Customer Reviews

Pale Phoenix

5 star:		(14)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This was a GREAT book! I loved it! Reiss did a wonderful job unfolding her story about Abby, a young puritan girl unable to move on to the next world, trapped by her own reluctance. Her only hope is almost 300 years later when Miranda discovers her secret and tries to help, but not until the two learn to get along after Miranda's parents decide to take Abby in. A very inticing story and definitely worth reading! I hope you enjoy this book as much as I did!

This is another fine example of Kathryn Reiss's writing. I think it was a great book. I read atleast 4 times because I loved it so much. I really hope Kathryn Reiss becomes well-known. She has a great imagination and sense of literature. This classic tale about a pheonix rising from the ashes is a great story for young and older people to enjoy. I'd give it 10 stars if I could.

The only way that you will reall you will really understand this book fully is if you read the first book, Time Windows. The basic plot is that a girl , Miranda has a very great life with her parents and neighbors in her small Northeastern town until they take in this orphan named Abby to live with them. Miranda and Abby do not get along a weel and things change for Miranda. She beginds to start uncovering Abby's amazing past and helping her deal with it. If you read this book you will really benefit from it becuase, if you read anymore books by this author, the character Abby appears in many of them breifly.

It was great! I couldn't put it down. Very suspenseful also. This author really knows how to get you gripping your seat!

This book was really good, I admit, but Time Windows was definitely better. Personally, I didn't like the ending to this book, but I won't give it away by saying why...

If you like this you should read paint by magic,the help, drip dead or the list. This is one of those books that you wish would go on forever. Enjoy!

I read many of Kathryn Reiss's books before, when I was a bit younger (13-15). Seeing this one still sitting unread on my shelf, and remembering I enjoyed her other books, I decided to finally finish it off.

Up through chapter 11, the book is an absolute bore. There is little character development to speak of, and the characters themselves lack anything to make me interested in them. The book seemingly circles around, with repeating similar fights/conflicts between the characters, with no advances whatsoever.

At chapter 11, things got much more interesting. The plot finally moved forward. Abby finally had some depth, and Miranda finally came to her senses. After spending a week on the first half of the book, I finished the rest off in less than a day. The ending was unexpectedly good, with a well-done twist.

If the book had been as well-written throughout, it would have been an easy five stars. Younger readers (middle school, perhaps) will enjoy this book a lot more, because they will probably not notice the bad writing.
I'd suggest two other works by the same author- "Dreadful Sorry", and "Paperquake".

I really don't know why I never noticed this when I read them before, but Kathryn Reiss's books are just so predictable. True, they are full of those wacky plot twists that you would never see coming, but for the most part, you can see things coming from miles away! Maybe it's just that I'm not in the target age range anymore, or the fact that these are rereads, but I still feel as if too much information is given, or not so much information as constant hinting. It's still pretty amazing in Pale Phoenix how she's constructed this great new plot, and yes, predictable as it is, it's still not something you'll find written by anyone else, completely original and new ideas. It's also great to see the continuity between this and Pale Phoenix, particularly the budding relationship between Dan and Miranda. The characters start off as your standard dull characters, but throughout the book, you see the characters evolve in front of your eyes, and it's a pretty neat thing to see. My one other complaint somewhat goes along with the predictableness--everything is a bit too convenient. Here they are, stuck in a perilous situation with apparently no way out, but wait, wait, look, there's the completely random solution that nobody ever would have thought of because it's completely convoluted, but here it is, it seems to have just randomly popped into my head! It gets very annoying, but it does provide for a satisfying ending.

Rating: 3.5/5

Pale Phoenix is a wonderful book. so detailed and well written that you can see your self there with the main characters. enchanting and a joy to read. i first discovered it 6 years ago at the local library and ive been rereading it(and i dont like to reread books *nods*). adios

In this book, magic is presented in a realistic way: through a teenager with somewhat normal looks and a somewhat normal life. She's only some 200 years old. This book keeps you on edge until the last page.