DNF Review – Terrier (The Legend of Beka Cooper, Book 1) by Tamora Pierce (3/5 stars)

Reading Level: Young Adult
Genre: Fantasy
Length: 608 pages
Publisher: Ember
Release Date: October 23, 2007
ISBN-13: 978-0375838163
Stand Alone or Series: 1st book in the Legend of Beka Cooper series
Source: Gift
Rating: 3/5 stars

“Beka Cooper is one of the newest trainees in the Provost’s Guard. As a rookie—known as a Puppy—she’s assigned to the realm’s toughest district: the Lower City. It should be a death sentence. The Lower City is filled with pickpockets who are fast as lightning, murderers stalking the streets, and rogues who will knock your teeth out with a smile. But Beka’s not your average Puppy. She grew up in the Lower City and knows what makes it tick. It’s Beka who notices that there might be something more to the latest crime wave. And it’s Beka who must use her street smarts and her own brand of eerie magic to chase down a killer.

This first book introduces Beka Cooper, an amazing young woman who is the ancestor of one of Tamora Pierce’s most popular characters: George Cooper. Here, Pierce gives fans exactly what they want—a smart, savvy heroine making a name for herself on the mean streets of Tortall’s Lower City—while offering plenty to appeal to new readers as well!”

This is the first book in The Legend of Beka Cooper series. Many, many years ago I read a number of Pierce’s books…I remember especially loving the Alanna series. This book was a bit of a disappointment for me. I read the first 300 pages and then ended up putting it down.

Beka is starting her career as a Provost’s Guard, policing the Lower City. This book is basically a diary of her day to day life as she starts her guard duties.

There are a couple of things I was really struggling with in this book. The writing style seems very simple and childish and Beka sounds like she’s maybe a preteen, or even younger, despite the fact she’s supposed to be in her upper teens. I kept having to remind myself that Beka was a lot older than she sounded and acted. She was also one of those heroines who is supposed to be really street savvy but comes across as strangely naive.

The other thing I struggled with was the plot. There just wasn’t a good plot here to hook me and keep my interest. The way Beka sees things, coupled with the somewhat stark and childish way she describes them, makes it hard to figure out what is going on. I kept getting bored while reading this, falling asleep, or finding just about anything else to do to avoid sitting down to read this book. The side characters seem like they could be good, but Beka isn’t very descriptive about them so they are hard to engage with as well.

The last issue is how the book is physically put together. This book uses very heavy paper with large font. It was hard to hold up and physically read. I know this sounds ridiculous but I would have to lay it on a table in from of me to read because of how heavy and thick the book/pages were.

Overall I really wanted to love this but ended up being disappointed. It’s been a long, long time (probably 20 years or more) since I have read a book by Pierce. So I am not sure if her writing style has changed or if my likes have changed. However, I didn’t like this nearly as much as I remember liking the Alanna series.

This book goes towards the following reading challenges:
– Goodreads Reading Challenge
– Mount TBR Reading Challenge