By Cynthia Ayala
Daniela didn’t believe in aliens. When the Mogadorians attacked, it was just some hoax to her, a hoax with amazing special effects. And then they came, marching down the streets, attacking her home and destroying everything she ever loved. Alone and scared with scary new powers, Daniela is on the hunt to find and save her mother. But when she comes face-to-face with Number Four, she has a choice: run and hide, or fight.
Published November 24, 2015 by HarperCollins, Legacies Reborn is the thirteenth novel in the young adult science fiction Lorien Legacies: The Lost Files novella series by Pittacus Lore.
Another novel that is a little more of the same, but at least with some differences intermingled within the text. Readers know Daniela Morales from Pittacus Lore’s novel, The Fate of Ten that has many scenes that seem to have been copied and pasted from each other. Now, that’s not a bad thing because this novel follows Daniela, introducing readers into who she was before she got her new powers, and takes readers on a quick journey to follow this young woman who only wants to save her mother to the point where she crosses paths with John Smith and Simon. What differentiates is the fact that readers are getting to know her. The problem: she comes off as a very two-dimensional character, and that’s true for The Fate of Ten as well.
Daniela just sort of comes off as a punk. She’s unhappy with her step-father and the relationship readers see between her mother and her step-father comes off as rather forced, as if the woman married him for convenience. Maybe that’s true, Lore doesn’t address it, but it makes the relationships strained and two-dimensional. The father yells, in public, and the mother just sits there smiling, nodding, and it is just not good writing because their dynamics just come off as very fake, as though they are just there for plot purpose. It may help the story move along, but it certainly doesn’t grab the reader or even make the character, Daniela, sympathetic towards. Readers can visualize her rolling her eyes, arms crossed as if she knows everything, and she acts that way, not making her very likable. Out of everything the writer could have done, Lore could have use this opportunity to really give this character some life, to give her something other than her punk attitude. Nevertheless, there is something missing in this story: the writers’ heart.
It seems as though the writer is just going through the motions of writing, doing whatever the publisher wants him to do. It is lacking the heart of the story; it is lacking the life and the love that was in some of the earlier Lost Files’ novellas. Daniela is a scared kid, readers get that, they know that, and sure, Lore does devote some time to bringing out the characters psyche and narrative, but it is not enough. To quote Professor Lupin from Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azcaban “that’s not good enough, not nearly good enough”.
It just seems like as though this tale is filler, just something there so that readers can get to know Daniela a little bit. However, she isn’t written strong enough. This is a series full of unique strong female characters, all of them very likable and amazing in their own way and Daniela doesn’t hold a candle to them. She’s very much like a punk, all of Six’s punkish attitude without any of the heart behind her, without any of the strength behind her. Daniela is just some kid who got “superpowers”.
As for the story, for the most part, it is well written, but again, some of the scenes were just cutouts of The Fate of Ten, so it would be hard to mess those up. It is fast paced, an easy read, but nothing special. Daniela is a very two-dimensional character who doesn’t come off as likable at all. There really isn’t any point to reading this story because there’s nothing special about and all the writing shows is that the author has lost some of his heart in writing this series and it now only going through the motions. (★★☆☆☆ | C-)