description! I didn’t know anything about what I was going to be getting.

  7. Anya

    I was pretty hesitant about this one as well since I couldn’t tell anything from the description. While the premise sounds like it could have been fun, I don’t think it would have worked for me either!
    Anya recently posted…Way of Kings Read-Along Final Week!My Profile

  8. Pamela D

    Ugh. I hate it when MG/YA books have ridiculous adult characters. Obviously, the kids should take center stage in a MG/YA book, but that doesn’t mean that the adults should be completely absent or ridiculous. *sigh*

    There are times that the adults should be ridiculous, like in Charlie and the Chocolate Factory; however, most books aren’t CatCF.

    • Tabitha the Pabkins

      You’ve got it right there. There is a time, place, setting, etc for it to be appropriate. These ones just I don’t know I couldn’t even picture them at all. They felt wrong to me. That along with the plotline and the things going on I just didn’t enjoy a bunch of it.