Tag Archives: seraphina

Dreamcast: Seraphina

Recently I decided to try my hand at dreamcasting a YA book as a possible new feature here on the blog, starting with The Scorpio Races. Due to my love for Seraphina, I decided I wanted to try my hand at dreamcasting it. There are a lot of characters in Seraphina and I feel I barely scratched the surface with my choices, but it’s hard to come up with so many people (and the right people)! But here’s what I did come up with…

Kaya Scodelario as Seraphina – Josh Hutcherson as Kiggs – AnnaSophia Robb as Princess Glisselda

kaya-josh-annasopI don’t feel the need to elaborate on any of these choices. I don’t care if Josh is Peeta; he can totally be Kiggs too. Moving on.

Jeffrey Combs as Orma

jeffrey-combsI’m sorry if you haven’t seen enough Star Trek (specifically Deep Space Nine and Enterprise) to know the awesomeness that is Jeffrey Combs. Here you see normal Jeffrey Combs to the left, and kinda creepy Jeffrey Combs to the right. I’ve just got to say this guy has got the range, the wit, the everything needed to play the often deadpan and ornery Orma. Other, more well-known possibilities I considered for Orma were Gary Oldham and Paul Bettany, both who would be great. But really, I love Jeffrey Combs.

Helena Bonham Cater as Lady Corongi

Helena-Bonham-CarterCrazy lady who (highlight for spoilers) is actually an old man dragon in disguise? Helena’s your woman!

Sam Claflin as Earl of Aspig

sam-clafinNeeds to be creepy to some and charismatic to others? Totally perfect for Finnick!

Michael Caine as Viridius

michael-caineMichael Caine has played Scrooge and Alfred and many personalities in between, so I think he would be fabulous as the well-meaning but often cantankerous Viridius.

There’s so many other characters but I just didn’t know how to cast them! Let me know if you have suggestions! How do you feel about the choices I made? 

Review: Seraphina

Seraphina is like a YA sleeper hit. You don’t see a lot of blog buzz and hype about it, probably mostly because it was published in 2012. But if you look on Goodreads, you’re going to see that your friends who have read it most likely love it.

When I was looking for a new read, I decided on a whim to download the e-book version of Seraphina from my library, and the fact that right after I finished I wished that I owned a copy and that I could re-read it right then means it was pretty special.

GR-seraphinaBut I do have a couple of small complaints, so I want to get those out of the way…

What’s My Motivation?

Actually, the real question is: what was Seraphina’s motivation? About 100 pages in I realized I had no idea what Seraphina’s goal for the story was, thus I had no idea where the story needed to go. She was trying to blend in and not stick out too much, and then Orma was trying to find out about his father/her grandfather, but it wasn’t real clear-cut to me exactly what the plot was. That made it just a little off for me and made the beginning seem slowish (not too much so because I was engaged the whole time, but I felt like I was waiting to find out what the book was about).

toothlessSo Many People, Places, Terms…

So I realized once I finished the book (which again, was an e-book) that there was a cast of characters and a glossary in the back. That would have been useful to use throughout since I ended up confused many times about who a minor character was exactly again (they don’t have the easiest names) or what a certain term meant. I did read it after the fact and that helped some, but if I read it again (and in paperback!) I will definitely utilize these tools to help me appreciate the story even more!

But here’s what I loved

You Get Thrown Right Into the World

Wait, dragons can become people? Uh, okay, awesome! For the most part, you can figure things out as the story unfolds and there is really only added backstory/narrative occasionally, which I really appreciated.

Seraphina and Kiggs!

I loved them individually! I loved their friendship! I loved their *wanting more*!

astrid&hiccupThe Ending

It felt right, and it left me wanting more without leaving me at a cliffhanger. And good news, another Seraphina book is expected to come out next year so I’ll get the more that I want! Yay!

Basically, I don’t know what to say. The story is interesting and I just fell in love with the world and the people, and I especially loved Seraphina and Kiggs, and want more of them. This are no adequate words for this review. I had a couple issues (one that could easily have been resolved, so really just one) but overall, it was just great. Just read it.

hiccup-loveit

4-5stars-edit

Content advisory: Some mild language, most of which was the correct usage of the word b-stard. 

Have you read Seraphina? What are your thoughts? If not, what are you waiting for?!