A review by lindentea
Alanna: The First Adventure by Tamora Pierce

adventurous lighthearted fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

I mean it was cute! Again I always have this thing when I'm reviewing books written for people way younger than me where like... yes I as a grown adult probably would have enjoyed this more when I was 12. But I genuinely did appreciate a lot of the aspects of it -- I actually really like Alanna as a character, shes really easy to root for, and I liked the kind of slice-of-life vibe that a lot of the first ~80% of the book had. I think if I did have to critique this first 80% my only thing is that the world is, imo, comparatively bland when it comes to fantasy and *could* have used a little more whimsy? But that's also not the tone and a personal preference so I get it. Also George -- I can tell we're setting up a love interest and I don't like that he's 17 when he meets her at 11. And also I was worried (and still am for future books) the Bazhir are really quickly gonna swerve into orientalist territory? But I was like whatever these things don't matter so much / I can ignore or "fix" them in my head (I just started pretending George was the same age as like Jon and Gary and so on). However. The ending.

What the fuck do you mean the climax of the book takes place defeating people who's existence we learned about maybe 10-15 pages ago, using magical powers we didn't know Alanna & Jon had (YES i know they have the gift and YES i know it said they were both more advanced than what Roger is teaching them in class and YES Alanna healed Jon but I mean just in terms of fighting magic, I did not know they could do all that and I understand that they didn't either but it felt ?? as a reader ok), AND having Alanna outed to Jon rather than getting to tell him she's a girl on her own terms? And the book fully ends with no resolution to anything, just them chilling like yeah you'll be my squire :D wonder what consequences we'll face tomorrow?? Idk man the ending just brought it down so much for me because it was so damn random like why did any of that happen? Sorry to go off on a book for kids but I'd feel the same if I was 12, trust I knew what I liked and had media literacy back then

Still think it's funny that I read this for a college class