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Das Gift Der Schmetterlinge (2010)

by F.E. Higgins(Favorite Author)
3.9 of 5 Votes: 3
ISBN
3789137189 (ISBN13: 9783789137181)
languge
English
genre
publisher
Oetinger
series
Tales From The Sinister City
review 1: This is another book that I have had on my shelves for years but never got round to reading so when I needed something to listen to next in my car and I saw this on the shelf at the library I thought I might as well listen to it instead.The narrator wasn't bad, he wasn't as gripping as some of the others I've heard and he did a really silly accent for one of the characters which threw me off everytime he spoke but other than that he does quite a good job.This story follows Hector as he journeys to try and get revenge on a man with a glass eye. This man blackmailed his father and ran his company into the ground. Having to give up his business and his precious butterfly collection pretty much finishes Hector's Dad off, so Hector want to make this man pay for what he has done... more. His journey takes him to the South side of the bridge, life is harder over there and he ends up in a house for abandoned boys with lots of other kids, sort of street urchins. But then he bumps into the mysterious man with the glass eye and Hector takes his chance and ends up going back with him to Withypitts hall. But is revenge the best idea, as more strange events and mysteries occur Hector starts to wonder if this is what he really wants.To be honest this book had a pretty good concept and was good enough to make me want to know how it ended but I wasn't hooked. I kept realising that I had lost focus and missed a bit of the story but I was never bothered enough to go back and listen to it again and I don't think I missed that much of importance. For me the story was just a bit too drawn out, I kept waiting for some action or revelation from Hector but it didn't come. He also has a phrase that he says when something goes wrong which at first was quite sweet but then it just got a bit annoying to me. The ending wasn't bad and pulls everything together and finishes off the story but I just wasn't hooked. It was fairly amusing and the characters are well written - they certainly have great personalities. This just wasn't for me in the end.
review 2: I found this story to have some truly disturbing elements. The character of Lady Mandible is one of the most vile creations I have ever read in a children’s novel; she most definitely has a “strange taste for the macabre.”Spoiler – The description of the French cat eater was disgusting. It was not the act itself so much, but Lady Mandible’s sheer delight in the action. I must admit, I was also very put out to discover the live butterfly cape she wore to the feast.Lady Mandible is a twisted, dark character. As much as I enjoyed her, I was also frustrated. Higgins keeps introducing new characters and plots while very slowly resolving the issues she raised in the previous books. I am beginning to lose interest in the series because each new installment is full of wonderful new characters and their dark tales, but they only serve to add another strand to this frayed collection of stories with the briefest of character overlap. I will try reading The Lunatic’s Curse, but then I might be done with this series, especially if there fails to be any form of resolution, again. less
Reviews (see all)
M1k4yla
This book is a good sci-fi book for a begining chapter book reader. I got it from the IUS Library.
candyxrawr711
Quick read and quite morbidly fun children's book...
hws1984
Don't waste your time. I just didn't get it.
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