Book Review: The Boy With the Hidden Name by Skylar Dorset
Skylar Dorset’s young adult novel The Boy with the Hidden Name is the sequel to last year’s The Girl Who Never Was, which I reviewed here. It was an entertaining story in which a Bostonian girl named Selkie discovers she is a half-faerie, half-ogre princess. Along the way, she falls in love with Ben, her former protector, whom she has to rescue from the faerie court.
In this sequel, she and Ben have a falling-out because of their fight at the end of the first book, which was so upsetting to me! And of course they still do love each other, and of course they keep saving each other, but to me the root of their problem-that Ben chose to leave Selkie despite her begging him not to-is never fully resolved. I know, at the time Ben thought he had to leave in order to find his mother and eventually save Selkie and the world, but I would have liked to have a scene where Ben acknowledges where he went wrong and what his intentions were and maybe apologizes to Selkie for the pain he put her through. Anything to heal this rift between two star-crossed lovers.
Beyond that, I liked the world-building and new characters, but I really wanted more action scenes, or maybe I just wanted it to be longer so I could sink my teeth into the world instead of just touching on parts of it. It seemed that the good stuff kept getting interrupted or cut off. I wish this series could have been more than just two books!
But overall, this was a very enjoyable story of a faerie world meshing with ours, with two very appealing leads who are much better together than apart. Can’t wait to read more by this author.
In this sequel, she and Ben have a falling-out because of their fight at the end of the first book, which was so upsetting to me! And of course they still do love each other, and of course they keep saving each other, but to me the root of their problem-that Ben chose to leave Selkie despite her begging him not to-is never fully resolved. I know, at the time Ben thought he had to leave in order to find his mother and eventually save Selkie and the world, but I would have liked to have a scene where Ben acknowledges where he went wrong and what his intentions were and maybe apologizes to Selkie for the pain he put her through. Anything to heal this rift between two star-crossed lovers.
Beyond that, I liked the world-building and new characters, but I really wanted more action scenes, or maybe I just wanted it to be longer so I could sink my teeth into the world instead of just touching on parts of it. It seemed that the good stuff kept getting interrupted or cut off. I wish this series could have been more than just two books!
But overall, this was a very enjoyable story of a faerie world meshing with ours, with two very appealing leads who are much better together than apart. Can’t wait to read more by this author.