Palace of Stone: Princess Academy, Book 2

Maybe a child wouldn't mind the terrible, stilted performances of the various voice actors...

I loved Miri, as always. She is smart and real.

Let one person, an actual actor or voice-over actor, do the reading!!!! The people doing the various voices were so wooden and bad that I finally had to stop listening and just check the book out at the library.

The book was great. Shannon Hale never disappoints. However, the reading performance made me more and more irritated, to the point that I couldn't stand to listen another minute.

I LOVE Shannon Hale and I love most audiobooks. But this recording was almost as bad as listening to Lemony Snicket read his own books--in other words, unpalatable!

I began with the first Princess Academy book and I loved it. Overall, Shannon Hale, with her other books (Enna Burning) is a great author.

The second book is a nice continuation of the first.

Pros
-I enjoyed the cute narration and musical quality that comes with Shannon Hale's audiobooks. The whole thing is a sensory experience and drew me into the story. I enjoy Full-Cast audio, multiple voices and sound effects. If you do too, then you will probably like this version.

-Cynthia Bishop, the narrator, emphasizes in the right places and shows that she really understands what she is reading.

-Teaches good morals for young girls (there is talk of muscles and dancing and kissing, so take that into consideration before letting young girls listen to this : ) *

Cons
-At times, the story felt boring. There is action, but it felt a little forced and I was left wanting more.
-Sometimes the music in the beginning was a little cheesy, even for me, because the songs at the beginning of some chapters sounded almost ridiculous (like someone imitating an Adam Sandler's Opera Man!)
-Many times when I thought the story would end, it kept going, as if the author couldn't decide on how to bring everything to a satisfying conclusion.

Overall, this was not Hale's best book (try Enna Burning), but it will not stop me from listening to her other titles. I enjoy the light-hearted purity of all of her stories. *It would be great for 6th graders to listen to.

Shannon Hale writes lyrically of the lives of young men and women as they are deciding who to be in the world. Palace of Stone continues the tale begun in Princess Academy, allowing us to watch Miri as she acclimates to life in the city and the poltical forces present there. We watch as she learns whom to trust and how to work her way through situations with no clear right or wrong answers. This is a novel for adults of allages, not just young adults.

The writing

I liked this book. I prefer a simpler narration. The "songs" and echoes when someone had an inner thought weren't really to my liking.