1.5 stars -- Meh...
Secret Society bored me. It bored me so much that I put it down five pages from the end and forgot that I hadn't finished it. It was only a week or so later that I thought, "How did that book end? Surely the author didn't leave it like that..." and picked it up again to see where I had left off.
Not that the ending made a difference.
Secret Society is about (can you guess?) a secret society that promising, rich, New York high schoolers can get inducted into.
The four main characters, Phoebe, Lauren, Nick, and Patch, are flat and not believable. Their personalities fluctuate too frequently (is Lauren rich and untouchable, or is she this weak, sniveling girl who doesn't know what to do about anything... How did Patch, a countercultural poor kid, suddenly become a buff, ripped, secret society wanna-be?).
The plot is weak (the society kills people, but WHY?). The story is unoriginal. And I am not looking forward to the sequel.
Showing posts with label Terrible. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Terrible. Show all posts
Tuesday, March 30, 2010
Friday, March 19, 2010
Bleeding Violet by Dia Reeves
1 star -- I hate it (on principle)
I will write about this book while I feel passionately about it, despite the fact that I've read two others I need to write about before I forget about them completely.
Bleeding Violet is a terrible book, and I wouldn't recommend it to anyone, much less a teen.
I don't remember why I picked up this book. The flap copy is terrible. The cover is not great (very The Dark Divine, and I don't care for knock-offs). I really thought this would be a terrible book, and I was really uninterested, so I can't explain why I took this home.
But when I first started reading it, I was pleasantly surprised by the book. The character isn't nearly as off-putting as the copy made her seem, and there are definitely some interesting concepts. The book had potential to be really, really good.
BUT it goes downhill really fast.
The main character, Hanna, is 16 and bipolar. She lost her virginity when she was 14 and decides to have sex with the Wyatt after, basically, one date.
While I realize that kids have sex and start early, and that 14 is by no means an unusual age to lose one's virginity, I do take issue with the frivolity with which Hanna treats this issue. She says STDs are for losers, when the plain fact is that STDs happen to those who have unprotected sex. Mistakes happen, condoms break. Anyone who's having sex with someone who's had sex before can get an STD. Anyone who's having sex can get pregnant. When you're writing for teens, you have a responsibility to treat sex carefully. While it's a realistic issue, so are STDs and teen pregnancy. They're not just "for losers."
I also take issue with the fact that Rosalee, Hanna's mother, gives her an entire box of condoms without question. Granted, Rosalee isn't a great mother, but the whole point of the story is that Rosalee does indeed love Hanna, and I think any loving mother would sit and have a chat before handing over a box of condoms.
Both Rosalee and Hanna are also quite proud of the fact that they use sex and their attractiveness as a weapon and that they use men. It's a terrible message to send to teens. Relationships should be mutual and beneficial and not harmful to either person involved. If a girl got raped, the man would be jailed. The feeling, to me, is the same if a girl uses a boy through sex. It's wrong and should not be condoned.
The sex issue gets even weirder when Hanna strips down by a naked boy in a lake, and her mother strips down too. All three completely naked, the boy aroused, and Rosalee starts cutting up the poor kid. The violence and torture is bad enough, but I think having familial nudity and very sexual tensions was completely unnecessary and uncalled for.
Besides the fact that the entire book is swamped in underage sex and other sexual situations, there is also a drug usage issue. Again, I understand that teens do drugs, and I have no problem with the scene where Wyatt and Hanna and their friends "do drugs" (forget-me-not flowers, for goodness' sakes), because that's realistic. But I do take real issue with the mom giving the daughter drugs. While I personally know families that actually do drugs together, I don't think it was ever the parents who said, "Hey, you haven't expressed any interest in this. Let's give it a shot!" but more of a, "Well, they do it and we do it, why don't we do it together?"
And then there's the suicide. Throughout the book, Hanna and others are very violent. But this climaxes when Hanna commits suicide. She slits her arms "from wrist to elbow" (both of them) and smears her blood on the walls of her house to make Rosalee sorry. Granted, Hanna is saved (so that she can commit suicide publicly), but suicide is a very heart-wrenching and real problem. The fact that Hanna is so blase about suicide and then finds her bloody "artwork" "beautiful" is horrifying. Teens shouldn't assume that someone will save them at the last minute. Sometimes it happens, but sometimes it doesn't. And teens also shouldn't be taught that you can change your mind after you commit suicide. You can't. If you do it right, you're dead. If you do it wrong, you're emotionally and, more than likely, physically scarred for the rest of your life.
I feel like authors have a responsibility when they write YA to be or set examples. I don't mean that the stories have to say "Suicide is bad, kids" or "Just say no to drugs!" or that the stories can't have sex, drugs, or violence, but I feel like it should be approached cautiously and with care.
Bleeding Violet feels like a bondage smut book toned down for teens, and it doesn't work. Movies have ratings and books have genres to prevent children from reading or seeing what may not be good for them, and I think Bleeding Violet should definitely not be in the YA fiction genre. It has too much unnecessary sex, drugs, swearing, violence, self-violence, stealing, lying, and hatred. There is a place for these issues, but it's not in the teen sci-fi/fantasy section, and they need to be treated appropriately.
I will write about this book while I feel passionately about it, despite the fact that I've read two others I need to write about before I forget about them completely.
Bleeding Violet is a terrible book, and I wouldn't recommend it to anyone, much less a teen.
I don't remember why I picked up this book. The flap copy is terrible. The cover is not great (very The Dark Divine, and I don't care for knock-offs). I really thought this would be a terrible book, and I was really uninterested, so I can't explain why I took this home.
But when I first started reading it, I was pleasantly surprised by the book. The character isn't nearly as off-putting as the copy made her seem, and there are definitely some interesting concepts. The book had potential to be really, really good.
BUT it goes downhill really fast.
The main character, Hanna, is 16 and bipolar. She lost her virginity when she was 14 and decides to have sex with the Wyatt after, basically, one date.
While I realize that kids have sex and start early, and that 14 is by no means an unusual age to lose one's virginity, I do take issue with the frivolity with which Hanna treats this issue. She says STDs are for losers, when the plain fact is that STDs happen to those who have unprotected sex. Mistakes happen, condoms break. Anyone who's having sex with someone who's had sex before can get an STD. Anyone who's having sex can get pregnant. When you're writing for teens, you have a responsibility to treat sex carefully. While it's a realistic issue, so are STDs and teen pregnancy. They're not just "for losers."
I also take issue with the fact that Rosalee, Hanna's mother, gives her an entire box of condoms without question. Granted, Rosalee isn't a great mother, but the whole point of the story is that Rosalee does indeed love Hanna, and I think any loving mother would sit and have a chat before handing over a box of condoms.
Both Rosalee and Hanna are also quite proud of the fact that they use sex and their attractiveness as a weapon and that they use men. It's a terrible message to send to teens. Relationships should be mutual and beneficial and not harmful to either person involved. If a girl got raped, the man would be jailed. The feeling, to me, is the same if a girl uses a boy through sex. It's wrong and should not be condoned.
The sex issue gets even weirder when Hanna strips down by a naked boy in a lake, and her mother strips down too. All three completely naked, the boy aroused, and Rosalee starts cutting up the poor kid. The violence and torture is bad enough, but I think having familial nudity and very sexual tensions was completely unnecessary and uncalled for.
Besides the fact that the entire book is swamped in underage sex and other sexual situations, there is also a drug usage issue. Again, I understand that teens do drugs, and I have no problem with the scene where Wyatt and Hanna and their friends "do drugs" (forget-me-not flowers, for goodness' sakes), because that's realistic. But I do take real issue with the mom giving the daughter drugs. While I personally know families that actually do drugs together, I don't think it was ever the parents who said, "Hey, you haven't expressed any interest in this. Let's give it a shot!" but more of a, "Well, they do it and we do it, why don't we do it together?"
And then there's the suicide. Throughout the book, Hanna and others are very violent. But this climaxes when Hanna commits suicide. She slits her arms "from wrist to elbow" (both of them) and smears her blood on the walls of her house to make Rosalee sorry. Granted, Hanna is saved (so that she can commit suicide publicly), but suicide is a very heart-wrenching and real problem. The fact that Hanna is so blase about suicide and then finds her bloody "artwork" "beautiful" is horrifying. Teens shouldn't assume that someone will save them at the last minute. Sometimes it happens, but sometimes it doesn't. And teens also shouldn't be taught that you can change your mind after you commit suicide. You can't. If you do it right, you're dead. If you do it wrong, you're emotionally and, more than likely, physically scarred for the rest of your life.
I feel like authors have a responsibility when they write YA to be or set examples. I don't mean that the stories have to say "Suicide is bad, kids" or "Just say no to drugs!" or that the stories can't have sex, drugs, or violence, but I feel like it should be approached cautiously and with care.
Bleeding Violet feels like a bondage smut book toned down for teens, and it doesn't work. Movies have ratings and books have genres to prevent children from reading or seeing what may not be good for them, and I think Bleeding Violet should definitely not be in the YA fiction genre. It has too much unnecessary sex, drugs, swearing, violence, self-violence, stealing, lying, and hatred. There is a place for these issues, but it's not in the teen sci-fi/fantasy section, and they need to be treated appropriately.
Friday, February 12, 2010
Devoured by Amanda Marrone
1 star -- I hated it!
Oh, my goodness! I can't get over how much I dislike this book. I have read two fabulous books and one mediocre book, but I choose to write about this one first. Because I really can't get over how terrible this book is!
Devoured has a gorgeous cover. It's a complete knock-off of Twilight (is that Bella with the apple and Jacob and Edward lurking behind her?), but the imagery works for this book (unlike Twilight where I don't really remember a connection to the apple). Because, well, this is a continuation or expansion of Snow White.
I was really, really hopeful in the beginning. The story started off pretty well! Snow White's stepmother uses the magic mirror to curse Snow White's offspring forever and ever to feel what she felt. It's really quite a nice idea. It has possibility.
But a million years later (or just a couple hundred... whatever), in modern-day America, 16-year-old Megan deals with a comatose father, a distant mother, and the ghost of her dead sister (who remains seven years old). She's getting a new job in a fairy-tale themed amusement park to keep an eye on her new boyfriend and his best friend, a female who's completely and unabashedly in love with said boyfriend.
It's immediately apparent that the people under the influence of the mirror (as that is the evil in the story) are the owners of the park, and I had to shake my head when Megan blindy befriends obviously insane Ari (the daughter of the park owner).
The tension Megan feels about the two boys (seen lurking on the cover) is fine, though I'm sure most readers think, "Why don't you listen to Nikki??" As Megan's best friend, she certainly sees things clearly and seems to know what's going on.
The part that really got to me and made me want to throw the book across the room was when Nikki gets killed. Megan's been having visions (from her sister's ghost) about some dark-haired girl dying. They're so powerful and drastic, that they cause Megan to have panic attacks and faint.
When Nikki calls Megan one night and talks about being stalked and then suddenly drops the phone, Megan knows what's wrong. She calls 911 and immediately gets her boyfriend to drive her to the area and calls Luke, the other love interest (who can conveniently talk to ghosts), to meet her there. This is fine... what loses is me is that when Megan runs through the woods with only Luke on her heels, finds Nikki's body WITH A GAPING HOLE IN HER CHEST WHERE HER HEART USED TO BE, she shudders once, is held by Luke and goes home.
I'm pretty sure that as a teenager, had I come across my best friend's body in the woods with her heart cut out, I would have passed out. And if she passed out due to visions, why wouldn't she in real life? Also, had I come across my best friend's dead body, I would need some serious therapy. I would be sobbing uncontrollably for months and months. I would not be doing well at all.
Megan? Well, after two weeks, Megan breaks up with her boyfriend, has sex with Luke, and returns to work at the amusement park, where of course you know the killer is waiting.
Two weeks just doesn't cut it for me. Never mind that death is tragic under any circumstances, when you're 16 and it's your best friend since kindergarten, your emotions and hormons don't let you move. If you happened to find that friend's body? If you happened to find that friend's body mutilated? And if you know that you could have saved that friend? Megan should be bedridden and guilt stricken. Not having sex with her new boy toy.
Urgh... terrible book. Very poor plot line. Please don't read this!!! (Or if you do, do it just so you can complain to me about horrible it was.)
Oh, my goodness! I can't get over how much I dislike this book. I have read two fabulous books and one mediocre book, but I choose to write about this one first. Because I really can't get over how terrible this book is!
Devoured has a gorgeous cover. It's a complete knock-off of Twilight (is that Bella with the apple and Jacob and Edward lurking behind her?), but the imagery works for this book (unlike Twilight where I don't really remember a connection to the apple). Because, well, this is a continuation or expansion of Snow White.
I was really, really hopeful in the beginning. The story started off pretty well! Snow White's stepmother uses the magic mirror to curse Snow White's offspring forever and ever to feel what she felt. It's really quite a nice idea. It has possibility.
But a million years later (or just a couple hundred... whatever), in modern-day America, 16-year-old Megan deals with a comatose father, a distant mother, and the ghost of her dead sister (who remains seven years old). She's getting a new job in a fairy-tale themed amusement park to keep an eye on her new boyfriend and his best friend, a female who's completely and unabashedly in love with said boyfriend.
It's immediately apparent that the people under the influence of the mirror (as that is the evil in the story) are the owners of the park, and I had to shake my head when Megan blindy befriends obviously insane Ari (the daughter of the park owner).
The tension Megan feels about the two boys (seen lurking on the cover) is fine, though I'm sure most readers think, "Why don't you listen to Nikki??" As Megan's best friend, she certainly sees things clearly and seems to know what's going on.
The part that really got to me and made me want to throw the book across the room was when Nikki gets killed. Megan's been having visions (from her sister's ghost) about some dark-haired girl dying. They're so powerful and drastic, that they cause Megan to have panic attacks and faint.
When Nikki calls Megan one night and talks about being stalked and then suddenly drops the phone, Megan knows what's wrong. She calls 911 and immediately gets her boyfriend to drive her to the area and calls Luke, the other love interest (who can conveniently talk to ghosts), to meet her there. This is fine... what loses is me is that when Megan runs through the woods with only Luke on her heels, finds Nikki's body WITH A GAPING HOLE IN HER CHEST WHERE HER HEART USED TO BE, she shudders once, is held by Luke and goes home.
I'm pretty sure that as a teenager, had I come across my best friend's body in the woods with her heart cut out, I would have passed out. And if she passed out due to visions, why wouldn't she in real life? Also, had I come across my best friend's dead body, I would need some serious therapy. I would be sobbing uncontrollably for months and months. I would not be doing well at all.
Megan? Well, after two weeks, Megan breaks up with her boyfriend, has sex with Luke, and returns to work at the amusement park, where of course you know the killer is waiting.
Two weeks just doesn't cut it for me. Never mind that death is tragic under any circumstances, when you're 16 and it's your best friend since kindergarten, your emotions and hormons don't let you move. If you happened to find that friend's body? If you happened to find that friend's body mutilated? And if you know that you could have saved that friend? Megan should be bedridden and guilt stricken. Not having sex with her new boy toy.
Urgh... terrible book. Very poor plot line. Please don't read this!!! (Or if you do, do it just so you can complain to me about horrible it was.)
Tuesday, February 2, 2010
Thirsty by Tracey Bateman
2 stars -- I don't really like it.
A random grab off the library shelf, Thirsty was shelved as a teen book, but as I read it, I came to the conclusion that it's written as an adult Christian book. There is no evidence to the contrary, but because it has vampires, on the teen shelf it went.
NOT that the subject matter is so deep a teen couldn't read it. On the contrary, I found the story flat. While attempting to delve into deep issues like alcoholism and addiction, the typical bad Christian plotting is in the forefront.
Poor Nina is an alcoholic who's lost her career, her apartment, her husband and kids. So she reforms. The real story starts when she comes out of rehab and moves back to her hometown, taking her bitter and resentful teenage daughter with her for a week of bonding (arranged through dad's awesome lying abilities).
Unbeknownst to her, Nina has a secret admirer in the town she grew up in. A vampire who saw her when she was a teenager and was reminded of his first love, an Indian princess that he killed when his bloodlust became too overpowering.
And when she returns home, mysterious and brutal murders of animals and people start taking place. Is it the mysterious Markus, the vampire? Or something worse?
Well, it's something worse. See Eden has just moved back into town as well. She's a vampire too! And she's quite possessive of Markus.
It all ends with a big fire, and everyone doubting whether Nina can stay sober, and Nina getting kidnapped but then saving her daughter, and everyone is happily reunited...
I had a hard time finding anything to enjoy in this book. I've always had a problem with Christian fiction, because it seems like poorer quality after-the-fact storytelling (much like Christian music, Christian movies, Christian blogs). But in this story, there's the main storyline of alcoholism and how one deal's with that, and then there's the other main storyline about vampires. The two just don't meld well.
Additionally, according to an endnote, the author wrote this to glorify God. But the tiny bits in the story that are about God felt like afterthoughts. After Nina saves her daughter, apropos of nothing, she says, "I think God showed up!" The mentions of God felt stilted and out of place, an afterthought to help the story be more than just fiction. They weren't believable nor were they blended into the storyline.
But it wasn't just the Christian aspect that had me thinking this book wasn't very well written. Nina's alcoholism isn't very believable. Granted, I am not an alcoholic, and I have no experience with someone who is, but for someone who just got out of rehab, Nina seems to not think of alcohol very much. Sure, occasionally the thought arises, but Nina never has a problem shaking the thought. She spends an hour crying and shaking in a barn bathroom (?) and then runs out feeling stronger than ever. I believe (but I could be wrong) that if you're having trouble with an addiction, the feelings don't just disappear after an hour of solid crying. It would take additional time, probably some talking, some sorting out in general.
I could say a lot more, but I'm boring myself and probably you. Just don't read it.
A random grab off the library shelf, Thirsty was shelved as a teen book, but as I read it, I came to the conclusion that it's written as an adult Christian book. There is no evidence to the contrary, but because it has vampires, on the teen shelf it went.
NOT that the subject matter is so deep a teen couldn't read it. On the contrary, I found the story flat. While attempting to delve into deep issues like alcoholism and addiction, the typical bad Christian plotting is in the forefront.
Poor Nina is an alcoholic who's lost her career, her apartment, her husband and kids. So she reforms. The real story starts when she comes out of rehab and moves back to her hometown, taking her bitter and resentful teenage daughter with her for a week of bonding (arranged through dad's awesome lying abilities).
Unbeknownst to her, Nina has a secret admirer in the town she grew up in. A vampire who saw her when she was a teenager and was reminded of his first love, an Indian princess that he killed when his bloodlust became too overpowering.
And when she returns home, mysterious and brutal murders of animals and people start taking place. Is it the mysterious Markus, the vampire? Or something worse?
Well, it's something worse. See Eden has just moved back into town as well. She's a vampire too! And she's quite possessive of Markus.
It all ends with a big fire, and everyone doubting whether Nina can stay sober, and Nina getting kidnapped but then saving her daughter, and everyone is happily reunited...
I had a hard time finding anything to enjoy in this book. I've always had a problem with Christian fiction, because it seems like poorer quality after-the-fact storytelling (much like Christian music, Christian movies, Christian blogs). But in this story, there's the main storyline of alcoholism and how one deal's with that, and then there's the other main storyline about vampires. The two just don't meld well.
Additionally, according to an endnote, the author wrote this to glorify God. But the tiny bits in the story that are about God felt like afterthoughts. After Nina saves her daughter, apropos of nothing, she says, "I think God showed up!" The mentions of God felt stilted and out of place, an afterthought to help the story be more than just fiction. They weren't believable nor were they blended into the storyline.
But it wasn't just the Christian aspect that had me thinking this book wasn't very well written. Nina's alcoholism isn't very believable. Granted, I am not an alcoholic, and I have no experience with someone who is, but for someone who just got out of rehab, Nina seems to not think of alcohol very much. Sure, occasionally the thought arises, but Nina never has a problem shaking the thought. She spends an hour crying and shaking in a barn bathroom (?) and then runs out feeling stronger than ever. I believe (but I could be wrong) that if you're having trouble with an addiction, the feelings don't just disappear after an hour of solid crying. It would take additional time, probably some talking, some sorting out in general.
I could say a lot more, but I'm boring myself and probably you. Just don't read it.
Thursday, December 31, 2009
Wish You Were Dead by Todd Strasser
1 star -- I hate it
(See? I'm making up for all those blank days by reading as fast as I can for you!)
Wish You Were Dead is a really awful book. Part of my problem is that I get my books off of Amazon recommendations. Based on previous ratings, Amazon suggests other books. Sometimes the suggestions are fantastic. Sometimes they're only so-so. Sometimes I don't know why a book was even recommended to me.
But it's my fault too. When I feel like I might have a lot of time on my hands, I grab the more interesting-looking titles from my recommended list, put them on hold at the library, and take them home with nothing more than a title in my head. Sometimes I know the author. Sometimes I think the books that the recommendation is based on are stellar, and so the recommendation can't go wrong. Sometimes the cover is what convinces me to get the book. Sometimes I just want to try something a little more unusual.
In this case, the cover reminded me of Unwind, which is an unbelievably moving book. It horrified me, but it stuck in my head, which means its fantastic.
Anyway, back to this book, I checked it out without knowing a thing about it. The title could take the story any number of ways. And it was marked by the library as "Mystery," which I don't often read, so I thought I'd give it a shot.
(Bad pun...) I took the shot for you. You can remain unscathed by the awfulness of this book. I beg of you, don't read this book.
It starts off okay, and I think the only positive thing I have to say about this book is that the author manages to make everyone a possible suspect while keeping the true criminal hidden until the end.
But it was that "Everyone's a suspect" that eventually got to me. And once that started to annoy me, I noticed every other bad aspect of the book.
The writing is not phenomenal. It's very ... average. It's like reading a high school paper. Point A. Point B. Point C. Walk the reader to the conclusion with no surprises.
The plot is ... overdone. There is nothing original in this story. It's like a mash-up of a teen angsty book with a harlequin romance with a serial killer thriller. Everything you imagine in those books is in this book.
The characters are flat and lifeless. The criminal is not believable. I don't think the author did any research when he wrote this. I don't think he researched how long people take to die without water, how antidepressants work, or how bipolar disorder works and affects people. I don't think he researched multiple-personality disorder. I don't think he thought things through.
I get the feeling that the author doesn't really remember what it was like to be in high school -- or he's completely terrible at writing from a female's POV. For example, the main character, Lucy, is enamored of the new guy. She's Miss Popular, and she loves it. All of her friends are popular, and she loves them (every single one of them... she's so nice!). But she can't get antisocial trench coat-wearing Tyler out of her head. I don't know how it was in your high school, but in my high school, popular girls dated popular guys, and if a guy they were interested in treated them like shit, they moved on. And they weren't attracted to the loner Goth kid anyway.
Beside which, three of Lucy's closest friends disappear, and foul play is suspected. And she still can't get Tyler out of her head? When your longtime best friend from elementary school disappears, right after his girlfriend (coincidentally, also a longtime friend of yours) inexplicably disappeared, and then your most-recent acquisition of a best friend disappears as well ...? I don't care how hot the guy is, you have bigger things on your mind.
And the climax of the story is one of the most ridiculous things. One of the kids is found dead, with her eyes gouged out, and the police demand all kids go home from school with their parental unit, because it obviously ISN'T SAFE OUT.
So as soon as Lucy and mum get home, mum heads off to a meeting, because surely their house is safe. And Lucy? Lucy decides to go to their hot tub, in a glass pool house, NAKED.
That's right. I know that when one of my best friends is found outside my school dead from dehydration, the first thing I think about is how relaxing it would be to sit in my hot tub nude...
And of course, scary guy comes to the glass.... and of course, scary guy breaks through the glass.... and of course, stupid girl can't even call the police.
And then it turns out that scary guy isn't actually scary. He's just trying to help (of course). And he has all the answers that no one else figured out (except for one lone girl in school who wisely decides NOT to go to the police). And it makes so much sense for Lucy to just go with him (yes, she did put on clothes first) to find the killer without leaving a note for her parents and without calling the police. Why call the police when there's a serial killer on the loose?
And THEN (were you thinking the book just couldn't get worse?) when Tyler (who showed up on his own) breaks Lucy out (but not himself), and she has a pitchfork and the element of surprise on her side, she tries to SUBDUE the (multiple-personality) killer and bully her into giving herself up. And then Lucy ACCIDENTALLY stabs the killer with the pitchfork, unexpectedly (and unwillingly) killing her.
Reading this was like reading a bad horror film. Except you laugh at bad horror flicks. You expect the heroine to grab the banana instead of the cell phone. But, personally, I expect more from a book.
I wish Lucy had been killed. She certainly didn't deserve to live. And did I mention that Tyler was a 20-year-old passing as an 18-year-old on his own manhunt to avenge his sister?
I told you... this book has every element....
(See? I'm making up for all those blank days by reading as fast as I can for you!)
Wish You Were Dead is a really awful book. Part of my problem is that I get my books off of Amazon recommendations. Based on previous ratings, Amazon suggests other books. Sometimes the suggestions are fantastic. Sometimes they're only so-so. Sometimes I don't know why a book was even recommended to me.
But it's my fault too. When I feel like I might have a lot of time on my hands, I grab the more interesting-looking titles from my recommended list, put them on hold at the library, and take them home with nothing more than a title in my head. Sometimes I know the author. Sometimes I think the books that the recommendation is based on are stellar, and so the recommendation can't go wrong. Sometimes the cover is what convinces me to get the book. Sometimes I just want to try something a little more unusual.
In this case, the cover reminded me of Unwind, which is an unbelievably moving book. It horrified me, but it stuck in my head, which means its fantastic.
Anyway, back to this book, I checked it out without knowing a thing about it. The title could take the story any number of ways. And it was marked by the library as "Mystery," which I don't often read, so I thought I'd give it a shot.
(Bad pun...) I took the shot for you. You can remain unscathed by the awfulness of this book. I beg of you, don't read this book.
It starts off okay, and I think the only positive thing I have to say about this book is that the author manages to make everyone a possible suspect while keeping the true criminal hidden until the end.
But it was that "Everyone's a suspect" that eventually got to me. And once that started to annoy me, I noticed every other bad aspect of the book.
The writing is not phenomenal. It's very ... average. It's like reading a high school paper. Point A. Point B. Point C. Walk the reader to the conclusion with no surprises.
The plot is ... overdone. There is nothing original in this story. It's like a mash-up of a teen angsty book with a harlequin romance with a serial killer thriller. Everything you imagine in those books is in this book.
The characters are flat and lifeless. The criminal is not believable. I don't think the author did any research when he wrote this. I don't think he researched how long people take to die without water, how antidepressants work, or how bipolar disorder works and affects people. I don't think he researched multiple-personality disorder. I don't think he thought things through.
I get the feeling that the author doesn't really remember what it was like to be in high school -- or he's completely terrible at writing from a female's POV. For example, the main character, Lucy, is enamored of the new guy. She's Miss Popular, and she loves it. All of her friends are popular, and she loves them (every single one of them... she's so nice!). But she can't get antisocial trench coat-wearing Tyler out of her head. I don't know how it was in your high school, but in my high school, popular girls dated popular guys, and if a guy they were interested in treated them like shit, they moved on. And they weren't attracted to the loner Goth kid anyway.
Beside which, three of Lucy's closest friends disappear, and foul play is suspected. And she still can't get Tyler out of her head? When your longtime best friend from elementary school disappears, right after his girlfriend (coincidentally, also a longtime friend of yours) inexplicably disappeared, and then your most-recent acquisition of a best friend disappears as well ...? I don't care how hot the guy is, you have bigger things on your mind.
And the climax of the story is one of the most ridiculous things. One of the kids is found dead, with her eyes gouged out, and the police demand all kids go home from school with their parental unit, because it obviously ISN'T SAFE OUT.
So as soon as Lucy and mum get home, mum heads off to a meeting, because surely their house is safe. And Lucy? Lucy decides to go to their hot tub, in a glass pool house, NAKED.
That's right. I know that when one of my best friends is found outside my school dead from dehydration, the first thing I think about is how relaxing it would be to sit in my hot tub nude...
And of course, scary guy comes to the glass.... and of course, scary guy breaks through the glass.... and of course, stupid girl can't even call the police.
And then it turns out that scary guy isn't actually scary. He's just trying to help (of course). And he has all the answers that no one else figured out (except for one lone girl in school who wisely decides NOT to go to the police). And it makes so much sense for Lucy to just go with him (yes, she did put on clothes first) to find the killer without leaving a note for her parents and without calling the police. Why call the police when there's a serial killer on the loose?
And THEN (were you thinking the book just couldn't get worse?) when Tyler (who showed up on his own) breaks Lucy out (but not himself), and she has a pitchfork and the element of surprise on her side, she tries to SUBDUE the (multiple-personality) killer and bully her into giving herself up. And then Lucy ACCIDENTALLY stabs the killer with the pitchfork, unexpectedly (and unwillingly) killing her.
Reading this was like reading a bad horror film. Except you laugh at bad horror flicks. You expect the heroine to grab the banana instead of the cell phone. But, personally, I expect more from a book.
I wish Lucy had been killed. She certainly didn't deserve to live. And did I mention that Tyler was a 20-year-old passing as an 18-year-old on his own manhunt to avenge his sister?
I told you... this book has every element....
Tuesday, December 29, 2009
Bloom by Elizabeth Scott
2 Stars -- I didn't like it :(
I finished this days ago and didn't post. I can blame it on several factors: the holidays; I'm a procrastinator; and I just didn't like this book and didn't want to write about it.
Bloom comes across as a typical teen love story in the back-ad and description. I had it on hold at the library for ever, which I assumed meant the book was really popular. I was rather looking forward to it, because surely a book that's hard to get a hold of should be worth it, right?
Not so much.
Lauren is an average teen girl. Except she's dating the most-popular and most-attractive guy in her school. Her relationship with him is perfect. He treats her like a perfect gentleman would. Due to his religious beliefs, he doesn't even try to pressure her to have sex.
Lauren says her best friend isn't her best friend. They don't have anything in common (except their best friend boyfriends).
And then Evan steps back into Lauren's life. They lived together once when her father was dating his mother. When that relationship went south, Evan disappeared, and now Lauren can't get him out of her head.
It's a pretty standard set-up for a teen novel.
What really, really upsets me, though, is how completely internally focused Lauren is, how self-centered and immature she comes across. Her pseudo-best friend is clearly having issues at home that any normal person, once they were clued in, would attempt to help out with. Her passion for Evan would cause a normal teen girl to drop her current boyfriend in a second. The author plays it off as Lauren being worried about what others would think, but she has also spent the entire book pointing out how Lauren doesn't really care what other people think about her. She knows she's not popular except through her boyfriend, and she doesn't let it get to her. If she doesn't really want to be popular, why would she stay with the boyfriend when she finds someone better?
There's also the storyline about Lauren and her father. Her mother (his wife) abandoned them when Lauren was six years old. This is the cause for a lot of Lauren's low self-esteem. For the majority of the story, Lauren's father is oblivious, choosing to work rather than spend time with Lauren. Except toward the end of the story, he starts coming home more. This culminates in a "heart-to-heart" with Lauren that goes nowhere. He says, "Your mother loved you," and they cry, and it's emotional--except it's not. It's a complete flop as far as heart-to-hearts go. Nothing is solved; nothing is accomplished.
I really disliked this book. It's like the author tried to bring up deeper issues and just couldn't follow through. I hated the main character, and I know that wasn't the author's intention. She wanted her to be a typical teen girl that any other girl could relate to. And while teens certainly are self-centered, immature, and oblivious, they usually don't cut off everyone they know. And if they do, the conclusion isn't that some tears and hugs make things better. You'd lose your friends.
Don't read this book... unless you want to figure out how NOT to write your teen character.
I finished this days ago and didn't post. I can blame it on several factors: the holidays; I'm a procrastinator; and I just didn't like this book and didn't want to write about it.
Bloom comes across as a typical teen love story in the back-ad and description. I had it on hold at the library for ever, which I assumed meant the book was really popular. I was rather looking forward to it, because surely a book that's hard to get a hold of should be worth it, right?
Not so much.
Lauren is an average teen girl. Except she's dating the most-popular and most-attractive guy in her school. Her relationship with him is perfect. He treats her like a perfect gentleman would. Due to his religious beliefs, he doesn't even try to pressure her to have sex.
Lauren says her best friend isn't her best friend. They don't have anything in common (except their best friend boyfriends).
And then Evan steps back into Lauren's life. They lived together once when her father was dating his mother. When that relationship went south, Evan disappeared, and now Lauren can't get him out of her head.
It's a pretty standard set-up for a teen novel.
What really, really upsets me, though, is how completely internally focused Lauren is, how self-centered and immature she comes across. Her pseudo-best friend is clearly having issues at home that any normal person, once they were clued in, would attempt to help out with. Her passion for Evan would cause a normal teen girl to drop her current boyfriend in a second. The author plays it off as Lauren being worried about what others would think, but she has also spent the entire book pointing out how Lauren doesn't really care what other people think about her. She knows she's not popular except through her boyfriend, and she doesn't let it get to her. If she doesn't really want to be popular, why would she stay with the boyfriend when she finds someone better?
There's also the storyline about Lauren and her father. Her mother (his wife) abandoned them when Lauren was six years old. This is the cause for a lot of Lauren's low self-esteem. For the majority of the story, Lauren's father is oblivious, choosing to work rather than spend time with Lauren. Except toward the end of the story, he starts coming home more. This culminates in a "heart-to-heart" with Lauren that goes nowhere. He says, "Your mother loved you," and they cry, and it's emotional--except it's not. It's a complete flop as far as heart-to-hearts go. Nothing is solved; nothing is accomplished.
I really disliked this book. It's like the author tried to bring up deeper issues and just couldn't follow through. I hated the main character, and I know that wasn't the author's intention. She wanted her to be a typical teen girl that any other girl could relate to. And while teens certainly are self-centered, immature, and oblivious, they usually don't cut off everyone they know. And if they do, the conclusion isn't that some tears and hugs make things better. You'd lose your friends.
Don't read this book... unless you want to figure out how NOT to write your teen character.
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