Ratings

Content Ratings based on a 0-5 scale where
0 = no objectionable content and
5 = an excessive or disturbing level of content

Guide to Rating System

LANGUAGE

VIOLENCE

SEXUAL CONTENT

ADULT THEMES

Ratings Explanation

Violence: Girl in Nazi concentration camp is hit and taken in for beatings. Johann is attacked by a werewolf. Brigitta and Johann are attacked by snakes and creatures. “Creatures claws tore at her flesh, ripping large gashes…and sending lances of pain throughout her body.” Monster raises knife over Gwen. The floorboards and walls are streaked with blood. There are a LOT of sword fights, battles, and creature attacks; more than can be listed here. Guards beat prisoners. Rufus stabs a creature in the heart with a jagged shard of poison-stained glass. Karsten is run through with a sword and then extracts the sword from his chest, “crimson blood dripping.” “With a mighty heave and a keen eye, he launched the sword at his brother, impacting him directly in the center of his chest.”

Adult Themes: Nazi concentration camps are mentioned. There is magic, black magic and sorcery. Death and a sort of afterlife are referred to.

Summary

Two German brothers create a music box that holds a magical kingdom inside. Through time the music box somehow gets passed through many different people and places. People mysteriously disappear when listening to this music box. Inside the box, the Canticle Kingdom resides. The Kingdom is being attacked by an evil, dark power. The Queen falls ill and it is up to a few loyal subjects inside and outside the music box to help to save the kingdom.

I had a really hard time getting through this book. It was confusing and disjointed. Many things made no sense to me at all. It wasn’t until chapter 9 that I started getting a few explanations. Now, I understand ” keep the reader guessing”, and mystery and all of that, but this was really just confusing. I found many of the characters and their actions unbelievable. So many times there would be fighting and someone would be injured terribly, like a sword stuck in their chest. The character is near death, bleeding and almost ready to pass out and then they would proceed to pull out the sword and continue fighting. For a long time. In my notes I wrote, “How many times can one dude fall on his back, have bruised ribs and feel like he was dying and then get up and do it all again?” In the end, I didn’t have any real feelings for any of the characters. I’m not sure if it was the style of writing that made it so hard for me, or if the writing just lacked development. I think the story idea is good. On the up side, there was no foul language or sexual content. There was a fair bit of violence though. I laughed at the end when I read this next part because it summed up almost exactly how I felt about this whole book. “Capt. Edison tried to explain what was going on to his wife the best he could but found that he scarcely understood it himself.”

©2010 The Literate Mother