For
the most part, my reviews usually follow a set pattern. They pretty
much are exclusive to books that are "Good, but flawed". While I haven't
really read any other reviewers opinions about the Wishbone Adventures
books, I don't think I'll be making any enemies by saying that this book
left the worst taste ever after reading it.
Let's start with the plot of the series in general, shall we?
Pretty
much every Wishbone book follows an established formula. Wishbone, the
dog, is performing some kind of activity with his human owner and his
friends. (they are such generic characters, that I forgot their names.
For now, let's call Wishbone's owner "Senor Cardgage." I won't matter,
anyway, since these human characters never do anything relevant to the
plot, for the most part.) The activity they are performing usually gets
Wishbone to start daydreaming about a story in relation to the activity.
While
this may seem like a cool idea for a book at first, It's not. It's not
like the first chapter of the book is about the activity, and the rest
is about story. Of course it isn't about that, because it would take
effort to write that, and Internet Forbid anyone put effort into a book
about dogs!
Instead,
every 2 chapters or so, the daydream story re-transitions back to
reality, where the story is absolutely dry. Seriously, reading these
portions is awful. They aren't even bad, they just don't have any
flavor! If I had to give an analogy, reading the script to the Percy
Jackson movies is like eating a pile of garbage, while reading the
reality portions of Wishbone is like eating a pile of unseasoned rice.
Even though the Garbage tastes awful, the rice has absolutely no flavor,
making it unsatisfactory and pointless to eat. I mean, is it really
that difficult to put some salt on the rice? That's not hard, so why was
it impossible to put any effort into the reality portions?? WHY?!?
Oh,
but the daydream portions! What about them?!? Oh, they are just as bad!
Okay, since Wishbone is a book about dogs, you think that the stories
would be modified to represent a story moreso tailored to animals
replacing the human characters right?
Take a wild guess. Seriously, throw a dart at a dart board, then come back and read this and tell me your answer. The answer?
No.
While
I haven't read any specific Wishbone books aside from the one that is
the subject of this review (Unleashed in Space) and "The Hunchdog of
Notre Dame", I can tell you right now that every story is awful to read,
because Wishbone is just 'copy and pasted' into the story without much
other additional modification (I say not much because a lot of the more
'complicated' and 'mature' parts of these stories are dumbed down for
younger audiences). Don't you just love reading the story about that 1
dog and 3 humans that traveled the galaxy?
No.
Aside
from the main character being changed to Wishbone in order to fit
Wishbone's personality, there isn't a single character that acts
differently towards Wishbone because he's a dog, and because of it,
Wishbone sticks out like a sore thumb. If you really wanted to do
something like this, why not just make all the other characters dogs as
well?!?
No,
that would take effort, which clearly wasn't in the budget. No wonder
these books used to cost just $4 apiece! The sticker on this print says
$1.99 for goodness sake. I have that much worth in coins in my vest
pocket right now!
And
finally, the narration. This book gets itself so confused. The
commentary is told from the persective of a narrator, but the
transitions between reality and the daydream are from the perspective of
Wishbone! Why? This isn't an actual flaw, honestly, but I would have
appreciated it if the author would have stuck to a specific narrative,
instead of confusing me.
In
conclusion, I find that the Wishbone series is probably the most
unbearable, tossed together franchise I've ever reviewed on this blog.
The stories are Copy and Pasted, the reality portions are boring, and
many elements get just flat out confusing! Unless you have a thing for
dogs, young children who have just got into chapter books, or you enjoy
torturing yourself, I would not recommend these books. At all.
Seriously, if someone is selling these for just 25 cents at a Garage
Sale, avoid it, because those 25 cents could always go towards something
better.
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