Review | A Not So Merry Christmas

Kindle Price: Unavailable*

Official Rating: 2/5

Synopsis:

“Elves are dying in the North Pole, and none of their scientists can find a cure. They believe it’s a virus, unleashed by a powerful enemy. All signs point to Jack Frost, who’s been biding his time from afar. Watching. Waiting. Plotting. One brave elf, to save his kind, will venture out to meet evil in the eye. But he uncovers a mystery more dangerous than he could have ever imagined. Now Lucian must join a group of warriors and fight. Fuego; a flame-wielding pyro. Tiktok; a brilliant bomb expert, Yuriko; a deadly ninja assassin. And Bullets; a hot-headed gun aficionado. These unlikely heroes must learn to work together and defeat the rising evil. Or Christmas will soon be lost…forever.”

My Review:

If you saw my updates on Goodreads, I started off liking The Elf. Then, around 63%, I wasn’t liking it too much.

I’m not pleased with Lucian, the elf and main character of this story. I felt that he was one-dimensional, impulsive, and not much of a character. The main part of him was his relationship with Lily and weak anger towards Jack Frost and a few others. I just wasn’t convinced of him.

The only character I really liked was Jack Frost, I think he had the most (if the only) depth in the entire book and I liked his quirkiness and retorts.

The plot had one interesting twist that I didn’t predict, and then the rest was unbearably predictable. That was why my interest went down at 63%. After that, everything was cliche and overused and I wasn’t enjoying myself anymore. There were also many mistakes with grammar, spelling, repeated sentences, and a lack of logic. Now I’m sure you’re thinking, “Paige, it’s a book about elves and Santa and Jack Frost. What logic?” Okay fine, here’s an example: Lucian is fighting this guy, but he ends up on his knees. So he’s on his knees, right? Picture that. And also picture that Lucian is getting choked while he’s being forced on his knees. But he somehow is able to kick BEHIND him HIGH enough to hurt the guy in his sensitive area and escape. How??

OR, for example, there’s a major battle going on. This battle, is THE battle, it’s huge and loud and destructive. But somehow, not a single elf in the entire elf community wakes up until it’s over. How????? Do you all miss your alarms too?

The second most annoying issue, (the predictability was the first) was the detail. There wasn’t any. The Elf had multiple fight scenes, but they were bland and boring. Each of these battles could have been amazing, but because they were described with the same level of excitement someone has for going to the dentist, I didn’t want to read it. I can’t give you a fight scene, since that would be a spoiler. But an example would be if I was doing some kind of epic hand-to-hand combat and I described it like this:

His fist flew at my head. I dodged it.

I threw a punch at him. I hit his cheek. He groaned.

But I didn’t see his other fist, and it hit me in the stomach. Pain was everywhere.

How exciting does that really seem?
Would I Recommend The Elf? Honestly, I wouldn’t. It reminds me of a movie where the acting is kinda bad and the entire script is corny and you don’t really like it, but it comes on every Christmas and it’s kind of tradition to watch and cringe.

I received this book from the author via YA Bound Book Tours in exchange for an honest review.

*This book is currently only available paperback for $11.99.