The Scorpion Rules by Erin Bow

The Scorpion Rules by Erin Bow
Published: Margaret K. McElderry Books, September 22nd, 2015
Pages: 374
Source: Hardcover, library
Genre: Fantasy/Sci-Fi/Dystopian
Rating: 1/5

How I Felt:Let me just say that this book was a mess. The only thing I really liked about it was that it was set in Canada and incorporated diversity. That's literally all I liked.

I tried so hard to like this book, I really wanted to. The concept was so cool and unique, it held so much potential but fell so so flat.

There is such poor writing in this book. I didn't like it at all. It dragged so much for the majority of the book, and I didn't think there was a very good explanation for anything, I was confused 90% of the time.

I also found the development of the characters to be so very bad. They were all just so dull and I didn't find myself attaching or liking any of them. Especially Greta. She was so naive throughout this book, and if I may be honest, completely annoying. Her narration is so childish I would roll my eyes every other line. I have to use a direct quote here because I found it utterly ridiculous: "The soldier was leading the horse with a... leading thing." That is just careless description and I've been seeing it more and more in YA and it bothers me so much.

The writing wasn't as clear as it is in many other books I've read, I couldn't picture anything from this world in my mind. I've found that some unnecessary descriptions were way too detailed, but many more important descriptions weren't detailed enough.

Another thing about Greta; she was always trying to be the best, most bravest queen in all the land. She had to be strong because she was a queen. A queen must always keep her cool. So when her friends are in a gun fight, instead of coming to their aid, Greta decides to SIT DOWN. She tried so hard to be noble, she always thought she was doing the noble thing. Sorry, no. Never in my life have I read about such a weak character. Gosh.

Talis was made to be the funny, spunky, likable villain. But it was too forced and didn't feel real.

I also didn't like the pedestal Greta put Xie on for the whole book. Any time she'd look at her she'd call her a goddess. The description of Xie constantly included 'goddess' in there somewhere. "She is a goddess-queen in red and gold silk..."

I'm not going to spoil anything but the even that happened at the end bothered me so much. I didn't like where it went and frankly, it just added to my confusion. Nothing was explained clearly to me (this is just how I felt about the clarity of the writing, I may just be incredibly oblivious at this point in the novel because I'm skimming pages to get it over with).

I'm so disappointed, I was so excited about this book because it's a great concept. It was just so poorly executed.

Overall, I didn't like this book at all. This was the worst book I've read in a while. But I have heard other people say they enjoyed this book so it depends on the person. I won't be continuing on with the series and I don't think I'll be reading any more of Bow's books. This was so painful to read.

Thanks for reading!
~Birdie

 ***Quotes taken from Goodreads.com and The Scorpion Rules by Erin Bow***
*Info on book taken from Goodreads.com*
*Image takes from Google.ca