The following is a review of the SEQUEL to Between the Lines, and as such, you probably shouldn't read it if you haven't read the first book!
Firstly: I am irrationally irritated that his novel has been continuously described and marketed as a companion to Between the Lines, because I REALLY REALLY REALLY don't think it is. This is really the second half of Delilah and Oliver's story, and you're really just missing out on a huge chunk of it if you pick up from here. This book is a continuation of its predecessor, and as such, it is a SEQUEL.
But I'm getting ahead of myself.
Off the Page picks up around three months after the end of Between the Lines, and Oliver and Delilah are living Happily Ever After (except not really because like high school and Mild Teen Drama and whatnot). The beginning was probably my least favourite part of the whole thing, simply because of the whole "fantasy-character-in-the-Real-Modern-World trope that the story had goin' on. And I mean, yes, it was definitely integral to the story, and if Oliver hadn't been stumbling over himself with all this new modern technology and societal standards that didn't exist in his book, then it would've been incredibly unrealistic, and I'd be complaining about it. I'm not even sure why I hate this trope so much, exactly...I just do. I tried to write a whole book revolving around it, and now I've all but rewritten the entire thing because I hated myself for doing it in the first place!
Anyhow. After they get over their Mild Teen Drama, and Oliver becomes a semi-competent teenager, things start to get interesting--the book starts to reject Oliver and Edgar's switch from the end of the first book, and starts to revert all of the changes Edgar made to the story to make it more fun for him--and now, it's trying to get Oliver back into the book.
Like I said before, I had a hard time getting into this story at first, but once the ball got rollin', I REALLY started to enjoy myself. This book played around with the magical components of the storybook a bit more, this time with a few more consequences than we saw in the first one. (Or at least, that I remember seeing..I should probably reread that book.)
This book was the kind of book that you really can't take too seriously or think too hard about. I feel like they almost put too many magical rules in--I mean, I can get behind the whole all-magic-comes-with-a-price bit, but it was built up to be more complicated than it really needed to be, which only left me lost and confused. (Granted, I live most of my life in a constant state of lost and confused, so it's really not much different.)
THE ENDING THOUGH, OH MY GOD. Y'all KNOW how much I love a good ending, and this book gave me everything I hoped and dreamed for going into this book.
The reason I loved Between the Lines in the first place was because it felt like I was reading a real modern day fairy tale--a fairy tale about fairy tales! What could be more perfect? And we all know that the best part about any fairy tale is the Happily Ever After, and God, do these books nail that. If I had to rate either book on its ending alone, it would get a perfect score.
And just like Between the Lines, Off the Page had some BEAUTIFUL illustrations that just tied the whole theme of the book together!
I think I initially rated this book 5 stars? Sure, let's go with that.
Until later,
- Justyne
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