The Hero and the Crown by Robin McKinley

1985 Newbery Winner
Finished 12-28-08

I feel extremely guilty writing this review. See, everywhere I look, people love this book. They identify with the main character, they love the excitement, and so on. And the truth of the matter is—I didn’t. So if you’re a big fan of this book, you may want to read no further. Because I dislike it for a very silly reason.

However, summaries first. Aerin is the daughter of the king, but she doesn’t feel like she has a place with the royalty. The people whisper that her mother was a witch. On top of that, Aerin doesn’t display “the Gift”, like all persons of royal lineage are supposed to do. She decides to make her place by taking up a very dangerous occupation—that of a dragon killer.

It sounds ridiculous, but I believe that reason behind my apathy for this book is because of the author’s use of semicolons. They were everywhere! It seemed like practically every other sentence contained a semicolon. I don’t know if that was an effect the author created on purpose, but it drove me a little zonkers. Okay, a lot zonkers. For me, the semicolons often created the feel of a run-on sentence. I would think, “How can this sentence go on so long?” Then I would look at it more closely, and there would be a semicolon plopped in the middle of it.

I sincerely thought of giving this book another try, simply because so many seem to like it. Then I picked it up at the library, flipped it open, and saw a few of those semicolons. Already a feeling of annoyance was creeping over me, so I decided to call it quits on this one.

I do have to read The Blue Sword, the book’s sequel, as it is on the Newbery list as well. I’m hoping to like it better; if I can just get past those semicolons…

P.S. I just looked at the reviews for this book on GoodReads, and not a single person mentioned semicolons! *sigh* Am I crazy?