Thursday, August 2, 2012

Daphne and the Mysterious Girls Secret Bathroom Society by Robert Shields [REVIEW]

Daphne and the Mysterious
Girls Secret Bathroom Society
by Robert Shields

Summary from Goodreads:

"Following years of persecution at the hands of Vivica Vance, Daphne Downing levels the playing field wielding her No. 2 Ticonderoga pencil as she belatedly enters the world of witchcraft. Daphne becomes part of the Mysterious Girls’ Secret Bathroom Society and finds out that the politics governing witchcraft are daunting and sometimes deadly. She realizes she is aligned with the Charmers in this political battle with the Spiters led by her nemesis, Vivica. Along the way, she discovers that witches do not perform magic or witchcraft but a differentiated form of physics that only some women have mastered. The story deepens as she learns about the long history of witches’ domination and annihilation of wizards."

Rating:

When I was introduced to Daphne and the Mysterious Girls Secret Bathroom Society by author Robert Shields himself, I was immediately interested. First of all, whew! What a mouthful of a title. Ha, ha, ha! Although the cover didn’t catch my attention, reading the synopsis and seeing that it’s about “witches” peaked up my curiosity.

The concept of being a witch and mixing the idea of having supernatural abilities through advanced physics and not really “magic” was very unique. But reading the book just didn’t leave me as a satisfied reader in the end. I’m not saying this was bad, this was pretty good overall, just that most of the time I was confused. Let me elaborate:

On my impression of the characters, they are all interesting enough to make you want to get to know them. But I couldn’t quite identify their age bracket. Are they teens? Pre-teens? Maybe even younger? I don’t know. It’s hard to make out. First I see Daphne and company having the whole high school dilemma of bullies, boys and all things puberty-related. And then the next thing I know, they’re out making a run for the playground swings? Or playing hide and seek? Not that I find anything wrong with those but I find the characters’ actions confusing to classify which age group they belong to. Maybe I just didn’t have the same customs as these characters when I was their age, so that’s might be a probable reason why I can’t comprehend the actions.

The history of the witches and wizards could have been an interesting topic but I was just too confused as well to understand what exactly was going on. When Daphne read about the lady witch (I’m sorry I forgot her name) who was supposedly the reason behind the extinction of wizards, I couldn’t keep up with the narration. There were too many things going on that made it hard to focus on any of the facts, and the interjections from Lila just made it all the more confusing.

Now moving on to the Mysterious Girls Secret Bathroom Society, their meetings were just as confusing. Why did they need to make the adjournment statement to move the adjournment? Maybe they’re just trying to be funny and all, but exactly what was the point? And I didn’t understand why Daphne was the only one who had to ask for permission to practice when her sister is just as without a “teacher” (considering their mother is supposed to be the one) as she is? Did I miss the part where there was an explanation for this?

Almost every turn of the pages, I had questions without answers. How did Amanda learn about being a witch, and why does she know more about it than her older sister, Daphne? Why hadn’t Daphne asked Kyle about his motives and why was she so eager to help him out? Why did Vi’s mother leave Daphne in the middle of nowhere after teaching her and yet not explaining afterwards? How did the rest of the witches find out about Kyle? Yes, they pushed him to do something necessary that caused him to reveal himself but how did he become the target in the first place? Daphne was the only one who knew about his secrets, right? The traces he left behind didn’t really lead it to him directly; it could’ve been any of the boys.

So you see I had a lot of questions. Those are just a few of the things that came into my mind while reading this book. I was already decided on giving it a 2 star rating but while writing this review, I came to realize that there are certain things that I liked about this book. Like what I said earlier, the concept is original. One thing that I always find in a book is originality. The idea of witch and wizards isn’t new, but using science to wield the elements and the explanation of its process, is something I found captivating.

I also remember enjoying the scenes when Daphne was taught the lessons she needs to fulfil her designated role (I’m not revealing what that is) in the Bathroom Society. There was so much she could do and the mysterious fact that she’s such a fast learner is very intriguing. I keep wondering why she has that kind of gift. There are other things in this book that made my reading experience enjoyable, mostly about Daphne’s personality. She’s noble and smart. And I’m glad to see her character develop.

Daphne and the Mysterious Girls Secret Bathroom Society is a fast paced book and it’s not every day you find a book that uses physics instead of magic as their means of witchcraft and wizardry. Rating it as a whole, it was good.

*Thank you, Mr. Robert Shields for the copy of Daphne and the Mysterious Girls Secret Bathroom Society.