The Rest Of Us Just Live Here

Author: Patrick Ness
Publisher: Harper Teen
First Published: August 2015
336 pages (hardcover)

This book has probably one of the most unique ideas I've come across. You know how in a lot of teen novels, the main character(s) are the 'chosen ones' to put an end to a terrible evil? Or they are the special snowflakes (female characters specifically) who get caught in cheesy love triangles and the girl just doesn't realize how beautiful and special she is? And so on ... Well, this is a book not about those main characters. Yes, they are in this book, saving the world and falling in love with impossibly handsome boys, but this book is about the peripheral characters. You know, just random people who the main characters might have seen on a bus ride or something. The characters who just live in that world.

Something paranormal is happening in the world, with the Immortals capturing human vessels in an attempt to take over the earth. The indie kids are all wrapped up in the latest plot, trying to save the world. But for non indie kids like Mikey, Mel, Jared and Henna, their biggest problem is not trying to overthrow the Queen of Immortals, but rather, dealing with the reality of finally graduating high school and going their separate ways after.

This is a story about the problems of humans without supernatural abilities ... i.e. everyone else. Mikey is in love with Henna but doesn't know how to tell her. He and his best friend Jared are planning to attend separate colleges two states away. His mom is running for a political position and not really paying enough attention to her children while Mikey's dad is a semi-functioning alcoholic. The stress of everything is triggering Mikey's obsessive-compulsive behaviours to return, a demon he thought he defeated long ago. He's washing his hands repeatedly again, until his skin is cracked and bleeding. He's meticulously counting objects. He's constantly checking and rechecking that he locked the door properly, although he couldn't tell you what 'properly' means to him. He feels like he's falling apart.

And yes, in the mean time, indie kids are dying and traveling between worlds to overthrow the Immortals, which are probably bigger problems, but these are Mikey's problems and this is his reality.

I have to admit, I was initially very confused by this book. I made it to chapter 6 or something like that before I felt I had to go online and do some minor research into this book. Afterwards, I restarted the book and everything made sense again. I didn't know what the book meant by 'indie' kids initially (I thought indie = independent?? But the book's definition is basically 'special snowflake'). And each chapter started with a short paragraph on what the indie kids were up to in their quest to defeat the Immortals, but I didn't realize that that's what the chapter openers were about so I was just puzzled. Once you understand the structure though, it all makes sense.

I've heard of lots of great things about Patrick Ness and I think I have a whole bunch of his books on my mental "I want to read" list. This is the very first Patrick Ness book I actually got around to reading though, probably because it's his newest and was easiest to find at bookstores at this point in time.

The book is very much a coming-of-age novel and I loved the unique spin on the characters by making them "minor characters". It's understanding that, yeah, there are bigger problems in the world out there, but my problems are my reality and this is what I'm trying to deal with. 'Ordinary people' problems, if you will. Mikey and the rest of his friends all felt so genuine and young and innocent. It's a book that I think young adults/teenagers will easily feel related to.

While I did enjoy reading this book, at the same time, it did not wow me. I mean, we are talking about the mundane problems of teenagers here. After I finished reading this book, I skimmed through some reviews and some people felt this was not the greatest "first Patrick Ness novel" to be introduced to. I'm inclined to agree, probably; but I am sure I will continue trying other books of this author's.

My Rating: 2/5 

Days of Blood & Starlight

This post first published March 25, 2013.

Author: Laini Taylor
First Published: November 2012
Publisher: Little, Brown Books for Young Readers
Series: Daughter of Smoke & Bone #2
406 pages (eBook)
 
I was so eager to read the second book in this series, but — if I may be perfectly honest — I feel really disappointed. I guess I shouldn’t have been too surprised since the second book in a trilogy is usually lackluster compared to the first or the final book. Setting up for the grand finale and all. Still, I didn’t think I would have been this … bored.

After Karou finds out that Akiva was responsible for the genocide of her chimera people, she breaks off  all contact with him and finds the remaining surviving chimera. She is their only hope now, their only resurrectionist, who can continue pumping out soldiers for the war against the angels. Despite her true intentions to help her own people, the chimera don’t trust her. They still see her as a traitor, and Karou can’t ever be sure that she is safe with them. Meanwhile, Akiva mourns the loss of Karou and deeply regrets what he has done. He is more determined than ever to end the brutal conflicts between chimeras and angels once and for all, but he is not sure how to begin such a venture, especially when he is hailed as the Beast’s Bane, a hero amongst his own angelic race.

I think my biggest problem with this book was that it simply felt like nothing much was happening. By the end of the novel, it’s clear that much of what happened in the story (which, to me, was not much) was a set-up for book three. Days of Blood & Starlight just doesn’t feel like much of a story on its own. While I can remember several memorable and series-defining events from the first book, there was only one or two significant events that occurred in this book. To put it plainly, I was simply bored by this book. When I was reading book one, I found it hard to put the book down (or rather, my tablet, heh). I had no troubles putting book two down at all.

There were also some chapters from the point-of-view of really random characters. For example, the Dama centaur chimera sisters Sveva and Sarazal and their escape story. There were a handful of chapters from them and then you didn’t hear anything from them again for the rest of the book. I found that quite odd …

A love triangle begins to emerge in this book, which I would not have minded so much if there was a hint of it in the first book. Karou and Akiva are more or less separated (for the time being, anyway), and we are introduced to Ziri, a chimera of the same race that Madrigal/Karou was. Cue intimate moments scenes. Insert a vague history between the two of them. See, all this was brand new information in book two, Ziri was never mentioned in book one, and it made it feel like this love triangle thing was an afterthought or something.

I also have to agree with my friend Paola that Zuzana had become super annoying in this book and I really hope she would be turned down a notch or two. I don’t know if she and Mik were supposed to be comic relief in an otherwise bleak and depressing environment, but they were not funny. They were irritating. Especially Zuzana, who came off as self-centered to me. A clashing of worlds is about to occur, your best friend’s life is going to be in danger, the entire WORLD is going to be in danger, and the only thing she seemed to care about was that she was in a dinky hotel room, away from all the action. Sigh.

I was happy with the direction of character development though. I feel Karou has grown up and matured a lot, enduring her trials and tribulations (unlike her best friend who seemed to have done the reverse of maturing), and Akiva also has gone through some serious self reflection. I like how they are not like two lovesick teenagers hell-bent on being together no matter the costs. They are level headed and realize there are greater stakes — worlds to save — and if they cannot be together because of this, then so be it, because it will be for the greater good. I do hope Karou and Akiva will resolve their issues with one another, but I feel it would be appropriate if they didn’t either. I guess either way, I will be content with their relationship.

Here’s hoping book three will be much better!

My Rating: 2/5

Daughter of Smoke & Bone

This post first published March 16, 2013.

Author: Laini Taylor
First Published: September 2011
Publisher: Little, Brown Books for Young Readers
Series: Daughter of Smoke & Bone #1
391 pages (eBook)
 
I’ve been meaning to read this book for a while. When it was first released and the reviews started pouring out on blogs and Goodreads, the overwhelming majority that I read were very positive reviews. Needless to say, this book piqued my interest but I didn’t get around to reading it until now (an excuse I use for almost every book I read — “I didn’t get around to reading it …” Hah). I tried not to have my opinion of the book subconsciously swayed by the hype, though when it feels like EVERYONE loves this book, I feel pressure to love it too. Anyway, I definitely think this book is amazing, fun and creative, and I enjoyed it very much. I can totally understand why everyone loves it. I don’t think I love it quite as much as some other readers too, but I do think it is a very good book.

The story is about a young girl named Karou (pronounced ka-roo), who lives in Prague, alone in her own apartment, and attends an art school. She loves to draw and her friends love seeing the monsters she creates in her sketchbook. Little do her friends know, these monsters aren’t figments of Karou’s imagination; they are real. They are the monsters who raised Karou and Karou loves them as her own family.

Her “father figure” is Brimstone, who appears to be the leader of the four monsters. His life’s work is to collect teeth. All kinds of teeth, from humans to animals and even other fantastical creatures. Karou has no idea what Brimstone does with these bags and bags of teeth, she’s not allowed to ask. However, she runs errands for Brimstone and in return, he gives him small beads that allow her to make minor wishes, such as changing her hair colour to a natural blue, or giving her enemy caterpillar-bushy eyebrows.

When black handprints start appearing on doorways all over the world — the doorways to the world where the monsters reside — Karou’s world starts to change drastically. Suddenly, she loses all contact with Brimstone and the others and worse, she is being hunted by a beautiful but dangerous male angel named Akiva. However, little does Karou know, Akiva knows all about Karou’s true identity and how she is connected to him. Before she knows it, she and Akiva are embroiled in a forbidden love.

Before I say anything else, I want to make it clear that I did, indeed, fall in love with this book. I haven’t read a book this creative or imaginative since … well, it feels like a very long time. The best part of the creativity, for me, was the use of the teeth and wishes. I’m not going to spoil what Brimstone was using the teeth for, for those of you who don’t know, but I really liked that twist. Teeth! So simple, but so genius at the same time.

At its core, it’s still a pretty ‘common’ story. I would say the core of this novel is similar to the basic plot of Romeo & Juliet: two starcrossed lovers who cannot be together due to their affiliations. But in Daughter of Smoke & Bone, I feel Laini Taylor took that common story and re-imagined it on an epic grand scale, with angels and demons and an eternal war. The chronology of the story is also a bit different as well, telling the end first (although as the reader, you do not know it is the end) and then explaining the beginning, with how Karou and Akiva originally met and so on.

I really enjoyed the beginning of the book (or the ‘end’ of the story). I was totally loving being in Karou’s world, her art classes, her secret visits to Brimstone and her monster family, her annoying ex-boyfriend doing stupid stunts to try to win her back and all the little, and sometimes petty, wishes she made. Where the book began to falter, for me, was when the story shifted and began to tell the tale of how Karou and Akiva originally met. It was very removed from the setting I was already used to, and I was really not expecting that at all. I went from being on a slightly magical/paranormal Earth to a completely different world altogether, one where angels and monsters fought a war on a daily basis. New city names, new geography, new culture to know. The problem wasn’t the newness, it was just such a sudden shift for me that it almost felt like a disconnect between the first half of the book to the second half. The more I read, the more far away I felt from everything I read prior. It almost felt like a completely different story I was reading.

I wasn’t too crazy about was Karou and Akiva’s relationship either. It’s very sweet, but as I mentioned earlier, it is at its core, a Romeo & Juliet kind of story. Even though I praise the author for being so imaginative with it, the relationship is still as simplistic as what you think a Romeo & Juliet story would have. Their relationship is powerful, deep and passionate — and also quite instant. Even though Karou and Akiva started off as enemies, they very, very quickly put that all aside and, well, fell in love. I know, I know — you are thinking, “Uh, did you not READ the book? There is a reason!” I’m perfectly aware but I think even when Karou and Akiva met originally in Karou’s past life, it was still a lot of, “Wow, he’s so beautiful” and “Wow, she’s so beautiful”, with some “I saved your life” mixed in. I’m afraid I just didn’t feel the same fiery passion that these two character felt whenever they were with one another.

Now, with all that said, I did love reading this book a lot though. It was very fun and I became victim to the “just one more chapter” syndrome that all good books seem to be able to inflict on its readers. I liked Karou’s character a lot — not so much her “alter ego” (or rather, her original form) because that personality seemed way too Mary Sue for my liking. But I liked Karou and how she interacted with her human friends and her monster family. I loved the idea of a monster hidden in a little shop collecting teeth — don’t ask my why, but I’m very attached to that idea and this book did a very good job driving me crazy with wanting to know what the heck Brimstone was using the teeth for! You do get to find out in the end, no worries. The book also did a good job driving me crazy with who Karou was in her other life, but that one became somewhat predictable and therefore, less mysterious once Akiva entered the story and you see how they’re interacting.

I certainly recommend this book to anyone who enjoys YA novels, I do think this is one of the better YA novels I’ve read in the last little while. I eagerly look forward to book two: Days Of Blood & Starlight!

My Rating: 4/5

Soulless

This post first published September 6, 2012.

Author: Gail Carriger
First Published: 2009
Publisher: Orbit
Series: Parasol Protectorate #1
365 pages (mass market paperback)
 
I’ve seen this book appear on a number of Goodreads friends’ pages and was interested in it because 1) it took place in a steampunk Victorian period and 2) it’s a mish-mash of vampires, werewolves and ghosts. Essentially, I was under the impression it was a quirky book that would be fun to read and I’m happy to say, now that I finished reading it, that it is exactly that. Sometimes it’s nice to read something not serious, and Soulless was a great getaway. It was almost like fantasy chick-lit.

Soulless is about 26 year old spinster, Alexia Tarabotti. She is, if you haven’t guessed, soulless, which means she is “immune” to supernatural creatures. She can’t be bitten by them, for example, and they become human when touched by her. She lives in a steampunk Victorian era London, where werewolves, vampires and ghosts are real and integrated into society. Such supernatural creatures are registered with BUR (Bureau of Unnatural Registry) so they are all kept track of. At a ball one day, Alexia is attacked by an unregistered vampire, whom she accidentally kills. Lord Maccon, an alpha werewolf, a BUR worker and ridiculously gorgeous, is sent to investigate the killing. Nobody knows who this vampire is or where he came from. What’s worse is that registered supernaturals are disappearing and more unknown supernaturals are appearing. Even worse, everyone thinks Alexia may have something to do with this, being soulless and all.

The first thing I noticed was the writing style. It’s different from most novels, I think. I don’t really know how to describe it, other than that it’s quirky. I enjoyed the writing a lot and found it suited the humorous Victorian setting of this book. It’s witty, it’s funny and I was never bored at any time when reading this. I imagine this kind of writing style isn’t going to be for everyone, but I personally really liked it.

All the characters are very memorable and I love them all. Because of the type of story it is and the kind of atmosphere the book has, I’m not surprised that all the characters are kind of “cartoon-ish”; in fact, I loved it. Alexia is a bold, intellectual and independent woman who has resigned to the fact that she’ll probably never marry because frankly, no husband wants a wife this assertive in such a time period. That isn’t to say she doesn’t have her feminine moments. Alexia has resigned to being a spinster, but she does kind of wish she has a husband and a family and all that jazz. I loved her relationship with Lord Maccon, who becomes a love interest of her’s very early on in the story. They seem to irritate one another at first, but later it is revealed they both are quite fond of one another. Lord Maccon is so protective of Alexia, it is just adorable! I was a little surprised by how much romance was in this book (namely, all the kissing/making out scenes), but I found myself quite enjoying them bantering with one another. Even the characters that don’t speak much have wonderfully endearing qualities. For example, I really love Alexia’s family butler, Floote. He doesn’t say much, he doesn’t even appear much, but I just imagine him hovering around in the background, worrying over Alexia entertaining her adventurous spirit, and it just makes me feel warm and fuzzy inside.

I think this is a delightfully written book that’s fun to read if you’re yearning for something light and fun. I am looking forward to reading more about Alexia in the next books in this series (makes me happy to know there are at least four more books after this first one)!

My Rating: 4.5/5

Imaginary Girls

This post first published September 3, 2012.

Author: Nova Ren Suma
First Published: June 2011
Publisher: Dutton Juvenile
348 pages (hardcover)
 
Imaginary Girls is a kind of story you don’t really encounter too often in YA books. Most people label it as a paranormal or supernatural book, but I think it’s closer to surrealism. Surrealism isn’t something YA authors write about very often so if you exclusively read YA, chances are you haven’t come across this type of story, but I really enjoy surreal stories so it was a pleasant surprise to run into it here. Be warned; surrealism isn’t for everyone. If you’ve never read surrealism, you’ll probably think such stories are just “weird” or “doesn’t make sense.” Some people seem to hate it, some seem to love it. Really depends on your cup of tea.

Imaginary Girls is mainly about two sisters named Ruby and Chloe. Chloe is the younger one, by five years, and the narrator of this story. These two sisters are incredibly close and will literally do anything for one another, though the relationship balance is not equal — Ruby thinks she knows what’s best for Chloe and dictates everything, whereas Chloe is in awe of her sister and will listen to everything Ruby says. The girls live in a small town by a reservoir that is out of bounds, but parties are frequently held there anyway by the teenagers of the town.

The story opens up with one such party, where Ruby brags that her little sister is such a great swimmer, she can swim across the reservoir. Chloe, being obedient, attempts the swim but runs into a floating rowboat with the dead body of a girl named London, a girl she knows from her class. Flash forward, Chloe is living with her dad (the girls have different fathers) away from town, but Ruby forces Chloe to come back and live with her, acting like London never died. When Chloe returns to the small town with Ruby, she finds everything very peculiar. London is, indeed, alive, and what’s more, Ruby has some strange way of making everyone in town do exactly as she says.

I quite enjoyed this book. The writing is really great and the dialogue felt real and not cheesy. As I said, I do like surrealism so I had no problem slipping into the story. Like Chloe, I was tossed into a dream-like world where I wasn’t sure if what was happening was REALLY happening or not. I felt a bit haunted while reading this book. You know something is not quite right, it’s almost like there’s an element of creepiness. I wasn’t sure if there really was some super powers happening here, or ghosts or what, but it was about halfway through the book that I decided that this was a surrealistic story. I guess you can say “magical realism” too, which would be another label if you like labels.

Then there’s Chloe and Ruby’s relationship, which is the big focus in this novel. Ruby is someone the entire town practically worships. She gets her way with everything and all the boys want to date her. Chloe, too, looks up to her sister, obsessed with her as much as Ruby is obsessed with herself, but with her return to town, she senses that it’s strange how everyone just does whatever Ruby says. Ruby’s not exactly a kind person. She’s self-centered to the extreme and acts like the entire world was created for her and her sister. Chloe is the only person Ruby cares about. It’s an interesting relationship where Chloe is the only person who has potential to “control” Ruby, but she doesn’t. Ruby has everyone under her spell. Ironically, because  I’m a third party looking into the story from the outside, I didn’t really like Ruby. Brilliantly written characters with great dialogue, but if I met Ruby in real life, I wouldn’t like her one bit, haha. Chloe is a bit of a doormat and doesn’t seem to have much of a personality, which sounds like a bad thing, but works great in this book because she’s always in Ruby’s shadow so it makes perfect sense.

This is a character-driven book so there isn’t a whole lot of plot per se, so some readers may find the book slow moving. But the relationship of Chloe and Ruby, or even just Ruby, is so fascinating to read the pages do seem to fly by. Slowly, you realize Ruby is just a messed up person and super manipulative. Slowly, you realize your narrator isn’t really any better than Ruby, she’s just a less intense version of her. Sometimes I doubted whether Chloe was a reliable narrator or not and it made me question a lot of the events in the book. There are so many times where I thought, “Is this really happening? Or is someone going to wake up and say it was all a dream?”

This is without a doubt a brilliantly written book and if you enjoy surreal fiction, you definitely want to check out Imaginary Girls.

My Rating: 4/5

Sweet Evil

This post first published August 28, 2012.

Author: Wendy Higgins
Series:  Sweet Evil #1
First Published: May 2012
Publisher: HarperTeen
464 pages (eBook) 
 
I am kind of in a state of disbelief over this book. I mean that in a, “What did I just read?” kind of way. It started off pretty good but very, very quickly went downhill for me. I just can’t believe over half the things that happened in this book. I’m surprised I actually read every word to the end.
Sweet Evil is about a girl named Anna. She’s super sweet and innocent, incredibly nice, and also, she can literally see people’s emotions, in colours. She’s always known she was kind of different from other people, obviously. When she turns 16, she meets Kaidan, a deliciously handsome teen boy who’s in a famous rock band. He’s the same as her — he can see people’s emotions, but the difference is, he knows why. Anna and Kaidan are Nephilim, the offspring of demons and humans. Born to one of the Dukes of Evil, their jobs is to corrupt humankind and have them destroy one another in sin. However, Anna is even more unique than she realizes — she is not the daughter of a demon and a human, but rather, a demon and an angel.

There are so many things I didn’t like about this book. I’ll start with the story and structure. I really did not like having the story world explained to me via question-answer sessions between characters. I can think of at least three long scenes where Anna is sat down with another characters (Kaidan, her foster mom Patti, or her dad) and they just explain things to her. It was like reading an interview, where Anna would ask a question and the other person would provide an answer. I find this to be a very boring and unimaginative way of revealing a story world.

A lot of events happened in this book that were just super unrealistic, and I don’t mean the demons and spirits and angels. The majority of characters in this book are 15-17. Somehow, every teen is hooked onto drinking and ecstasy and having sex, or so it seems. At age FIFTEEN? Holy cow. Maybe I just wasn’t “hip” when I was 15, but that seems awfully young to be doing these things. Not only that, but it’s incredibly easy for them to enter clubs and bars. I have no idea why. I highly doubt all the bouncers do is slap a bracelet on your hand that says you’re a minor. As the kids in this book showed, even with these magical bracelets, they got their hands on booze very easily. And wow, were they ever knowledgeable about alcohol, they knew so many drinks and mixes, it was mind boggling.
The characters were ridiculous. Anna is supposed to be super innocent, kind and a little naive. Well, she definitely came off naive, and very dumb, and very annoying. She’s stuck in this world where she wants everyone to hold hands and ring around the rosy. She’s also hypocritical. For example, Kaidan, being the son of the Duke of Lust, kept wanting to have sex with her. She kept refusing. Finally, one night, she randomly pounced on Kaidan, totally wanting to have sex with him because — get this — her poetry homework made her mad. Kaidan wasn’t great either. I saw no reason why the two of them fell in love after four days (Anna even admits it’s only been 4 days), but they did. Kaidan had little personality and the only thing he wanted from Anna nearly the entire time was to have sex with her, which Anna kept refusing yet she fell in love … Weird.

Anna’s parents were really aggravating too, especially her mom. Anna’s foster mom, Patti, is your stereotypical helicopter mom. At the same time, she makes dumb parenting decisions. Anna needs to go to California to meet her dad — why not go on a road trip with Kaidan, the boy you met yesterday? Yes, you know he’s the son of a demon, that should be no problem because you’ll just go right up to him and tell him to leave Anna’s virtue intact. He’ll listen to you, right? And then there’s Anna’s dad. She hasn’t seen him in 16 years, yet once they were in each other’s lives, they acted like they’ve always known one another, being super close and everything. It was bizarre. Not to mention how extremely uncomfortable it was to read about her dad bringing TONS of alcohol to her and teaching her how to drink alcohol so she can lure other people to drink and become drunk. She’s SIXTEEN. I don’t care if that’s her job as a demon child, she’s SIXTEEN! It did not inspire any warm and fuzzy father-daughter moments in me at all.

On a similar note, I do understand that this book centers around these demons that are each in charge of a sin, but I felt like the amount of it in the book was almost at inappropriate levels for a YA/teen novel. There’s SO much drugs and alcohol in this book which the characters drink with no consequences. Kaidan’s job is to have sex with girls, so he’s having one night stands in every other chapter. We have two twin girls whose job is to break up relationships and marriages. One of them describes being gang raped at age 13. Anna herself almost gets date raped. Who thought all this would be okay in a book with characters who are so young?! If this was an adult/general fiction book, that’s different, but this isn’t. I also disliked how this book emphasized virginity = purity. Implying that if you’re not a virgin, you’re a dirty, dirty whore, which is something some of the female characters who are not virgins experienced when the other kids at school found out they had sex with so and so.

I can go on forever about what I didn’t like about this book, but I think you get the point. There’s so many things I dislike about it and the story seemed to make less and less sense as the book went on. It’s really strange because when I first started the book, I actually really enjoyed the first chapter and was looking forward to some YA demon-angel mythology. I am definitely not interested in reading any more from this series :|

My Rating: 1/5

Everneath

This post first published August 23, 2012.

Author: Brodi Ashton
Series: Everneath #1
First Published: January 2012
Publisher: HarperCollins
240 pages (eBook)
 
The last several times I was attracted to a beautiful YA cover, the book turned out to be disappointing. This time, however, the book turned out to be a very wonderful read! I’m pleasantly surprised by how much I enjoyed this book and how much I look forward to the next one in this series.
Everneath is about 17 year old Nikki (nicknamed Becks because of her last name), who has reappeared on the Surface of the world again. Where had she been previously? She was in a “cocoon”, trapped in the Everneath (a mythical underworld of some sort) with an Everliving being named Cole, who fed off her emotions for 100 years so that he will continue to remain immortal. She’s finally out of Everneath and back on the Surface, where she finds only 6 months have passed. She only has another 6 months of freedom before the Everneath tunnels will claim her again.

If there’s one thing Nikki wants to do before being taken again, it’s to see her former boyfriend Jack. They had broken up even before she went missing, but she never stopped thinking about him, for a hundred years. As Nikki tries to mend their relationship so that it at least sort of resembles a friendship again, Nikki and Jack find themselves longing for the past and each other. This is made particularly difficult because of Cole, who keeps appearing before Nikki and offering her another choice — choose to be with Cole and they may become rulers of the Everneath. Why Nikki won’t go for this option, besides the fact that she wants to be with Jack, is because she will have to be like Cole and start feeding off other people’s emotions too, an experience that Nikki has done and does not wish on anyone else.

At first, I found it a little difficult to get into the book. I didn’t really understand the world of the Everneath, and the plot seemed to progress rather slowly. It’s not a plot orientated book, it’s definitely a character orientated book. However, I caught on eventually and with the 6 month deadline hovering over Nikki’s head, there was a real sense of urgency to everything the characters did and the choices they made. What I particularly loved was the way the story was presented. It switched back and forth between the past and the present with each chapter, juxtaposing the awkwardness of Nikki and Jack’s present relationship with the sweet, honeymoon-like relationship of their past. It definitely helped me understand the characters more thoroughly and knowing the ins and outs of their relationship put into perspective the danger the Everneath is to the both of them.

Nikki was a great character, I liked how the book kind of showed her return to the Surface like a person who was recovering from a drug addiction. Because that’s what it’s described as in the book — when you are being fed off, it’s like everything in the world is fine again, no need to feel anything, which Nikki sorely wanted because of her break up and the fact her mother died (and then the culprit didn’t even go to jail). It was like she was numb for 100 years and finally was sober and out in the world again. The other two main characters, the boys Cole and Jack, were a tad disappointing in their characterization. They both felt sort of stereotypical, bad boy and perfect boy, but at least they were two people who were distinctly different from one another (unlike some other YA love triangles, where I don’t understand what the girl’s dilemma is because both boys are exactly the same … but that’s another story). And they were both quite likeable, even the naughty one, haha.

I’m really happy that I read this book! I haven’t enjoyed a YA paranormal book in a long time (or so it feels), and I’m glad Everneath lifted me out of that funk. I’m definitely looking forward to the second book, I’m dying to find out what happens after that ending!

My Rating: 4/5

Miss Peregrine's Home For Peculiar Children

This post first published March 17, 2012.

Author: Ransom Riggs
Series: Miss Peregrine #1
Published: June 2011
Publisher: Quirk Books
352 pages
 
The March book of my online reading book club :)
A collection of odd vintage photographs and the mysterious and violent death of his beloved grandfather leads Jacob on a trip to a remote island by Wales, where he yearns to find out the truth behind his grandfather’s death and his cryptic last words. Everyone’s convinced Jacob’s having a mental breakdown over the death, but Jacob knows he’s not — he really did see monsters kill his grandpa. Or he thinks he did anyway … after several therapist sessions, even Jacob is starting to think maybe he’s just gone crazy. But the discovery of a broken down house and a miraculous encounter with the peculiar children of his grandfather’s story convinces Jacob that he isn’t seeing things. The monsters were real, and the peculiar children are in great danger.

The problem I had with this book was that it was boring. The plot is weak and moves at an awkward fast-slow-fast-slow pace. It was such a disappointment after the intriguing beginning. The beginning was really well written, in my opinion. I was sucked into the story immediately. It is rather unfortunate that it went steeply downhill from there.

The characters were not very well developed. Jacob, the main character, is a bit of a wishy-washy narrator. He never seems to really know what he wants. He didn’t have any goals to work towards in this novel. It was just, “I’m going to this island … I have no idea what I am looking for, but maybe it will help.” And when he got to the island, he was like, “I’m here now. I have no idea what I’m doing.” Jacob’s father, the one parent that had the most stage-time in this book, had some potential — a bird enthusaist who clearly had some self-esteem issues and was worried that if he didn’t do something productive with his life soon, his wealthy wife would leave him — but the author didn’t really do much with him. Which is a real shame because his back story and his issues sound like they could make a pretty damn interesting novel. As for the other characters, the peculiar children and what not, they had interesting abilities, but not much of a personality.

The most redeeming quality of this book are the photographs, I feel. They range from mildly odd to downright eerie. I think the author must have really loved the photos and wanted to use them to make a coherent plot. The problem with this is that sometimes, in order to include a certain photo or set of photos, unnecessary details or scenes were added into the narrative. I think this contributed to the awkward pacing of the story, and also may be why I felt the plot felt rather weak; the story  was constrained by the photographs. It couldn’t deviate too far from the story the pictures told when arranged in a certain order. So this book’s strength is also its weakness … heh.

As a whole, I just didn’t dig this book. The photos were cool and I really enjoyed the writing style, but the other important components of a novel, namely plot and characters, fell way too short for my tastes.

My Rating: 1.5/5

City of Fallen Angels

This posted first published January 14, 2012.

Author: Cassandra Clare
Published: April 2011
Publisher: Simon & Schuster’s Children’s Publishing
Series: The Mortal Instruments #4
314 pages (eBook)
 
It’s been a bit difficult finding reading time with the start of yet another semester (my last one!) so it took me a lot longer than it normally would have to complete this book. And it’s been a super long time since I read any of the Mortal Instrument books. I remember all the characters but couldn’t really remember the plot details. It all kind of came back to me as I read this fourth book though — which, by the way, I was a little surprised about because I thought the series ended with three?? But I guess not. Last I heard, there’s also a book five and six planned as well.

In City of Fallen Angels, Simon is adjusting to his life as a new vampire. Things get a bit rough when his mother sort of finds out and Simon decides to move out to protect her. Which turns out to be sort of a good thing, I suppose, since someone keeps sending people to try to capture or harm Simon, presumbly for his powers as a Daylighter, a vampire who can walk in the sunlight. Of course, nothing can harm him with the Mark of Cain on him.

At the same time, Shadowhunters are dying in Downworlder territory, causing a bit of strife between the two groups. At first everyone thinks it’s the leader of the vampires, Camille, but it soon becomes clear there is a greater force at work, with an ulterior motive.

Oh, and there’s also the Jace-Clary part of the story, which was my least favourite part so I’m going to kind of just glaze over it. Jace starts receiving dreams about harming Clary, and believes he might actually harm her. There was a lot of proclamations of undying love, angst and inner turmoil between the two — essentially, their relationship hasn’t really progressed since the last three books. I was hoping for it to mature, but it just can’t seem to get past this “I love you but I shouldn’t” kind of depressing thing. It’s also a bit hard to take their love seriously because this sort of obsessive love is what teenagers experience in “puppy love”, the kind of thing you think is cute but probably won’t last forever.

Anyway, this book felt very much like a “set-up” book — it’s setting up for a second major plot in the series. I’m not sure how I really feel about the continuation of the series; I thought book three ended off pretty well and tied things together neatly. All the same though, I do enjoy the series and the different direction it is headed in now does intrigue me and want me to continue reading. I will be the first to admit this wasn’t really a necessary sequel, but I guess I’m just a fan of the world Clare has created in her books and want to keep immersing myself in it.

I really like Simon (I can’t remember if I liked or disliked him in the previous books, but I think I was generally favorable towards him). He’s sort of the main character in this book (well, a central character anyway) and I think he does develop more as a character. He’s got a whole different life now — and I’m not only talking about being a super vampire that makes other vampires jealous, but also the fact he has two girls interested him! From being friend-zoned by Clary to having to rip girls off his back, Simon manages to feel like a refreshing new character while still retaining his personality, his thoughts and familiar self. He’s also got some angst going on now, with being a vampire and all — angst seems to be a central theme in this series — but I think Simon is a fabulous character and I’m really glad this book focuses more on him and that he has more of a role in the story now.

Overall, I quite liked the book. I was by no means obsessively reading it, but it certainly entertained me during my long commutes to and from campus. If you already enjoy the series, then I’m sure you’ll like this one too. If you haven’t read this series before, I find it is a bit of hit-or-miss amongst readers (at least, the ones I know), so I suggest just going with your gut feeling.

My Rating: 3/5

Darker Still

This post first published December 21, 2011.

Author: Leanna Renee Hieber
Published: November 2011
Publisher: Sourcebooks Fire
Series: Magic Most Foul #1
317 pages (paperback)
 
There are primarily two reasons I picked up this book — one, it’s inspired by Oscar Wilde’s The Portrait of Dorian Gray, which I adore, and two, look at that cover! Is that not one of the most beautiful book covers ever? I’m such a sucker for pretty covers …

The story is set in the late 1800’s in New York City. Natalie Stewart is a mute girl, though her lack of voice is strictly a psychological thing: she stopped speaking when her mother died. Anyway, a painting from England has come to grace American shores, and there’s quite a stir about it since it is rumored to be haunted. The painting is a life sized portrait of a dashing young man, Lord Denbury, who died some years ago through tragic circumstances. Natalie becomes enchanted by the painting, and senses there’s something frighteningly realistic about it. Her suspicions come true when she is pulled into the painting and realizes that Lord Denbury is alive and well, but cursed and trapped in his own portrait.

I’m going to get my biggest complaint about the book out of the way first, and that is the fact that it’s written in diary format but does not read like a diary at all. People don’t usually write diaries like narrative stories, especially not personal diaries. The inclusion of overly descriptive scenes, exact dialogue with the he-said, she-said, etc. definitely leans away from diary-writing and more to novel-writing. When people write diaries, I don’t think many of them write out their experiences in novel format, if any. Essentially what Darker Still has done is insert dates every so often to make it seem like a diary, when really it is not.

Other than that though, I did enjoy the book very much. I’m no expert on Victorian literature, so in my inexpert opinion, the story did a fairly good job replicating the style of speech and whatnot, although there were a few points in the writing where I thought the author was trying a little too hard. The story is basically a bit of a mystery novel, with Natalie attempting to figure out how Lord Denbury got into the painting, who did it, and how to get him out; overall, it was a fun, quick read.
I particularly liked Natalie. She’s mute, but rather than being a withdrawn and passive girl, she takes initiative a lot and is eager to communicate with others in any way possible. I could even forgive the fact that she is obsessed with Denbury’s charming good looks — a lot of YA novels tend to have their female leads obsess over the male lead’s muscles and abs, which, incidentally, all male leads possess — because her obsession with his looks actually kind of make sense in this book. The painting of Denbury is supposed to be mesmerising and scarily realistic, so Natalie being unable to take her eyes off of Denbury’s portrait makes sense. When she enters the painting and realizes he’s a real gentleman as well, it kind of seals the deal. No ridiculously lengthy descriptions of muscled chests here, thanks.

Denbury, on the other hand, was quite one-dimensional and personally, I don’t see what the big appeal is about him. At one point, he does something kind of weird. The two of them are on a serious mission to scope out some information and suddenlt, Denbury (Potential spoilers alert!) ……………………….. “attacks” Natalie to the ground, kissing her everywhere, trying to unbutton her blouse, and all that. The book literally says he pounced on her!  At first I thought he was just possessed (which is quite possible due to the nature of this story), but then Denbury apologizes by basically saying he’s really horny (I’m paraphrasing, of course). Natalie, being a noble Victorian lady, declines his advances, though, bizarrely, Natalie is so starstruck by Denbury that she brushes it all off as nothing! (Spoilers over!) The whole scene just stuck out oddly to me, and seemed like an awkward attempt at creating a modern sexy scene or something, I don’t know. It was weird.

I personally liked the book because I am a fan of Victorian literature and also a fan of Dorian Gray. If you generally dislike reading “old fashioned” books, you might want to skip this one over, I suppose, since it does try to mimic the style of Victorian novels. I think this book was well written as a whole and the story flows smoothly. The characters are a bit hit and miss — I liked Natalie, but Denbury was a bit blah. I’d recommend giving this book a go if you are interested!

My Rating: 3.5/5

Blood

This post first published September 20, 2011.

Author: K.J. Wignall
Published: September 2011
Publisher: Egmont USA
Series: Mercian Trilogy #1
272 pages (galley)
 
I got a copy of this book from the ever-wonderful NetGalley. I was interested in reading a book about vampires, especially after I heard that Blood dealt with the more ‘traditional’ vampire. However, I didn’t really end up enjoying this particular story very much.

The plot of Blood is a little too obscure for my liking, but it certainly has potential; I think it was the execution of said ideas that dragged the story down a bit. It’s about William, Earl of Mercia, who “fell ill” (that’s lingo for “turned into a vampire”) in the 1200’s and was buried away in a crypt. Over the past 800 or so years, he’ll wake up every so often to feed on human blood.

The story opens up with Will waking up and looks for a person to feed on, as per his usual routine, as well as feeling sorry for himself and wondering if he’ll ever find the person who turned him into a vampire so he can exact his revenge. Will finds a homeless person and kills him, drinking his blood, but when he peeks through the homeless person’s notebook and sees his name in it, he becomes intrigued and wonders if destiny brought him to this man. Flipping through it some more, he sees some sketches of this girl who, coincidentally enough, he runs into later in the story. He is sure that somehow, this girl (Eloise) is connected to him, based on the writings/prophecies/notes in the notebook, and that he is approaching his “destiny”, the reason he became a vampire.

So, I think the plot is okay, and the story as whole is okay, but I felt like it was built on a lot of funky coincidences and truthfully, it wasn’t written in the most captivating manner. It’s good writing, but as I was reading, I felt disconnected from the story a lot; I couldn’t fully immerse myself into the world.
I wasn’t a big fan of all the coincidences in the story — which Will handily calls destiny. Will encountered the homeless guy who coincidentally had all these notes about him, and then he coincidentally he meets Eloise, the same girl talked about in the notebook, and Eloise coincidentally knows Chris and Rachel, who have seen Will in 1989 and recognize him and actually remember him, and they coincidentally are really interested in paranormal stuff …  it just felt like the story is in danger of crossing over to the deus ex machina side quite often, as it relied on the destiny card quite a bit. I understand that Will’s character has a destiny laid out for him (apparently), but it was not laid out by a god. It was laid out by the villain, who has a use for Will. So I don’t understand how destiny is causing Will to run into all these characters who are so intertwined or related to his story.

The characters were rather mediocre and weren’t very likeable or memorable. Will reminded me greatly of Edward Cullen: vampire, good looks, kind of melancholic, wants to just die and be done with “living”, chivalric, etc. and that immediately made me not like him too much. Eloise struck me as an idiot. She comes from a privileged family, but decided to live on the streets because no one was paying enough attention to her. Chris and Rachel are easily forgettable, as their entire purpose seemed to boil down to being Will and Eloise’s chauffeurs.As for the villains, you don’t really meet them, nor do you get a clear picture as to their goals and motivations. Well, you do meet one villain at the end, but he’s really just the servant of the true villain.

The relationships between characters weren’t logical to me. I didn’t understand why Eloise was happy to disclose her real name to Will, who she’s only known a day, but reveals that she’s been using an alias around Chris and Rachel, who she’s known for much longer and swears are perfectly good people. I also didn’t understand why nobody freaked out or disbelieved the fact that Will was a vampire; everyone seemed to more or less accept it. I understand that Eloise, Chris and Rachel, due to their personalities, want to believe in vampires and other paranormal creatures, but wanting to believe is not quite the same as actually encountering one … and knowing he’s just killed a man yesterday … I feel like these characters aren’t believable in that sense. Most people would be more wary, at the very least, instead of eagerly rolling up their sleeves and offering any help they can to find the vampire’s attacker.

There isn’t very much romance in this book, which I was surprised because a lot of YA paranormal books (especially vampires!) have a romance component in them. It was definitely a welcome change, but what little romance there was in the book happened quite quickly. I am not sure at what point Will and Eloise started liking one another — one second they’re trying to unravel the mystery of Will’s ‘destiny’, the next second, they are locking lips. Nevertheless, the romance is so downplayed and minor in this story that I didn’t really mind the InstaLove.

The story moves pretty slow, and when it ended, it didn’t feel like anything was resolved. As the entire story revolved around Will moping about what his destiny is and all that, it was quite disappointing when the book ended and we still don’t find out what the destiny is. Will does find his attacker, but it was quickly resolved, so fast that if you blink, you would have missed it. I feel like since trilogies and series are a trend in YA, this book decided to follow that path as well, but I honestly feel this story should be a stand-alone book. I’ve said this about a number of YA series now — when you write a series, each individual book still feel conclusive. You can’t just say, “Oh, well, you’ll find the answers in the next book!” The reader shouldn’t finish the first book having discovered nothing. Or barely anything. For example, in the Harry Potter series, each book wraps up that particular books secrets, mysteries and plots, but the overarching plot continues on in the next book (namely, fighting Voldemort). It would be extremely unsatisfying to read The Chamber of Secrets and not find out where the notebook came from, or who Tom Riddle is, until two books later.

Anyway, for all my complaints, this book really was just okay. It’s not horrible, but it could have been a lot better. I think if you are not much of an inquisitive person when reading books, you might enjoy this, but if you are like me and ask a lot of questions, then this may be one better left unread. As a side note, I am also not a fan of this cover. It looks cheaply Photoshop’d, with the gradient text and the blood-splatter brushes. Also, the half-naked guy with abs on the cover is kind of cheesy and strikes me as a romance novel rather than YA. Is that supposed to be Will? I don’t think earls from the 1200s have abs because noble people don’t really do much physical labour back in those days … I don’t know. Just some of my random thoughts.

My Rating: 2/5

Fallen

This post first published September 7, 2011.

Author: Lauren Kate
Published: December 2009
Publisher: Doubleday
Series: Fallen #1
452 (paperback)
 
I have a weakness for books with beautiful covers, and Fallen has a very beautiful cover indeed. Except I don’t think the story inside the book lives up to the packaging. I am not even completely sure what I just read. After finishing the book, I am left with way too many questions, and I don’t feel like anything was really resolved … was there even anything to resolve? I got this book because the majority of my Goodreads friends gave it a high rating, but maybe I should have heeded the ratings of my non-friends more seriously. (Sorry, friends …)

If you’ve read Twilight, Hush Hush, Evermore, Elixir, Dead Beautiful, The Mephisto Covenant,  (insert another YA paranormal romance here), you’ve read half this book already. Luce has been troubled by the black shadows she sees for years. She has been pretending she’s completely normal for years, until recently at a high school party, she may or may not have accidentally killed her crush in a fire. And we never find out more about that event because the point of all that is to give a reason for Luce to enter Sword & Cross, a reform school.

Right away, Luce spots Daniel Grigori, who is, of course, drop dead gorgeous, has a “muscled torso” (naturally; he wouldn’t be a very good YA paranormal romance male lead without one), and seems a bit tortured. Their relationship feels a lot like Bella and Edward — Luce performs some Insta-Love™. Daniel tries to stay away from Luce at first, and isn’t very nice to her. Daniel saves Luce from a falling statue, like Edward saved Bella from an incoming car. Luce is still attracted to Daniel despite his efforts to tell her to stay away for her own good. Luce decides to go all stalker-like and literally research Daniel by digging through his school files, using the Internet and looking up his ancestors.

Oh, and the entire time, Luce is pursued by another guy, who is equally good looking, called Cam. Cam actually shows interest in Luce, and expresses how fond of her he is and even buys her a necklace. But no, Luce wants the guy who is trying his best to ignore her. Seriously boggles my mind. (And yes, Cam turns out to be the antagonist. Why??)

At no point in the story did I understand why Luce and Daniel love one another. They just do. They’re soulmates. Daniel may have a supernatural, albeit extremely flimsy, reason for loving Luce, but why does Luce love Daniel? He has shown zero interest in her. Oh wait. I remember. He’s gorgeous.

Not only that, but they’re not very interesting characters either. Luce and Daniel both have no personality, really. Daniel spends all his time feeling tortured and thinking, “Oh, Luce!” and Luce spends all her time being obsessive and thinking, “Oh Daniel!” These characters are like straight from the cheesiest romantic soap operas ever.

The plot … what plot? It was quite boring and slow. For 400 pages, I read about Luce admiring Daniel and how gorgeous he looks. I read about her stalking him. She’s annoyingly persistent. And then, finally, near the end, we have the scene that’s supposed to be the climax of the story — Daniel reveals his paranormal side (hint: the title of this book) — and we find out why he has been avoiding her the whole time. This climax was awful because any reader with half a brain could have pieced together the mystery of Daniel ages ago — not only does the title of this book provide a large clue, but the prologue and Daniel’s full name, Daniel Grigori does as well. It was like walking into a surprise party that you already knew about two weeks earlier.

The end of the book also kind of sets up the next book, but nothing is explained. For example, why is Luce so important that people want to kill her? Why is Cam evil? Why are Cam and Daniel fighting over Luce? Why are there so many of these paranormal creatures (I don’t want to spoil it even though it’s ridiculously easy to guess) gathered at Sword & Cross reform school? I know, I know — “It’ll be answered in the next book!” But to me, that is shoddy storytelling. Even if you are writing a series, each individual book must have a sense of resolution. As it is right now, Fallen feels like half a story. I know and understand nothing about its story world.

So, as you might gather by now, I didn’t like this book. It didn’t have much of a story, and mainly consisted of two overly dramatic, lovesick teenagers being obsessed with one another. And not in an entertaining Ron-and-Sammi-trainwreck kind of way.


(This book was from the library).

My Rating: 1/5

Life Eternal

This post first published August 31, 2011.

Author: Yvonne Woon
Published: February 2012
Publisher: Disney-Hyperion
Series: Dead Beautiful #2
408 pages (galley)
 
Life Eternal is the second book in the Undead paranormal romance series, Dead Beautiful (the first book goes by the series title), which I received from NetGalley. It kind of goes without being said that there are going to be Dead Beautiful spoilers in this review of Life Eternal (no Life Eternal spoilers though). As a recap of what I thought of book one, I thought it was very similar to Twilight in the general plotline, however, it was still a rather interesting read and I liked it. Because of how Dead Beautiful ended, I was extremely curious as to how everything would pan out in the sequel.

Last we left off in the romance between Renee and Dante, Renee had given up her soul to Dante, who gave it back to Renee. Thus, Renee had technically died at one point, and now Dante is on the run because everyone thinks he played a part in the murder of the Gottfried Academy headmistress. In Life Eternal, Gottfried has shut down because everyone thinks the school curse has come back, so Renee’s grandfather ships her off to Montreal, Quebec, to study at a Monitor training school.

At her new school, Renee finds herself the subject of a rumor — because she died last year, but “magically” came back to life (she never told anyone she gave her soul to Dante but he gave it back), everyone thinks she’s gained some sort of immortality. Somehow, this has enhanced her abilities as a Monitor and she finds herself ranked top of the class, which causes some jealous classmates to start bullying her. But Renee has bigger worries — her boyfriend Dante, is still hiding from those who think he killed someone, and his time as an Undead is running out. When Renee hears about the legend of the Nine Sisters, Monitors who may or may not have discovered the secret to Immortality, Renee decides to seek the truth to see if she can possibly buy Dante more time.

I found this to be a very solid sequel to Dead Beautiful. The beginning was a bit disappointing because it was kind of a repeat of the first book — Renee goes to a new school and has to learn to adapt all over again, she learns secrets about the Undead and Monitoring like before, she needs to hide her relationship with Dante  — but it was also different enough that I was interested and want to know what happens.

The beginning was a tad flat because Renee spends a considerable amount of time being mopey and, of course, pining for Dante. I think it was when the story begins to unfold in a mystery novel-like manner that the book really got my attention. Like the first book, it’s not a super complicated mystery (Renee receives all her clues via “visions”, which was a bit lame) but I loved finding out more about the Undead world and the Monitor culture. I admit, sometimes I found the story kind of bizarre. I mean, we’re talking zombies here. Why even bother trying to get along with the Undead when most have this instinct to suck your soul out? Plus, despite the explanation provided which I didn’t really buy, I think if there were really Undead things walking around, everyone ought to know for their own safety. That’s just me though. If you suspend your reality high enough, the book is actually quite enjoyable, and if anything, Woon has quite the imagination.

I am mostly indifferent to Renee — she’s the narrator to me, nothing more — but one thing that happened in the book that truly had me admiring her was when she thought that Dante might be a real danger to her. Like, maybe he could kill her. I was SO glad that she didn’t go the desperate/crazy-person route and thought, “Well, it’s Dante! He can’t possibly hurt me!” Instead, she thought like a rational person and thought, “Oh god, I need to get away from this guy.” When you’ve read a LOT of YA with obsessive girls ready to lay themselves down like doormats for Their Man, it’s extremely refreshing to have a female lead who has the brains to realize she might actually be in danger and need to get away from the situation. It wasn’t enough for Renee just to have Dante say, “I’ll never hurt you.” You know what she did? She didn’t believe him. (Well, until she could prove he wasn’t dangerous). Honestly, I was really impressed with that aspect of Renee. Props to the author for writing a character that knows how to think for herself.

I am not a fan of the ending though. It was extremely abrupt. The story was just getting exciting, and then in MID-SCENE, the story ends. How can you end a book in mid-scene?! That’s not even a proper cliff-hanger! And it was the most exciting part of the book too … I mean, I was really getting into it and then it just ends! I’m not disappointed with the direction it was heading in, just the timing of the ending. I really don’t think that ending can be considered a proper ending at all. Mid-scene! Really!

Well, I guess I’ll just have to wait till book three now to find out the other half of that scene.

My Rating: 3.5/5

Hereafter

This post first published August 24, 2011.

Author: Tara Hudson
Published: June 2011
Publisher: HarperCollins
Series: Hereafter #1
404 pages (hardcover)
 
Admittedly, I do not have very high standards for YA paranormal romances. It’s pretty low, actually. I keep reading YA paranormal romances though because they’re sort of a guilty pleasure (which is pretty much the same reason why I keep watching Jersey Shore-why-can’t-I-stop-the-madness?!) Hereafter has an intriguing synopsis and comes with many rave reviews, plus a beautiful cover. So I bought myself a copy and eagerly started reading it, hoping that this one will turn out to be a rare gem in the flood of paranormal romances in the YA market.
It’s not.

Hereafter isn’t bad, but it’s not very good either. It starts off interestingly enough. Amelia is a ghost, who’s been dead for several years now, and wanders around aimlessly in the living world, without much memory of her living life. One day, she rescues a boy, Joshua, from drowning in the same river she died years ago. After the rescue, Joshua can see Amelia and … you guessed it — they fall in love. Yes, it happens that quickly. Amelia can’t get over how gorgeous Joshua is (naturally) and Joshua is unfazed by the fact that Amelia is, well, dead.

Since being dead isn’t going to be an issue in their relationship, neither should the evil ghost stalking Amelia to make her his servant … or Joshua’s grandmother who specializes in exorcising ghosts, right?

The majority of the story is quite boring, and the pacing quite slow. There seems to be an attempt at making a mystery out of Amelia’s unknown living life, but the author decided to only flirt with the idea instead of going all the way with it. A good chunk of it is just a lot of Amelia and Joshua moments, which wasn’t interesting to read because Hereafter is another case of YA insta-love.
Amelia must be bi-polar or something. She started off as a rather gloomy character, brooding about her death and her nightmares, but after meeting Joshua, she’d frequently burst into giggles and I can just see the heart-shapes dancing in her eyes whenever she looks at the guy. Joshua was a pretty cookie-cutter male love interest (meaning: perfect with gorgeous abs … why do all high school boys have abs in YA books?!) What’s most bizarre about him is how accepting he is that Amelia is a ghost. And then he invites her to come to school with him. And go home and spend the night with him. All in the span of a couple days.

Then there is their weird connection with one another. He’s the only thing Amelia can touch (probably because he can see her), and when they do, they get these sensations that are perfect descriptions of orgasms. There is a scene where Joshua even moans when they touch. I found that quite … odd, especially considering how when Amelia touches Eli (granted, he is a ghost) she doesn’t feel this way. Neither when she touches Jillian. Just Joshua. How weird. Guess it’s more evidence for their soulmates status.

The story redeemed itself a bit in the last quarter of the book or so — the pace picked up considerably and the story actually got a lot more interesting, though it was still riddled with strange coincidences. For example, that at the most climactic moment, Amelia discovers she actually has super ghost powers and can glow like the sun. W-What?! Where did that come from?

I feel like Hereafter could have been really good if only the kinks were ironed out better. It definitely had potential, but unfortunately fell victim to a whole slew of tired-out YA paranormal romance cliches. As of right now, I am unsure if I will continue to read the rest of the series … but we’ll see what happens …

My Rating: 2.5/5

The Mephisto Covenant

This post first published August 18, 2011.

Author: Trinity Faegen
Published: September 27, 2011
Publisher Egmont USA
Series: The Mephisto Covenant #1 
448 pages (galley)
 
Where do I even begin?
I was originally super excited to read this book when I got it from NetGalley. There’s many positive reviews of it on Goodreads, and it had a very intriguing synopsis — Sasha, our main character, wants to know who murdered her father and thinks joining the cult, the Ravens, will bring her answers.

What she finds out instead is that she is Anabo, a descendant of Eve’s daughter (as in, Adam and Eve), and the Ravens try to kill her for it. The Ravens are working for Eryx, who is worse than Lucifer the Devil; Eryx is trying to use his recruited souls to power himself into overtaking Hell and Heaven. Sasha is saved, however, by Jax, who is a Son of Hell and is looking for his Anabo, his soulmate, who could lead him to a chance to be in Heaven.

This book is probably going to be popular amongst those who enjoy romances between super hot paranormal male leads and she-doesn’t-know-she’s-beautiful-and-special female leads, who, for one reason or another, are in angst for much of the story because they cannot be together. If you like that kind of story, you’ll love this — but The Mephisto Covenant was not my cup of tea at all, was not what I expected.

The story flowed awkwardly, was simply bizarre at times and the bit about finding out who murdered Sasha’s father was quickly resolved and thrown out the window after the first dozen pages. A majority of the scenes and dialogue are question-answer sessions between Sasha and the other characters, who dump a ton of background information on her (and the reader). And then there’s the strangeness of this Eyrx character who is more evil than Lucifer. Seriously, Lucifer and God are actually kind of working together as partners in this book, to bring down Eyrx who is the real kingpin of evil. I found that really hard to accept. Not that I’m religious or anything. It’s just the idea that the Devil himself is less evil than Eyrx doesn’t make sense to me.

On a similar note, Eryx isn’t even aware of Sasha’s existence for the vast majority of the novel, so I didn’t feel like there was much tension in the story. The stakes didn’t feel that high to me.  Most of the story consisted of the characters worrying that Eyrx would discover Sasha the Anabo, and trying to keep Sasha safe from the enemy who doesn’t even know she exists yet.

However, the main focus of this story is the angsty romance between Sasha and Jax, which annoyed me way more than I found romantic. In fact, I don’t think any part of their relationship was romantic at all. There was insta-love, creepy-obsessive love and it was kind of shallow that all they ever talked about was how hot each other was. And there was a lot of focus on sex. Sex, sex, sex. All the characters, not just Sasha and Jax, but especially Sasha and Jax. It was drilled into my head how dangerous it would be if they had sex, and how Jax was so obsessed with seeing her naked. There was also a cliche ‘I almost got raped but my soulmate rescued me before it happened’ scene that I’ve read in a dozen YA novels now.

Then there’s the characters themselves, mainly Sasha and Jax. Jax was an overly protective, overly jealous, bordering-on-obsessive kind of boyfriend. Sasha spent most of her time crying in this novel, or feeling like she’s about to cry — sometimes over the silliest things, like getting a new laptop. I just wanted to reach into the pages, give the girl a good shake by the shoulders and exclaim, “Get a grip on yourself!”

I have an entire page of notes I scribbled down while reading this book, but I won’t get into them all. I can see this book being quite popular because I know there is an audience for stories like this, but this really wasn’t for me at all.

My Rating: 1/5

The Iron King

This post first published August 5, 2011.

Author: Julie Kagawa
Publisher: Harlequin Teen
Published: February 1, 2010
Series: Iron Fey #1
363 pages (paperback)
 
I’ve been seeing this book (and its other installments of the series) around on many, many blogs and there’s also this hype surrounding the 4th book, The Iron Knight, that is coming out soon. Soooo I decided I wanted to check out what all the hubbub around this book series is about. I don’t want to miss out on a party when there is one, although I tend to read with cautious optimism when it’s a book that’s beloved by many readers, to save myself from too much disappointment should the book not live up to its hype in my eyes.

I ended up … loving it.

The Iron King is about  16 year old Meghan Chase, who is pretty ordinary, even if she is the school loser. Her only worries are getting her car license, school and whether the popular football player of the school notices her. However, upon returning home one day, she realizes her little 4 year old brother Ethan is gone and replaced by a changeling child who wreaks havoc. Seeing her determination to get her brother back, Meghan’s best friend Robbie reveals that Ethan has been taking into the Nevernever, and that he himself is actually a faery … a rather famous one: Puck.
Meghan traverses into the Nevernever into the Seelie Court, where she discovers something major — King Oberon is actually her real father. Meghan is half human, half fey. Oberon wants Meghan to act like a princess now that she’s in his court, and takes her to a meeting between the Summer/Seelie Court and the Winter/Unseelie Court. It is there that Meghan meets the Winter Prince, Ash, who, despite wanting to kill Meghan to win the favor of his Queen, accompanies her and Puck on their journey to rescue Ethan.

This book was non-stop action. From the moment I picked it up to the moment I finished reading it, there was always something happening, something adventurous and exciting. This was a book where I could just sit and read and not realize how much time has gone by (Studying for exams? What exams?) I’m not exactly that familiar with fey legends and whatnot, and I haven’t read too many books that dealt with faeries (I think the only other faery related book I read was Wicked Lovely, which was okay but didn’t really nab my full interest), but this book has me suckered into the whole fey world now.

I think it’s the world that had me the most addicted to the story. I mean, the plot was fantastic as well, but the world … it felt like Wonderland with a mix of the Labyrinthe. To move around the Nevernever, there’s like secret passageways and maze-like paths, not to mention to move from our world to the Nevernever, there’s even more hidden doorways and whatnot. It all felt very fantastical. They have different territories and the environment of the region is shaped by the kind of fey that live there — my favourite being Nir Na Nog (did I get that right?) probably because I always had a fascination with beautiful, snow covered ice lands. My second would be the iron fey’s territory, because it sounds super cool with all its scrap metal and technology, even if it is horribly dangerous there. Even though these different areas are so vastly different, they fit together really well in the context of the story.

Meghan is a great character. She’s surprisingly courageous and outgoing for someone who’s on the bottom of the school food chain, but perhaps it was the situation (you know, people wanting to kill her in the Nevernever) that brought out these qualities in her. I’m so thankful she isn’t whiny or annoying. She’s got a good head on her shoulder.

The only complaint I have about this book is probably Meghan and Ash’s romantic relationship. I really don’t understand how it went from Ash telling Meghan he’s going to kill her one day … to them kissing and being in love. It kind of just happened — bam! so I’m not completely convinced by their romance. There was no scene that I can remember that helped with the transition. Meghan disliked Ash one moment, and suddenly, Meghan was in love with him. Same with Ash.  I don’t know about you, but I don’t care how gorgeous a guy is, if he told me he wants to kill me and I know he’s dead serious about it, I would find it very difficult to make my feelings do a 180. Yes, I admit, I find Prince Ash very swoon-worthy too, but that kind of gets thrown out the window when threats toward my life is made.

I like Meghan. I like Ash. But I don’t really understand Meghan + Ash.

If you haven’t read this series yet — read it! It’s a fun faery story that doesn’t take itself too seriously, with a cast of memorable characters. This is a case where yes, the book does live up to its hype.

My Rating: 5/5

Paranormalcy

This post first published July 6, 2011.

Author: Kiersten White
Published: August 2010
Publisher: HarperTeen
Series: Paranormalcy #1
335 pages (hardcover)
 
The cover of this book is really misleading, in my opinion. We have a serious looking girl standing in what seems like a field with pussywillows, under a dark and foreboding sky. My initial thoughts about what the book was about was, you know, a paranormal story possibly involving lots of angst and a love triangle. Not that there’s anything wrong with that either, I’m just saying that’s the vibes this cover is giving off. The actual story is nothing like what the cover tries to express though. This book is actually very light hearted, doesn’t take itself too seriously, and full of humor. It’s one of those, “Hey, just kick back, relax and read” kind of books.

Sixteen year old Evie works for the International Paranormal Containment Agency. You see, paranormal creatures are actually everywhere in this world, and there are all sorts of paranormal creatures: vampires, faeries, werewolves, banshees, hags, trolls, goblins, and even things with no real names. It’s up the IPCA to track and control the creatures so they don’t get out of hand and wreak havoc on human beings. Evie is the best at her job because she has the unique ability of being able to see through a paranormal’s glamour and identify them for who they really are. Then it’s all a matter of a little tasing, clamping on a tracking anklet and job well done.

Life is pretty lonely for Evie because she’s the only kid working for the IPCA, and she’s an orphan so she has no family. She spends most of her time in her dorm room watching some sort of Gossip Girls-esque TV show and chatting with her best friend, Lish the mermaid. But even Lish doesn’t always have time for her because she’s an IPCA employee as well. Then she starts getting attached to one of the paranormals they captured breaking and entering not too long ago, a shapeshifter, but her boss/mother-figure doesn’t like the two of them spending time together. All Evie wants is to have a regular teenage life, but it’s pretty hard when you’re constantly getting calls to go deal with this vampire or that werewolf.

Evie begins to take her job a little more seriously when the IPCA catches news of paranormals dying all over the place, seemingly from nothing. Something out there is killing paranormal creatures, and Evie is worried about her own paranormal friends. What’s worse is that Evie isn’t all that sure she’s safe herself, not after realizing that she’s been categorized as a paranormal in the IPCA employee files.

I loved Evie. It’s so refreshing to have a YA female lead who isn’t made of cardboard. She’s sassy and funny, and seems so genuine. She actually acts like what I imagine a real sixteen year old would act like. I also really enjoyed her relationship with Lend, the paranormal caught doing some B&E, and is now stuck in a jail cell at the IPCA. A lot of YA paranormal stories these days (or at least, out of the ones I read) just can’t write a natural feeling relationship — they always feel forced and the two characters always decide they are so-in-love-that-their-lives-depend-on-it within a week. Half the time, I don’t even understand why the two characters like one another; it’s usually just full of, “He’s sooo hot!” or something like that.

However, with Evie and Lend, their relationship started off as friendly (albeit a bit wary because Lend did break and enter), then progressed to a real friendship, complete with bonding time and everything, THEN it progressed to the two of them liking one another, as crushes. Yes, just crushes. That’s really as far as it goes in this book. No proclamations of undying love here. And I like this, a lot, because it feels more real and definitely suits the mood of this book, which is light hearted.
The characters are, to me, the strong point of this novel. They are just plain fun. However, the rest of the book isn’t perfect though. The plot is so-so. Overall, I liked the plot but I know it could be much better. I wasn’t really feeling the shocking revelation of what is killing the paranormals and how Evie was related to the killer. It just didn’t feel very exciting, which kind of sucked because I had thought the IPCA was sort of like Interpol so maybe there’d be some awesome conspiracy case they need to crack or some mastermind criminal … Perhaps I had let my assumptions get in the way, but the overall plot felt mediocre, a bit uninspiring.

The writing was also pretty ordinary, nothing special. Sometimes it even felt like fan fiction writing. It’s written in first person from Evie’s point of view, and I get that she’s just a teenager so the way Evie talks isn’t going to be complicated prose or anything, but still, I kind of expected a little more. I think the book could get away with the writing if it was a book for middle-schoolers, but it’s not.
Paranormalcy is a fun book to read if you’re looking for something non-serious to dig into, but don’t expect to be seriously wow’d or anything like that. I, personally, liked the story, but whether or not you will, will depend on your own preferences and interests.

My Rating: 3/5

Elixir

This post first published June 26, 2011.

Author: Hilary Duff (with Elise Allen)
Published: October 2010
Publisher: Simon & Schuster Children’s Publishing
Series: Elixir #1
327 pages (hardcover)
 
I’m usually pretty skeptical about celebrities writing novels, so when I heard that Hilary Duff was releasing a YA book, I didn’t have much interest in reading it, at first. However, I actually like Hilary Duff and I remember being equally skeptical when she announced she was releasing a music album, and that turned out to be okay, so I thought I’ll give her first novel a chance too (and it just so happened to be a new arrival at my local library). It’s by no means an amazing book, far from perfect, but I was surprised that it was pretty decent. I do have some issues with it, but I actually like it. Even though I think I can easily lump this together with other YA paranormal romances out in the market, there are aspects of it that are different enough that it feels original at the same time.

The story is about Clea, a seventeen year old girl who is also a photojournalist. Her mother is an influential politician and her father is a world famous surgeon as well as the owner of GloboReach, a humanitarian organization. One year after Clea’s father’s mysterious disappearance, Clea begins noticing a strange man in many of her photos. Shortly after, she starts dreaming about this strange man as well, with herself in the role of various women throughout time.

Her investigation into the strange man leads her to realize he is linked to her father’s disappearance. A trip to Rio unites Clea with this strange man, whose name is Sage. It turns out Sage has some knowledge to what her father was studying before he disappeared — the elixir of life. Sage believes that two separate factions searching for the elixir may have kidnapped Clea’s father, and those same people may now be after Clea and Sage.

The first thing I noticed when I opened the book was the abnormally large font. It’s HUGE. It made me think that they did it on purpose so that they could fill up enough pages to make a decent sized book. So that turned me off a bit right from the start. When I finished the book and realized that there must be a sequel to Elixir, I thought, “Why didn’t they put this book and the upcoming sequel together as one book?” I mean, this first book is really short, and it ends rather abruptly with loose ends everywhere. Even if you plan a sequel, the first book should still have some sense of finality to it, some closure. But instead, I think they just want to sell more books so they took what could have been one book and chopped it in half. That’s just me, though.

Apparently, from other reviews I’ve read, the plot of Elixir is eerily similar to the Evermore series. I’ve never read the Evermore series, so I can’t say anything about that. I only thought it was extremely coincidental that I read two books in a row (My Name is Memory) that deal with reincarnation in one way or another, haha. So, as someone who has never read that other series, I actually liked the general plot. I do think it could have been thought out a tad better — there were some scenes that seemed really inconsequential to the overall story and made me wonder what it was doing in the story — but plot-wise, it was interesting to me. I wanted to keep reading to find out more about the elixir of life and what happened to Clea’s dad and who the mysterious stranger in the photos are. So plot wise, I’ll give a thumbs up. Execution-wise, Hilary Duff’s writing is surprisingly not that bad. I got through the entire book without cringing at the writing once, so that’s a good sign, though the writing is nothing special. Are there flaws? Yeah. But I can give her a break for it … guess I’m feeling generous? Haha.

There is one aspect of the plot I was not crazy about though, and that’s the romance part. I don’t know what it is, but YA novels, at least the ones I’ve read so far, just can’t seem to put in a natural-feeling romance to it. Clea’s love with Sage is pretty standard YA paranormal romance stuff, nothing really special there. If anything, it’s … weird. Clea is at first freaked out by Sage and at one point even thinks he might be a serial killer, chasing her through her lives to kill her over and over again. So I REALLY don’t get how she can go from thinking that to being totally and desperately in love with him in the span of a week. Actually it might be even less days than that. Yes, yes, she was in love with him in her past lives, but she doesn’t remember her past lives in this life, so I don’t buy the idea of her believing she can’t live without him all of a sudden. Just because you write it in the book doesn’t mean the reader is going to buy it.

Clea as a protagonist is alright, to my relief. She’s not terribly interesting, but at least her background is refreshing from the “I’m-the-new-kid-at-school” thing other YA paranormal romance novels have. Usually I find the female protagonists of YA paranormal romances really annoying or stupid, but I was happy that Clea seemed like a pretty grounded, ordinary kid. The only thing that bothered me was that Clea is hard to relate to sometimes. She’s very wealthy, and famous because of her parents (unnaturally famous, actually; people treat her like she’s an actress or singer), and has a bodyguard. She’s only seventeen but has a job as a photojournalist and flies around the world to do her job (a thing I found unrealistic to be honest; I don’t care if you’re famous and rich, you don’t get professional photojournalism jobs at seventeen, especially when you have no certification or anything like that to show you’re above an amateur). 99% of  people reading Elixir don’t live lives like that, so I don’t find Clea a relateable character at all. Still, as a person, she is generally likeable, I think.
The romance aspect and Clea’s background may have rubbed me wrong, but I just downright hated the ending. Absolutely nothing gets resolved, it feels as if it ended mid-action, in the middle of what should be the climax of the story. Now, I get Hilary Duff wants to write a sequel or two for the book, but that doesn’t mean each individual book in the series can get away without any sort of resolution. At the end of Elixir, I still don’t know what the heck happened to Clea’s dad, Sage gets held hostage somewhere and Clea doesn’t know what happened to him, Clea’s relationship with her friend Ben is left kind of hanging and unexplained, I don’t know what happened to the elixirs of life, and I’m not 100% sure what the whole deal is with Sage appearing in Clea’s photos in the first place. I think it was explained in passing at one point that the camera captures people’s souls, and since Sage is Clea’s soulmate, he shows up … but by that logic, he should only show up when Clea is also in the picture, not when Clea takes a random picture of her closet, for example. Yet he does. Elixir doesn’t have an ending. It has the world’s most unsatisfying to-be-continued.

I ended up deciding on a middle-of-the-road kind of rating for Elixir. There are a lot of things I disliked about it, but I also surprisingly found myself liking the overall story, enough that I would pursue the second book to read when it gets published. This isn’t the kind of book I’d go around recommending people to read it. I think if you love the YA paranormal romance genre, you’ll like this. Or if you really like Hilary Duff, I’m sure you’ll give this a go too. But for all the rest of the bookworms out there: if you can’t find a copy, don’t worry about it.

My Rating: 3/5