jellybeyreads reviewed The Incorrigible Children of Ashton Place by Maryrose Wood (The incorrigible children of Ashton Place -- bk. 1)
Review of 'The Incorrigible Children of Ashton Place' on 'Goodreads'
3 stars
Commute audiobook. I really enjoyed the narrator.
The book itself: highly enjoyable (kept me awake on my long drives, and I looked forward to turning it on every day) but not a great work by any means. As other reviewers have commented, the educational progress of the children is absurd: these are kids who were literally raised by wolves and have had no exposure to language, and yet they interact in English within a matter of weeks--even composing poetry. They also adopt the trappings of "civilization"--all the manners imposed by social expectation--remarkably quickly.
Additionally, it's been set up as a series for no particularly good reason. The "mysterious howling"--half of the cliffhanger tempting you to book 2--isn't referenced at all until the last chapter and is irrelevant to the rest of the book. A few more chapters and book 1 could have been neatly self contained and, frankly, a more …
Commute audiobook. I really enjoyed the narrator.
The book itself: highly enjoyable (kept me awake on my long drives, and I looked forward to turning it on every day) but not a great work by any means. As other reviewers have commented, the educational progress of the children is absurd: these are kids who were literally raised by wolves and have had no exposure to language, and yet they interact in English within a matter of weeks--even composing poetry. They also adopt the trappings of "civilization"--all the manners imposed by social expectation--remarkably quickly.
Additionally, it's been set up as a series for no particularly good reason. The "mysterious howling"--half of the cliffhanger tempting you to book 2--isn't referenced at all until the last chapter and is irrelevant to the rest of the book. A few more chapters and book 1 could have been neatly self contained and, frankly, a more satisfying book with a clearer plot arc.
That said, it's often quite amusing. There's Penelope's preoccupation with ponies and, more particularly, a hilariously bad series of books about ponies named Silky and Rainbow. There's Lady Constance's inane and completely insensitive jabbering, although I wonder how much of my affection for this character is due to the the voice used by the narrator for Lady Constance vs. the actual character as written.
Worth reading if you particularly like YA fiction, although I recommend the audiobook, which I suspect is improved over the book itself by the choice of narrator.
