The Land of Stories tells the tale of twins Alex and Conner. Through the mysterious powers of a cherished book of stories, they leave their world behind and find themselves in a foreign land full of wonder and magic where they come face-to-face with the fairy tale characters they grew up reading about.
But after a series of encounters with witches, wolves, goblins, and trolls alike, getting back home is going to be harder than they thought.
Customer Reviews
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113 of 122 people found the following review helpful.
Land of Stories is a Love Letter to Classic Storytelling
By Leslie W
A promising first novel from an imaginative young talent. Even though Colfer is a newcomer to the world of novel writing, I feel that he accomplished what he set out to accomplish with this book.Children (especially those who have feelings of inadequacy or who have suffered early tragedy, just like Colfer did as a child) will find lots of hope within its pages, along with bravery and kindness and self-acceptance. It's a book about how every seemingly happy ending creates a new set of struggles to contend with, which you have to keep trying your best to overcome -- while also making good moral decisions and finding some kind of peace in spite of hardship. It's also a book about how things often seem to happen for a reason, and how unexpectedly wonderful things can happen as a result of painful struggles.The book has some interesting meditations on the nature of deep loneliness and longing -- and what people are capable of doing to remedy those heartaches. It's one of the strongest themes that run throughout the story. It appears as a theme in many ways with a variety of outcomes, and manages to be melancholy and uplifting at the same time, which is really lovely. Even with all of that sadness being examined so deeply, the book manages to be really funny and light.Another thing the book does strongly is preaching the power of understanding and compassion, even towards people who have done terrible things. It doesn't condone those terrible things, and it heavily emphasizes doing the RIGHT thing, but it deftly paints the characters as more complex humans than the classic Good Vs Evil stories do, which makes it all much more interesting and more relevant to real world conflicts.It isn't a perfect book, of course, and it could have benefited from a little more editing in a few places, but it's very charming and clever and more-than-a-little magical. I found myself giggling out loud at least once every chapter, and I even got a little teary-eyed in a few places. It will speak to children and adults on different levels emotionally while taking them all on a sweet, exciting adventure.I can't wait to read my copy of the book to my young niece and nephew.
83 of 93 people found the following review helpful.Fun, except the parts that made me want to cry
By Jacq Russell
But those parts were wonderful in their own way.The book is nicely written, but the real stars of the book are the characters. All the characters have disarming vulnerabilities and a wisdom you don't expect in a book written for kids, or even in a book written by someone so young.It's especially noteworthy that the female characters are always independent, driven, wise and strong. That isn't always the case in traditional tellings of these tales.There are still a few typos in the Kindle version, but nothing too distracting.Honestly, I'd recommend this to almost anyone, ages 8+. It's a fun, easy read and I'd be a lot happier about kids reading these fairytales than pretty much everything else out there.
157 of 191 people found the following review helpful.
Celebrity status trumps good writing
By Nicole Levesque
The main reason I am writing this review here is because I am tired of hearing only positive things about this book. I find it misleading and I know that there are many other better written stories for our readers. Chris Colfer is an actor on the television show Glee, and this book reads like a long drawn out screenplay. Descriptions are either nonexistent or so basic that my students could paint a far better image. When describing a cavalcade of knights arriving in front the twins, Colfer describes them only by saying: "Their armor was clean and shiny." OK... Colfer puts most of his story in the dialogue and the narration seems to be just a means to link those speaking parts together. He misses the beauty that can go into a well written narrative. A story should not leave its reader breaking away from the flow to consider how awkwardly written it is. Truly though, I could go on and on, and that would be too harsh. So, here are a few things that bothered me in a (sort of) list:The extreme overuse of poor similes:"Mrs. Peters was staring at her as if she had just witnessed a gruesome rural animal give birth."(I couldn't think of a gruesome rural animal...pig, cow, mouse. Dunno.)"Alex clambered up the tree faster than any animal she had ever seen in a documentary."(Doesn't that just flow off the lips.)Compares the witch with the gingerbread house to: "...staring at her as if she were a rabid Tyranosaurus rex about to pounce on them at any moment."(#1 rabid T-rex. #2 would pounce be the best word to describe the movement of a T-rex? #3 the word rabies makes, I believe, 3 appearances. At least one more I flagged when the twins come upon some unicorns. )The similes go on and on and on and on...Lack of revision.If Colfer spent any time at all revising this novel we would not see the following phrase appear so often:"Steam was practically coming out of the teacher's ears and nostrils." pg.75"Steam was practically coming out of their nostrils." pg. 361"...Conner said. Steam was practically coming from his ears." pg. 164Some of the writing just simply strikes me the wrong way. Like when Conner sees the gingerbread house on page 112. "'Whoa,' Conner said. 'I feel like I might get diabetes from just looking at that place." Overall, the story is so horribly written that I BEG Colfer's editor to help him make the next book in the series a bit smoother. The plot of the book doesn't bother me. I can fall into the most fantastical storyline and believe every line of it. But that is where the hard work on the author's part comes in. Colfer must read more to become a better writer. This is not a script, it is a novel.Go on, tell me I'm wrong. I can take it.
