First Impression

To be completely honest, I was a little nervous to read this book after looking at the cover. The image has a very dark and creepy feel to it, and I wasn’t sure to what degree this would be reflected in the novel. To be honest, I didn’t feel much (or any) of that “creepy” feeling at all in the novel, and after reading this book I almost feel like the cover of The Guardian is a missed opportunity to give the reader a better impression of the story. 

The Bad

The thing that really got me about this story from page one was the cliques. Maybe it’s because I’m a high-schooler myself, but the whole popular-girls-bully-the-protagonist-just-because trope is one that bothers me immensely. Yes, bullying does happen in high school and middle school and even elementary school, but in general, I find that the way it is portrayed in a lot of literature, not just in The Guardian, is very unrealistic and exaggerated.

– Okay, sorry for the little rant. Back to the review. –

I wasn’t a huge fan of the relationships in this story, as a whole. The main character developed a relationship with the creature in this story that made me a little uncomfortable and I wished that The Guardian had gone in a slightly different direction.

The Good

I have to say that as someone who reads a lot of fantasy (it is the genre I tend to pick up most often), I feel like I have seen pretty much everything. Vampires, Faeries, Werewolves, Elves, Dragons… you get the idea. But this? This isn’t something that I see too often. I think that Jacobs has hit upon a really interesting premise here. Though there were some elements I didn’t love or I felt could have been stronger, it was nice to read about something that felt new, at least, new to me. (Sorry if I’m being super vague, I don’t want to give away any spoilers.)

The Last Word

Though The Guardian had an interesting concept, the story lost some points with me because of its characters.

A unique idea…