Storyteller by Edward Myers

Plot: a poor farmer's boy, Jack, loves to tell stories. They pop up unbidden into his head, begging to be told, so Jack finally decides to seek his fortune in the world by telling his stories. He's discovered by the king, and begins to tell his stories to the melancholy ruler, trying to cheer him up. But dark clouds start moving in, among one shining bright one.

Comments: A pretty good story for when you want something light and amusing. I like the characters, but they aren't very well-rounded. They are people, but not true people. They don't carry a story by themselves; they are merely in the story. I think Jack has to apologize too much to everyone at the end. Even though he made a couple of mistakes, he had good intentions and everything turned out alright. So why did he have to beg to get on his love's good side again? If she really loved him, she would listen, wanting to hear anything that would convince her that he's good, because she wanted to love him. But she wouldn't listen and decided that he was on the bad side. I don't like how Jack has to fix the relationship by himself. I don't like how Jack put everything aside when he fell in love, either. He wouldn't think about anything but her, and I hated how he didn't care about his friend's problem anymore, even though he'd promised to try and fix it.

I like the way the story's being told, but sometimes it felt like I knew the story better than Jack. He was always confused and didn't know what had happened or what to do when it was so obvious to me, and not because I saw some part of the story that he hadn't seen. He was pretty clueless and that annoyed me. I also hated how he just gave up towards the end. I know no one's perfect and most people would do as he would, but I read this story to take a break from my life, and this story only reminded me of what people in life are really like. I think this story was sort of abrupt, too. Too many rough edges and not enough details.

Rating: I rate this book a six and a half out of ten.