The Roughling is an adventure and fantasy story.
Book Title: The Roughling
Author: by Alex Costa with Grace Thibault (Illustrator)
Format: Paperback
ISBN: 9781773902012
Number of Pages: 335
Date Published: September 25, 2026
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Summary
Disclosure: The publisher provided this book for review via NetGalley.
I appreciate the work and creativity that went into this novel.
The premise of this book sounds very interesting. Unfortunately, the storytelling is not.
This sentiment can be felt from the beginning. For example, the concept of chapter one is engaging, yet the implementation is lacking. Upon the first read I was bored, and slightly confused about the characters. Yet I recognize that the concept of an animal watching a child, and wondering about his future journey is interesting.
Halfway through the book I started over to give it another chance, but the result was the same. It’s just not written in a way that leads me into my imagination, curiosity, and whimsy. I felt like I was reading and waiting for a pay off, while it just dragged on.
I feel that the concept of the book is solid and this story could provide a great reading adventure. However, it just was not my cup of tea.
I noticed that the author thanked Richard Adams for Watership Down, which is the book I was thinking of when reading this.
Overall, others may not find the writing style of The Roughling to be dry, thus my rating of three stars.
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