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desiree930
1.5 Stars When I started this book I knew that it’s average GR rating is relatively low. I try not to let that influence my decision of whether or not to pick up a book. There have been many times I’ve picked up a book with low expectations to be pleasantly surprised. Unfortunately, this was not my experience with There Will Be Lies. It’s funny, because there was something about it that kept me reading. And despite the fact that this was over 450 pages long (which is totally unnecessary) I read until the end.
That may be part of the reason I was so disappointed. I had figured out every twist and reveal long before they happened, so I assumed that along the way one of those things would end up being a misdirect...but nope.
Anyway, on with the review.
What I liked:
1. Um...honestly, the more I think about this the less I can find that I can say I actually ‘liked.’
What I didn’t like:
1. The book is mis-marketed. When I picked this book up I was expecting a thriller. And there is a mystery aspect to it, but like I said, it was totally predictable. However, this book ended up being part thriller, part Native-American mythology inspired fantasy.
2. Now, I don’t know much about the tribes indigenous to the Southwestern United States or their mythology, but even so, I didn’t feel like the author was actually knowledgeable with what he was writing. He mentions the Navajo, Apache, and Yavapai tribes and then says that they live at the Yavapai reservation. First of all, why would the Navajo and Apache peoples live on a Yavapai reservation? They have their own reservations. Plus, there is more than one reservation. There is also more than one Apache tribe. Perhaps if this book had been written by a person who is a member of one of those tribes...but it’s not. In any case, the fact that a large percentage of this book takes place in a mythological plane of existence was not something I signed up for when I dove into this story.
And to be honest, the story would’ve been stronger without it, in my opinion. I wasn’t interested in whether or not she would complete her quest because it was obvious from the beginning that her ‘quest’ was symbolic of what she was actually going through in real life. None of the twists that were revealing in the Dreaming were surprised at all for me because the foreshadowing had no nuance whatsoever. It was like being hit over the head with a sledgehammer. Tedious would be an accurate statement.
The only thing the parts in the Dreaming accomplished was to stretch what could’ve been a 250 page YA thriller into a 450 page mess.
2. I didn’t appreciate how the fact that Shelby was Deaf is treated as a big twist. First of all, if you were paying attention, it was obvious. Like I said, the foreshadowing in this book lacks any sense of subtlety. But using it as this big reveal just annoyed me. So there. I spoiled a twist for you. Sorry, not sorry.
3. Technical issues with the writing/structure. This was the first thing that I had a problem with in this book, because it was obvious right away. This book takes place in Arizona, from Shelby’s POV. She is an American, born and bred. So to read words like kerb (curb), programme (program), annexe (annex), storey (story), centre (center), and tyre (tire) took me right out of the story. The author is British, which explains the spelling of these words, but his story takes place in the U.S. and his main character is American. Using the British spellings of words makes no sense whatsoever. In another part of the book, the word ‘COPS’ (with capitalization) is used by Shelby and her mother makes fun of her for saying COPS instead of police. As if Americans don’t use the word cops all the time.
Another judge problem I had was that there is no punctuation denoting dialogue in this book. Now, I’ve read books that are written without quotation marks. But this was confusing because sometimes dialogue would be italicized, and sometimes it wasn’t. Then all of the words that would normally be italicized to denote emphasis were written in ALL CAPS instead.
There were some different things done with structure in this book that I just didn’t care about. There would be entire pages with one or two words, there would be page breaks if Shelby was trying to describe something as spacious, and a lot of attempts at illustration using various punctuation marks. None of this really worked for me. It felt like the author was trying too hard to be quirky instead of focusing on creating an engaging and interesting story.
4. Characters purposely withhold information for no reason. This is so aggravating. There is a character with Shelby who has all the answers, and tells her he has all the answers, but when she asks him questions he says that he won’t tell her because she has to figure it out on her own. No real reason given, and all it does is prolong the book even more. Especially when the answers are so glaringly obvious to anyone paying attention.
5. The author of this book is an adult man. He is writing from the perspective of a teenage girl. It is obvious that this is the case. Shelby sounds like any number of stereotypical teenage girls...that is, not authentic.
6. Body-shaming. Shelby focuses a lot on her mom and the fact that she’s overweight. It is incessant through the first part of the book, and present throughout. I didn’t like it, especially because she kept comparing her mom to herself.
7. I feel like there is a really dangerous message in this book about domestic abuse. When Shelby is reunited with her bio parents, she learns that they are incredibly competitive, to the point that her father actually throws a baseball at her in order to intentionally hit her because he got annoyed that she kept hitting everything he pitched to her.
Then, even knowing what she knows about Shaylene, Shelby calls her to come pick her up. Immediatey before relaying that moment, she speak directly to the reader, and basically equates her situation to that of a battered wife in order to excuse her behavior, all with a very flippant attitude.
Then after everything is finally resolved and Shaylene is in jail, Shelby basically excuses everyone’s awful behavior. She excuses Shaylene for kidnapping her. She excuses her father for hitting her with the baseball. On page 445, she says “I mean, he’s competitive. So what? His wife and kids still love him. He doesn’t lock children up in prisons of ice. He doesn’t steal toddlers. Everyone has faults — get over it.” She is saying this to the reader —to me. And you know what? No. No I won’t ‘get over it’, and that is a terrible message to embrace. The fact that it is a man writing this book as a teenage girl makes me even more upset about her whole attitude.
There is another point in the book where Shelby says something like, “So negligent parents deserve to have their kids taken away?” As if this is a wholly unreasonable consequence. Now, I’m not saying that every parent whose child gets hurt is negligent. Kids get hurt, no matter how closely you try to watch their every move. But if a parent is truly negligent, then yes. They shouldn’t have custody of their child without some sort of supervision.
Other odds and ends:
1. What the heck happened to Shaylene’s husband? Did she kill him? Did he divorce her in absentia??
2. Shelby is supposed to be uber smart (like, genius status), but calls a stethoscope ‘one of those things for listening to your chest. (pg 231)
3. She says she lived in ‘South Alaska’ until she was four. No one who has lived in AK would say that. I say that as someone who was raised in Alaska. For anyone who doesn’t know, Alaska is freaking huge. To say ‘South Alaska’ could mean anything from Attu Island , which is only 250 miles from the Siberian coastline; to Ketchikan, which is about 120 miles from Prince Rupert, British Columbia..They are 1,685 miles away from each other, and are in different time zones. That would be like driving from Phoenix, Arizona to Mobile, Alabama. Anyone who was from Alaska would be more specific. For example, someone from Ketchikan would say they were from Southeast Alaska. I know that she was only four when she left, but it is just one more inaccuracy from the author that I didn’t like. Again, this girl is supposed to be a genius.
So, needless to say I won’t be holding on to this book or recommending it to anyone. I also don’t see myself reaching for another one of his books in the future.
That may be part of the reason I was so disappointed. I had figured out every twist and reveal long before they happened, so I assumed that along the way one of those things would end up being a misdirect...but nope.
Anyway, on with the review.
What I liked:
1. Um...honestly, the more I think about this the less I can find that I can say I actually ‘liked.’
What I didn’t like:
1. The book is mis-marketed. When I picked this book up I was expecting a thriller. And there is a mystery aspect to it, but like I said, it was totally predictable. However, this book ended up being part thriller, part Native-American mythology inspired fantasy.
2. Now, I don’t know much about the tribes indigenous to the Southwestern United States or their mythology, but even so, I didn’t feel like the author was actually knowledgeable with what he was writing. He mentions the Navajo, Apache, and Yavapai tribes and then says that they live at the Yavapai reservation. First of all, why would the Navajo and Apache peoples live on a Yavapai reservation? They have their own reservations. Plus, there is more than one reservation. There is also more than one Apache tribe. Perhaps if this book had been written by a person who is a member of one of those tribes...but it’s not. In any case, the fact that a large percentage of this book takes place in a mythological plane of existence was not something I signed up for when I dove into this story.
And to be honest, the story would’ve been stronger without it, in my opinion. I wasn’t interested in whether or not she would complete her quest because it was obvious from the beginning that her ‘quest’ was symbolic of what she was actually going through in real life. None of the twists that were revealing in the Dreaming were surprised at all for me because the foreshadowing had no nuance whatsoever. It was like being hit over the head with a sledgehammer. Tedious would be an accurate statement.
The only thing the parts in the Dreaming accomplished was to stretch what could’ve been a 250 page YA thriller into a 450 page mess.
2. I didn’t appreciate how the fact that Shelby was Deaf is treated as a big twist. First of all, if you were paying attention, it was obvious. Like I said, the foreshadowing in this book lacks any sense of subtlety. But using it as this big reveal just annoyed me. So there. I spoiled a twist for you. Sorry, not sorry.
3. Technical issues with the writing/structure. This was the first thing that I had a problem with in this book, because it was obvious right away. This book takes place in Arizona, from Shelby’s POV. She is an American, born and bred. So to read words like kerb (curb), programme (program), annexe (annex), storey (story), centre (center), and tyre (tire) took me right out of the story. The author is British, which explains the spelling of these words, but his story takes place in the U.S. and his main character is American. Using the British spellings of words makes no sense whatsoever. In another part of the book, the word ‘COPS’ (with capitalization) is used by Shelby and her mother makes fun of her for saying COPS instead of police. As if Americans don’t use the word cops all the time.
Another judge problem I had was that there is no punctuation denoting dialogue in this book. Now, I’ve read books that are written without quotation marks. But this was confusing because sometimes dialogue would be italicized, and sometimes it wasn’t. Then all of the words that would normally be italicized to denote emphasis were written in ALL CAPS instead.
There were some different things done with structure in this book that I just didn’t care about. There would be entire pages with one or two words, there would be page breaks if Shelby was trying to describe something as spacious, and a lot of attempts at illustration using various punctuation marks. None of this really worked for me. It felt like the author was trying too hard to be quirky instead of focusing on creating an engaging and interesting story.
4. Characters purposely withhold information for no reason. This is so aggravating. There is a character with Shelby who has all the answers, and tells her he has all the answers, but when she asks him questions he says that he won’t tell her because she has to figure it out on her own. No real reason given, and all it does is prolong the book even more. Especially when the answers are so glaringly obvious to anyone paying attention.
5. The author of this book is an adult man. He is writing from the perspective of a teenage girl. It is obvious that this is the case. Shelby sounds like any number of stereotypical teenage girls...that is, not authentic.
6. Body-shaming. Shelby focuses a lot on her mom and the fact that she’s overweight. It is incessant through the first part of the book, and present throughout. I didn’t like it, especially because she kept comparing her mom to herself.
7. I feel like there is a really dangerous message in this book about domestic abuse. When Shelby is reunited with her bio parents, she learns that they are incredibly competitive, to the point that her father actually throws a baseball at her in order to intentionally hit her because he got annoyed that she kept hitting everything he pitched to her.
Then, even knowing what she knows about Shaylene, Shelby calls her to come pick her up. Immediatey before relaying that moment, she speak directly to the reader, and basically equates her situation to that of a battered wife in order to excuse her behavior, all with a very flippant attitude.
Then after everything is finally resolved and Shaylene is in jail, Shelby basically excuses everyone’s awful behavior. She excuses Shaylene for kidnapping her. She excuses her father for hitting her with the baseball. On page 445, she says “I mean, he’s competitive. So what? His wife and kids still love him. He doesn’t lock children up in prisons of ice. He doesn’t steal toddlers. Everyone has faults — get over it.” She is saying this to the reader —to me. And you know what? No. No I won’t ‘get over it’, and that is a terrible message to embrace. The fact that it is a man writing this book as a teenage girl makes me even more upset about her whole attitude.
There is another point in the book where Shelby says something like, “So negligent parents deserve to have their kids taken away?” As if this is a wholly unreasonable consequence. Now, I’m not saying that every parent whose child gets hurt is negligent. Kids get hurt, no matter how closely you try to watch their every move. But if a parent is truly negligent, then yes. They shouldn’t have custody of their child without some sort of supervision.
Other odds and ends:
1. What the heck happened to Shaylene’s husband? Did she kill him? Did he divorce her in absentia??
2. Shelby is supposed to be uber smart (like, genius status), but calls a stethoscope ‘one of those things for listening to your chest. (pg 231)
3. She says she lived in ‘South Alaska’ until she was four. No one who has lived in AK would say that. I say that as someone who was raised in Alaska. For anyone who doesn’t know, Alaska is freaking huge. To say ‘South Alaska’ could mean anything from Attu Island , which is only 250 miles from the Siberian coastline; to Ketchikan, which is about 120 miles from Prince Rupert, British Columbia..They are 1,685 miles away from each other, and are in different time zones. That would be like driving from Phoenix, Arizona to Mobile, Alabama. Anyone who was from Alaska would be more specific. For example, someone from Ketchikan would say they were from Southeast Alaska. I know that she was only four when she left, but it is just one more inaccuracy from the author that I didn’t like. Again, this girl is supposed to be a genius.
So, needless to say I won’t be holding on to this book or recommending it to anyone. I also don’t see myself reaching for another one of his books in the future.
When I first began this book, I was entranced. I am a fan of WWII stories, and I haven't read one before that took place in Italy. I loved the idea of using music as a code for a resistance group. As the story went on, however, I began to lose interest. In the end, I felt like this book went on a bit too long, despite the fact that it was only 366 pages.
What I liked:
1. Angelo's story. I ultimately felt like Angelo's story was more intriguing for me. Perhaps that's why I began to lose interest in this story. His tragic backstory is outlined in the first half of the book, and we don't get much about him afterward.
2. The importance of music and literature in the story. I love the idea of using music and books to create codes to aide the Italian resistance.
3. I like that the author uses actual historical figures in her novel that are probably unknown to most people.
4. Lena. I think I would've preferred a book about the flawed Lena as opposed to Elodie, who felt very goody-goody Mary Sue to me.
What I didn't like:
1. Pacing. Elodie's story tends to drag. There are parts that become somewhat repetitive and I honestly didn't care about Elodie's parents backstory. Normally I love my characters to be fleshed out, but in this case I felt like it didn't really add anything to the story, and just made moments drag. Also when she and her mother travel to Venice...that entire section did nothing for me. I get that it was meant to flesh out side characters and backstory, but I didn't care about that.
2. The story gets very soapy with the romance between Elodie and Luca. I didn't feel connected to either of them as characters or as a couple, so I had a difficult time caring about their relationship. I mean, seriously... they are supposed to be on the run from German soldiers, keeping a low profile and finding a place for their group to hide and in the middle of all of that they decide it's a great time to bathe and hook up? What?
3. The ending was incredibly anticlimactic. She and Angelo getting together just didn't sit right with me. We're supposed to believe that she and Luca had this amazing love story and less than four months after he's killed we're supposed to believe that she's now in love with Angelo? It felt like they were both settling. Maybe I wouldn't have minded as much if more of the narrative took place after he took her in, to give some time for that relationship to develop, but as it is written I didn't feel any chemistry between the two characters. Also, it seemed very strange to have a book that was about a girl joining the Italian Resistance as a spy to end without any kind of real climax to the story. It turns full romance and I was bored.
Other odds and ends:
1. There are some serious timing issues in this book. Luca and Elodie have sex in September, 1943. In October, when she is taken in by Luca, she says that she's already missed two periods and her belly is beginning to round. Umm...no
2. In the author's note, Richman says that the initial inspiration for this story came from a story she heard from a friend of hers whose grandfather (maybe father? I don't quite recall) was actually saved during WWII by a man at a train station just before he was about to hand his forged ID to a German soldier. I think it is such an amazing story and could've been so impactful, but it felt like it was ultimately used as a plot device for a romance story.
I will probably try another Alyson Richman book in the future, but it will most likely be from the library.
What I liked:
1. Angelo's story. I ultimately felt like Angelo's story was more intriguing for me. Perhaps that's why I began to lose interest in this story. His tragic backstory is outlined in the first half of the book, and we don't get much about him afterward.
2. The importance of music and literature in the story. I love the idea of using music and books to create codes to aide the Italian resistance.
3. I like that the author uses actual historical figures in her novel that are probably unknown to most people.
4. Lena. I think I would've preferred a book about the flawed Lena as opposed to Elodie, who felt very goody-goody Mary Sue to me.
What I didn't like:
1. Pacing. Elodie's story tends to drag. There are parts that become somewhat repetitive and I honestly didn't care about Elodie's parents backstory. Normally I love my characters to be fleshed out, but in this case I felt like it didn't really add anything to the story, and just made moments drag. Also when she and her mother travel to Venice...that entire section did nothing for me. I get that it was meant to flesh out side characters and backstory, but I didn't care about that.
2. The story gets very soapy with the romance between Elodie and Luca. I didn't feel connected to either of them as characters or as a couple, so I had a difficult time caring about their relationship. I mean, seriously...
3. The ending was incredibly anticlimactic.
Other odds and ends:
1. There are some serious timing issues in this book.
2. In the author's note, Richman says that the initial inspiration for this story came from a story she heard from a friend of hers whose grandfather (maybe father? I don't quite recall) was actually saved during WWII by a man at a train station just before he was about to hand his forged ID to a German soldier. I think it is such an amazing story and could've been so impactful, but it felt like it was ultimately used as a plot device for a romance story.
I will probably try another Alyson Richman book in the future, but it will most likely be from the library.
I love books about travel, especially when we're talking about Europe. I was able to travel to Europe twice last year, for my first and second time overseas. It was amazing. Seeing buildings that have been standing since before the United States was even a thing was just amazing.
I've wanted to visit Italy for years. So when I learned that this book took place primarily in Italy, I was sold. Unfortunately, I didn't end up enjoying this book at all.
What I liked (kind of):
1. The Italian setting. Again, I really want to go to Italy, namely Tuscany. I want it so bad. A good portion of this book takes place in Florence, so I was expecting some rich, lush descriptions of the scenery and also the city of Florence. But that didn't happen. I felt like Italy was just a backdrop for a really subpar story.
What I didn't like:
1. LUCY. Lucy is the WORST. She is the absolute worst. If you want a spoiled, privileged main character who complains endlessly about her parents sending her to Europe and paying for her entire tuition at a fancy college, this book may be for you. If not, you may want to steer clear. Seriously, Lucy was insufferable. Her father sent her to Europe for the summer in return for her giving up her dream to be an actor and going into the business program at his alma mater, which he is paying for 100%. She complains the entire book about how her trip to Europe 'destroyed her future'. Oh, you poor, poor little rich girl. Apparently it never occurred to her to turn down the trip and choose a less expensive college where she could be a theatre major...because why would it?
She treats Charlene, the girl her parents pay to accompany her, like garbage, despite the fact that Charlene seems to be the one who has had to make all of the arrangements for their trip. She never shows her any real gratitude, and it's obvious from the way that she is written that we are supposed to dislike her. But I was 100% #TeamCharlene.
And then we get to the way she acts when she gets back to school. I'm specifically talking about her actions toward Shane and Jesse. It was not okay. I thought both of the guys deserved better. I did feel like the author tried to write Shane in a way that we wouldn't like him, but I felt like he was absolutely justified in the way he spoke to Lucy. In all honesty, he went too easy on her. She. Was. The. WORST.
2. Inconsistent characterization. Lucy's dad is written as almost a manic personality. He is tough and strict, but he's going to send his daughter off to Europe for the summer? He freaks out when she is doing a play, even though she is following his wishes as far as her major goes. He threatens to cut her off financially if she doesn't quit a play? It just seems very overblown. Then he just...changes his mind and is okay with it all because he sees her in a play, regardless of the fact that he'd seen her in multiple plays before. It just felt very contrived to me. The author needed Lucy to struggle in some way so there was an external conflict outside the relationships, so she made her dad this total jerk. There are even a couple of points where she alludes to the fact that Lucy's father can get incredibly angry, and implies that it may also be in a violent way. But at the end, all is okay and he even sends her back to Europe with her boyfriend. Okay, I totally believe that would happen.
There are other examples, but I've already ranted long enough on this topic.
3. The 'Romance'/Insta-love/Cheating:
In the course of a few weeks, Lucy:
a)Meets and falls in love with Jesse (they were literally together only one week)
b)Pines over him at home because he doesn't answer he emails right away
c)Meets Shane at a party and gives him her number
d)Plans a romantic weekend away with Shane
e)Jumps in the sack with Jesse the night before she's supposed to go on said romantic weekend.
She was calling Shane her boyfriend. They were together. Whether or not she felt conflicted, she let him believe that she cared about him. When Jesse showed up, that pretty much went out the window unless she was trying to use the existence of Shane to make Jesse jealous. It was gross. And then when she sleeps with Jesse, I hated her even more. I don't care if she was just with Shane because she thought she couldn't be with Jesse. Actually, that makes it WORSE, because she was using him. Of course, after that the author attempted to suggest that Shane wasn't the best guy. And I didn't really care for him, to be honest. But damn, both he and Jesse deserved better than Lucy. I actually don't understand what either of them saw in her, besides maybe her looks.
4. The writing. It was very one-dimensional and shallow. I didn't feel like there was any depth to the characters or their motivations. It was clunky and awkward in spots. It was just cliche after cliche of nonsense and I just plain didn't like it.
5. Lucy. Yes, She is number one. But I really hated her. She deserves to be on here twice for how insufferable she was.
I realized part of the way into this story that the author wrote another book I didn't care for, Jane. It was a Jane Eyre retelling where the Mr. Rochester character (named Nico Rathbone in the adaptation...) is a rock star. I just don't think her books are for me.
I've wanted to visit Italy for years. So when I learned that this book took place primarily in Italy, I was sold. Unfortunately, I didn't end up enjoying this book at all.
What I liked (kind of):
1. The Italian setting. Again, I really want to go to Italy, namely Tuscany. I want it so bad. A good portion of this book takes place in Florence, so I was expecting some rich, lush descriptions of the scenery and also the city of Florence. But that didn't happen. I felt like Italy was just a backdrop for a really subpar story.
What I didn't like:
1. LUCY. Lucy is the WORST. She is the absolute worst. If you want a spoiled, privileged main character who complains endlessly about her parents sending her to Europe and paying for her entire tuition at a fancy college, this book may be for you. If not, you may want to steer clear. Seriously, Lucy was insufferable. Her father sent her to Europe for the summer in return for her giving up her dream to be an actor and going into the business program at his alma mater, which he is paying for 100%. She complains the entire book about how her trip to Europe 'destroyed her future'. Oh, you poor, poor little rich girl. Apparently it never occurred to her to turn down the trip and choose a less expensive college where she could be a theatre major...because why would it?
She treats Charlene, the girl her parents pay to accompany her, like garbage, despite the fact that Charlene seems to be the one who has had to make all of the arrangements for their trip. She never shows her any real gratitude, and it's obvious from the way that she is written that we are supposed to dislike her. But I was 100% #TeamCharlene.
And then we get to the way she acts when she gets back to school. I'm specifically talking about her actions toward Shane and Jesse. It was not okay. I thought both of the guys deserved better. I did feel like the author tried to write Shane in a way that we wouldn't like him, but I felt like he was absolutely justified in the way he spoke to Lucy. In all honesty, he went too easy on her. She. Was. The. WORST.
2. Inconsistent characterization. Lucy's dad is written as almost a manic personality. He is tough and strict, but he's going to send his daughter off to Europe for the summer? He freaks out when she is doing a play, even though she is following his wishes as far as her major goes. He threatens to cut her off financially if she doesn't quit a play? It just seems very overblown. Then he just...changes his mind and is okay with it all because he sees her in a play, regardless of the fact that he'd seen her in multiple plays before. It just felt very contrived to me. The author needed Lucy to struggle in some way so there was an external conflict outside the relationships, so she made her dad this total jerk. There are even a couple of points where she alludes to the fact that Lucy's father can get incredibly angry, and implies that it may also be in a violent way. But at the end, all is okay and he even sends her back to Europe with her boyfriend. Okay, I totally believe that would happen.
There are other examples, but I've already ranted long enough on this topic.
3. The 'Romance'/Insta-love/Cheating:
In the course of a few weeks, Lucy:
a)Meets and falls in love with Jesse (they were literally together only one week)
b)Pines over him at home because he doesn't answer he emails right away
c)Meets Shane at a party and gives him her number
d)Plans a romantic weekend away with Shane
e)Jumps in the sack with Jesse the night before she's supposed to go on said romantic weekend.
She was calling Shane her boyfriend. They were together. Whether or not she felt conflicted, she let him believe that she cared about him. When Jesse showed up, that pretty much went out the window unless she was trying to use the existence of Shane to make Jesse jealous. It was gross. And then when she sleeps with Jesse, I hated her even more. I don't care if she was just with Shane because she thought she couldn't be with Jesse. Actually, that makes it WORSE, because she was using him. Of course, after that the author attempted to suggest that Shane wasn't the best guy. And I didn't really care for him, to be honest. But damn, both he and Jesse deserved better than Lucy. I actually don't understand what either of them saw in her, besides maybe her looks.
4. The writing. It was very one-dimensional and shallow. I didn't feel like there was any depth to the characters or their motivations. It was clunky and awkward in spots. It was just cliche after cliche of nonsense and I just plain didn't like it.
5. Lucy. Yes, She is number one. But I really hated her. She deserves to be on here twice for how insufferable she was.
I realized part of the way into this story that the author wrote another book I didn't care for, Jane. It was a Jane Eyre retelling where the Mr. Rochester character (named Nico Rathbone in the adaptation...) is a rock star. I just don't think her books are for me.
DNF after 100 pages. This book was not for me. I know that there are going to be people out there who love this surrealistic writing style, but I am just not one of them. I was recommended this by someone who said it was magical realism. THIS BOOK IS NOT MAGICAL REALISM.
I couldn't connect to any of the characters. They all sounded exactly the same to me. I kept having to look back and see whose chapter we were in. They each had their own quirks, but aside from that, they all had pretty much identical voices.
I was curious to see in the end what was going on with the bomb threats, but as it continued I became less and less curious.
I do think there is potentially triggering material in this book dealing with sexual assault, school violence, and possibly suicidal tendencies. It doesn't come right out and say it (at least, not at the point I read to) but quite a bit of the language suggest that at least one of the characters is suicidal.
I don't know if A.S. King is the author for me. She's definitely not if all of her books are in this same genre. It just doesn't mesh well with me. For that reason, I am not rating this book.
I couldn't connect to any of the characters. They all sounded exactly the same to me. I kept having to look back and see whose chapter we were in. They each had their own quirks, but aside from that, they all had pretty much identical voices.
I was curious to see in the end what was going on with the bomb threats, but as it continued I became less and less curious.
I do think there is potentially triggering material in this book dealing with
I don't know if A.S. King is the author for me. She's definitely not if all of her books are in this same genre. It just doesn't mesh well with me. For that reason, I am not rating this book.
I've had this book on my shelves for almost two years. For whatever reason, I've never felt the urge to pick it up, even though I thought it would be something I would like. Recently I've been in the mood to read contemporaries over other genres, and finally decided to pick this up. Unfortunately, I wasn't as blown away by this as I wanted or expected to be.
What I liked:
1. The premise. I love stories that have to do with Hollywood, especially old-time Hollywood, as they usually involve a scandal or two. When we were introduced to the Clyde storyline, I was excited. That kind of thing is usually right up my alley.
2. Emi's job. I liked learning from Emi the ins and outs of set design. It felt like the author really researched this part of her story well and I found it fascinating.
3. I also liked that Emi seemed completely comfortable with her sexuality and it wasn't treated as some sort of dirty little secret.
What I didn't like:
1. The story lacked focus a bit for me. There were so many things going on in this book that I'm not sure any one of them actually succeeded the way they could have if the story had been streamlined. I would've loved a story about Emi and Charlotte searching for the long-lost granddaughter of a famous movie star. I would've loved a story about a girl navigating her first big job while falling in love with someone else at that job. Or a story that was more focused on Ava learning about where she came from and then trying to make amends with people she'd hurt. But this book threw all of that plus more all together and there were times everything just felt a little chaotic and unrealistic.
2. Suspension of disbelief. There were so many instances during this book where I just thought, "Would this really happen like this?" For example, Emi is barely 18 years old, but we are supposed to believe that she has been working on film sets as a set designer (an intern, but still.) since she was 16 years old? We're told repeatedly that it was actually her brother who got her the job, but that doesn't feel right either. After all, how old is he supposed to be himself? I don't recall if his age is mentioned, but if he was already accomplished enough that he was able to hook her up with a job two years prior, then he must've been in his 20s, right? Or are we supposed to believe that he has also been working since he was 16? And then we find out that he's had a thing for her best friend and was 'waiting for her to turn 18'...so if he's much older that 22/23, that's more than a little creepy to me.
Another thing that struck me as unbelievable was the ease with which these characters made their way around Los Angeles. I don't live in that area, but I have driven there before and I know people who live there and one thing I understand is that it takes forever to get anywhere. There is one scene in the book where Ava makes an appointment for 'a couple of hours' later. She wants to go shopping before the meeting, and Emi has another meeting with her bosses in a different area but agrees to meet Ava and go with her to the meeting. And apparently everything was perfect and traffic was perfect because they are able to make the appointment with no issues whatsoever.
Also, I get that her ex recommended her for the job, and it was a low-budget movie, but how many directors would hand the reins over to a girl who had just finished high school? And the fact that all three of the leads in this indie movie were A-list names? I know that famous people do indie movies for little to no money, but this all felt a bit contrived to me.
3. The romance. I really wanted to love this romance. But it felt so lackluster to me. It lacked real foundation. It lacked any chemistry whatsoever. There is one kind of cute scene where they list all of their flaws to the other person, but other than that their relationship falls very flat. Ava is going through some incredible changes in her life, what with finding out about her mother and where she comes from. This obviously causes her a lot of emotional distress. I actually felt a little nauseated about this being a romance when it was obvious that one of the characters involved in the romance was in crisis. And it's virtually left unresolved. She has like three different meltdowns throughout the course of the book, but no one ever suggests that maybe she needs to go to therapy or work through her issues.
There is an entire passage where Ava has disappeared after a meltdown at the homeless shelter she was staying in. None of her friends have any idea where she is and she won't answer texts or calls. So they all run around to all of the places she might be and finally find her an hour and a half's drive away sleeping in her car. And instead of staying with her, this girl who obviously needs help, they just decide to leave her there and drive the hour and a half back home and agree to never mention to her that they were worried and looking for her.. It makes NO SENSE! And in the end, it feels like we're supposed to believe that true love conquered all or something. Oh, and it's pretty much insta-love on Emi's part. She is pining over her ex for the first chunk of the book, and then she meets Ava and almost immediately tells her friend that Ava was 'meant' to be in her life.
4. The writing. I didn't feel any emotional pull to the story at all. I attribute that to the writing style. It was very simplistic. There was a lot of telling, not showing: I did this and then I did this and then she said this and then I did that and then...It just lacked depth. There were times when it was obvious the author was attempting to be philosophical and profound, but it just came off as being a little trite, in my opinion. Also, there were passages that just felt awkward. The ends of some of the chapters were introspective, but not in a thought-provoking way. It just felt like the author was trying to hard. Also, there were never-ending monologues by the characters as they were telling stories that tended toward info-dumpy.
5. Lack of tension. This story has very little tension. It just kind of meanders from one day to the next. This isn't a problem if the story is slice of life. But this is supposed to have some semblance of a mystery attached to it. The 'mystery' was almost non-existent, and any chance for tension is extinguished almost as quickly as it's introduced. Like the scene where they find Ava asleep in her car in front of her adopted mother's house, we'd been along for the ride with her friends searching for her for the previous several pages. They were frantic with worry for her, since she'd had a breakdown at the homeless shelter and was kicked out. Then they finally find her and just decide to leave without waking her and finding out what the heck was going on with her. Any sense of tension was quashed. I don't understand why the author would build up all of this emotion just to squander it.
Later, she decides to go home and try to make amends with her adopted mother. This could've been a really impactful scene. It SHOULD'VE been impactful. But I just didn't feel anything while reading it. The only time I felt even a moment of anything was when her brother came out and gave her a hug.
6. Characters. I didn't feel like any of the characters had any depth, aside from Emi. There were a couple of times a character's name was mentioned and I had to stop and try to remember who the person was. It was all very surface-level.
Other odds and ends:
1. If Tracey also suffered from drug/alcohol abuse, how in the heck was she allowed to adopt Ava? She was barely more than a kid herself, but the state let her take custody of Ava and then proceed to barely make ends meet for years? That isn't plausible.
2. I felt like it was strange to mention almost halfway through the book that Emi and her brother are a quarter black. I love the idea of a mixed-race main character, but it almost felt as though it was being used as some sort of little twist or something and that kind of rubbed me the wrong way. It was probably just the awkward nature of the writing and not something that was actually supposed to be a twist, but it just didn't work for me.
This is such a bummer for me because I felt like it had real potential to be a new favorite book. I don't know if I'll pick up any of her books in the future because I just don't connect to her writing style the way I would like.
What I liked:
1. The premise. I love stories that have to do with Hollywood, especially old-time Hollywood, as they usually involve a scandal or two. When we were introduced to the Clyde storyline, I was excited. That kind of thing is usually right up my alley.
2. Emi's job. I liked learning from Emi the ins and outs of set design. It felt like the author really researched this part of her story well and I found it fascinating.
3. I also liked that Emi seemed completely comfortable with her sexuality and it wasn't treated as some sort of dirty little secret.
What I didn't like:
1. The story lacked focus a bit for me. There were so many things going on in this book that I'm not sure any one of them actually succeeded the way they could have if the story had been streamlined. I would've loved a story about Emi and Charlotte searching for the long-lost granddaughter of a famous movie star. I would've loved a story about a girl navigating her first big job while falling in love with someone else at that job. Or a story that was more focused on Ava learning about where she came from and then trying to make amends with people she'd hurt. But this book threw all of that plus more all together and there were times everything just felt a little chaotic and unrealistic.
2. Suspension of disbelief. There were so many instances during this book where I just thought, "Would this really happen like this?" For example, Emi is barely 18 years old, but we are supposed to believe that she has been working on film sets as a set designer (an intern, but still.) since she was 16 years old? We're told repeatedly that it was actually her brother who got her the job, but that doesn't feel right either. After all, how old is he supposed to be himself? I don't recall if his age is mentioned, but if he was already accomplished enough that he was able to hook her up with a job two years prior, then he must've been in his 20s, right? Or are we supposed to believe that he has also been working since he was 16? And then we find out that he's had a thing for her best friend and was 'waiting for her to turn 18'...so if he's much older that 22/23, that's more than a little creepy to me.
Another thing that struck me as unbelievable was the ease with which these characters made their way around Los Angeles. I don't live in that area, but I have driven there before and I know people who live there and one thing I understand is that it takes forever to get anywhere. There is one scene in the book where Ava makes an appointment for 'a couple of hours' later. She wants to go shopping before the meeting, and Emi has another meeting with her bosses in a different area but agrees to meet Ava and go with her to the meeting. And apparently everything was perfect and traffic was perfect because they are able to make the appointment with no issues whatsoever.
Also, I get that her ex recommended her for the job, and it was a low-budget movie, but how many directors would hand the reins over to a girl who had just finished high school? And the fact that all three of the leads in this indie movie were A-list names? I know that famous people do indie movies for little to no money, but this all felt a bit contrived to me.
3. The romance. I really wanted to love this romance. But it felt so lackluster to me. It lacked real foundation. It lacked any chemistry whatsoever. There is one kind of cute scene where they list all of their flaws to the other person, but other than that their relationship falls very flat. Ava is going through some incredible changes in her life, what with finding out about her mother and where she comes from. This obviously causes her a lot of emotional distress. I actually felt a little nauseated about this being a romance when it was obvious that one of the characters involved in the romance was in crisis. And it's virtually left unresolved. She has like three different meltdowns throughout the course of the book, but no one ever suggests that maybe she needs to go to therapy or work through her issues.
There is an entire passage where Ava has disappeared after a meltdown at the homeless shelter she was staying in. None of her friends have any idea where she is and she won't answer texts or calls. So they all run around to all of the places she might be and finally find her an hour and a half's drive away sleeping in her car. And instead of staying with her, this girl who obviously needs help, they just decide to leave her there and drive the hour and a half back home and agree to never mention to her that they were worried and looking for her.. It makes NO SENSE! And in the end, it feels like we're supposed to believe that true love conquered all or something. Oh, and it's pretty much insta-love on Emi's part. She is pining over her ex for the first chunk of the book, and then she meets Ava and almost immediately tells her friend that Ava was 'meant' to be in her life.
4. The writing. I didn't feel any emotional pull to the story at all. I attribute that to the writing style. It was very simplistic. There was a lot of telling, not showing: I did this and then I did this and then she said this and then I did that and then...It just lacked depth. There were times when it was obvious the author was attempting to be philosophical and profound, but it just came off as being a little trite, in my opinion. Also, there were passages that just felt awkward. The ends of some of the chapters were introspective, but not in a thought-provoking way. It just felt like the author was trying to hard. Also, there were never-ending monologues by the characters as they were telling stories that tended toward info-dumpy.
5. Lack of tension. This story has very little tension. It just kind of meanders from one day to the next. This isn't a problem if the story is slice of life. But this is supposed to have some semblance of a mystery attached to it. The 'mystery' was almost non-existent, and any chance for tension is extinguished almost as quickly as it's introduced. Like the scene where they find Ava asleep in her car in front of her adopted mother's house, we'd been along for the ride with her friends searching for her for the previous several pages. They were frantic with worry for her, since she'd had a breakdown at the homeless shelter and was kicked out. Then they finally find her and just decide to leave without waking her and finding out what the heck was going on with her. Any sense of tension was quashed. I don't understand why the author would build up all of this emotion just to squander it.
Later, she decides to go home and try to make amends with her adopted mother. This could've been a really impactful scene. It SHOULD'VE been impactful. But I just didn't feel anything while reading it. The only time I felt even a moment of anything was when her brother came out and gave her a hug.
6. Characters. I didn't feel like any of the characters had any depth, aside from Emi. There were a couple of times a character's name was mentioned and I had to stop and try to remember who the person was. It was all very surface-level.
Other odds and ends:
1. If Tracey also suffered from drug/alcohol abuse, how in the heck was she allowed to adopt Ava? She was barely more than a kid herself, but the state let her take custody of Ava and then proceed to barely make ends meet for years? That isn't plausible.
2. I felt like it was strange to mention almost halfway through the book that Emi and her brother are a quarter black. I love the idea of a mixed-race main character, but it almost felt as though it was being used as some sort of little twist or something and that kind of rubbed me the wrong way. It was probably just the awkward nature of the writing and not something that was actually supposed to be a twist, but it just didn't work for me.
This is such a bummer for me because I felt like it had real potential to be a new favorite book. I don't know if I'll pick up any of her books in the future because I just don't connect to her writing style the way I would like.
Just a note: This review is going to be mostly me comparing the book to the movie.
So apparently 2018 is the year where I prefer the movie/show over the source material. It started with Handmaid's Tale. I read the book a couple of years ago and even though I thought it was an important story I didn't really care for the writing or the structure. Then I saw the Hulu adaptation and LOVED it. Seriously, everyone should watch this show.
Then it was Stardust by Neil Gaiman. I've seen the movie several times and absolutely love it. I just got around to reading the book and for me it just fell short. I explain my feelings in my review.
We can now add Big Fish to the list of adaptations I prefer to the book. I remember when I first saw Big Fish. I absolutely loved it. I loved the characters, the Tim Burton aesthetic, the quirky structure. I just loved everything about it.
I've wanted to read the book ever since I first saw the movie, and finally this year saw the book for a good deal on book outlet and bought it. Unfortunately, I don't feel like the book is as successful a narrative as I was expecting.
First of all, the book and the movie are completely different. Completely. Pretty much the only similarities are the character's names. Most of the 'myths' told bear little to no resemblance to the movie.
I actually didn't mind the structure of the book. I liked the quirky, anecdotal nature of the book. It was very fairy tale-esque. However, I felt like the movie was more successful in creating a cohesive narrative. There was more depth to the characters, which isn't usually the case with movie adaptations. I think that was where the book's structure failed. It was difficult to connect to Edward or William because we didn't get much of anything actually between them. Many of the myth chapters were told in 3rd person, which made it even more difficult to connect.
My biggest issue with the book is the passage where Edward buys Specter and then has an affair with Jenny. I hated this. On page 121, it feels like the groundwork is being laid down for Edward to be a piece of garbage philandering man.
William is talking about their life after he was born and how Edward and Sandra were in kind of a rut:
"...Edward watched helplessly from his chair, suddenly tired, excruciatingly tired of the noise, the sleepless nights, the smell. Tired of his wife. So he missed the old life sometimes, the freedom, the time to think things through--but did that make him different from any other man? It was different with women, they were made to raise a family, they had the attention span for it. Men had to go out of the house and work, that's the way it had always been, from the time of the hunter-gatherers it was so and still was today. Men were born this way' they had to be two people, one at home and another away, while a mother had to be but one."
What a bunch of enabling garbage. As soon as I read this, I knew that Edward was going to go out and cheat on his wife and I was pissed. I'm not saying that they couldn't introduce some marital strife between Edward and Sandra, but to have the author so ineptly foreshadow Edward's infidelity and also excuse his behavior through the voice of his own son was gross.
One of the things I loved most about the movie is that Edward was in love with Sandra, end of story. After everything he went through to meet her and prove his love to her, it would've been a disservice to the character to have him be unfaithful. But that is another huge difference in the movie. Their relationship is more developed and you root for them. The scene with Jessica Lange and Albert Finney in the bathtub makes me cry every darn time. I just love it. But you don't feel that at all in the book.
The movie is just so much richer and quirkier than the book. The entire circus subplot is completely original to the movie. Many of the characters in the book are only there for one story or not mentioned at all. Karl, the giant, plays a much bigger role in the movie, as does the two-headed sister character (Ping & Jing in the movie; unnamed in the book) and Norther Winslow makes a couple of appearances that make his character meaningful instead of a one-off.
I still did enjoy this book to a certain extent. There were moments where the tone gave me that same whimsical note that the movie accomplishes. However, overall I just didn't feel like it had the magic I was yearning for.
So apparently 2018 is the year where I prefer the movie/show over the source material. It started with Handmaid's Tale. I read the book a couple of years ago and even though I thought it was an important story I didn't really care for the writing or the structure. Then I saw the Hulu adaptation and LOVED it. Seriously, everyone should watch this show.
Then it was Stardust by Neil Gaiman. I've seen the movie several times and absolutely love it. I just got around to reading the book and for me it just fell short. I explain my feelings in my review.
We can now add Big Fish to the list of adaptations I prefer to the book. I remember when I first saw Big Fish. I absolutely loved it. I loved the characters, the Tim Burton aesthetic, the quirky structure. I just loved everything about it.
I've wanted to read the book ever since I first saw the movie, and finally this year saw the book for a good deal on book outlet and bought it. Unfortunately, I don't feel like the book is as successful a narrative as I was expecting.
First of all, the book and the movie are completely different. Completely. Pretty much the only similarities are the character's names. Most of the 'myths' told bear little to no resemblance to the movie.
I actually didn't mind the structure of the book. I liked the quirky, anecdotal nature of the book. It was very fairy tale-esque. However, I felt like the movie was more successful in creating a cohesive narrative. There was more depth to the characters, which isn't usually the case with movie adaptations. I think that was where the book's structure failed. It was difficult to connect to Edward or William because we didn't get much of anything actually between them. Many of the myth chapters were told in 3rd person, which made it even more difficult to connect.
My biggest issue with the book is the passage where Edward
William is talking about their life after he was born and how Edward and Sandra were in kind of a rut:
"...Edward watched helplessly from his chair, suddenly tired, excruciatingly tired of the noise, the sleepless nights, the smell. Tired of his wife. So he missed the old life sometimes, the freedom, the time to think things through--but did that make him different from any other man? It was different with women, they were made to raise a family, they had the attention span for it. Men had to go out of the house and work, that's the way it had always been, from the time of the hunter-gatherers it was so and still was today. Men were born this way' they had to be two people, one at home and another away, while a mother had to be but one."
What a bunch of enabling garbage. As soon as I read this, I knew that Edward was going to go out and cheat on his wife and I was pissed. I'm not saying that they couldn't introduce some marital strife between Edward and Sandra, but to have the author so ineptly foreshadow Edward's infidelity and also excuse his behavior through the voice of his own son was gross.
One of the things I loved most about the movie is that Edward was in love with Sandra, end of story. After everything he went through to meet her and prove his love to her, it would've been a disservice to the character to have him be unfaithful. But that is another huge difference in the movie. Their relationship is more developed and you root for them. The scene with Jessica Lange and Albert Finney in the bathtub makes me cry every darn time. I just love it. But you don't feel that at all in the book.
The movie is just so much richer and quirkier than the book. The entire circus subplot is completely original to the movie. Many of the characters in the book are only there for one story or not mentioned at all. Karl, the giant, plays a much bigger role in the movie, as does the two-headed sister character (Ping & Jing in the movie; unnamed in the book) and Norther Winslow makes a couple of appearances that make his character meaningful instead of a one-off.
I still did enjoy this book to a certain extent. There were moments where the tone gave me that same whimsical note that the movie accomplishes. However, overall I just didn't feel like it had the magic I was yearning for.
When I started reading this book I'd forgotten the premise and just kind of jumped in. I assumed from the title that it wasn't going to be a super fluffy YA contemporary, which it isn't, for the most part.
For quite a while I thought that this was going to be a solid four-star book. Unfortunately, it fell off for me by the end.
What I liked:
1. The premise. I don't know why, but I enjoy books where characters are stranded, but not in a life-threatening way. Airports, libraries, schools...it is a weird little pet love of mine in books. I was excited when I realized that's the book I'd stumbled into.
2. The portrayal of grief and survivor's guilt (in the first half). Everyone grieves loss in different ways, and this book is just one example of one person's journey through grief. Ryn's actions in the first half of the book felt authentic.
3. The flashbacks. I liked that this book didn't fall into the annoying trope (although that's not quite the right term) of vaguely alluding to some past horrific trauma but not actually clarifying it for the reader until the end of the book. We know from the very beginning that she is grieving her best friend's horrific death. We know how she died and that Ryn feels guilty because she would've normally been with her. I appreciated that.
What I didn't like:
1. Lack of focus. As the book went on, I felt like it lost focus and the pacing really suffered. I would've enjoyed the book far more if it had just been Ryn and Xander becoming friends on this one night stuck in an airport. But then we get all of these side characters who were really one-dimensional (Siri was really obnoxious) and subplots that seem to go against all of the things we've been told and shown about Ryn in the first half of the book. Taking time to go on a conspiracy hunt with a young genius and attend a rager really messed with the pacing for me, and I felt like the second half dragged. Introducing all of these tangential subplots made it difficult to invest in Xander and Ryn's relationship as well.
2. Lackluster side characters. Siri was awful. I'm not someone who absolutely has to have their phone on them at all times, but when she stole Ryn's phone and wouldn't give it back, I found myself really angry for Ryn, because I knew that she used her phone as a coping mechanism when she had anxiety. Nothing she did after that made me like her at all, and I feel like we were supposed to like her, so that is a problem. Jimmy was the token gay character, which seriously just felt like it was thrown in so the author could check the sexual diversity box. Oh, I think Siri was also an ethnically diverse character. There is some off-hand comment about her parents being in an arranged marriage, but that is about all we get, so I guess she's also a diversity box checked. Troy was kind of interesting and quirky, but I didn't really feel like we got to know him very well and the scenes where he and Ryn go searching for evidence of a conspiracy in the Denver airport is more than a little silly. Mostly, these characters and the subplots they were a part of felt unnecessary.
3. Lottie and Ryn's relationship. Ryn is grieving the loss of her best friend. Through flashbacks we see their 'friendship' and I have to say, it made me very uncomfortable to read. Lottie was a liar and a manipulator. She pressured Ryn endlessly, and Ryn never stood up for herself and said no. It was really frustrating to read about. There is actually one part with Xander where he wants her to 'surf' on the airport trains and she puts up this huge fight about it and says that she follows the rules and never let anyone including Lottie tell her what to do. Then we proceed to get countless flashbacks of Lottie lying to or manipulating Ryn to do whatever reckless or downright dangerous thing she wants. It felt like a huge discrepancy.
Now, I'm not saying that this couldn't have been a powerful story. Emotions are complex, and you can still love and miss someone and still acknowledge the fact that the relationship you were in wasn't healthy. But that isn't where this book goes. Never once does she challenge her relationship with Lottie, either in the flashbacks or in the present day. She sees that her friend was wild, but it seemed obvious to me as the reader that there was something really dark going on with Lottie, and that was never addressed or explained. We see that she is a lying user, but Ryn never does. And I get that grief can sometimes cause a person to put on rose-colored glasses, but I feel like Ryn's arc would've been more powerful if she could've recognized that even though she loved her friend and misses her dearly, she wasn't as good a friend as she should've been to Ryn.
This is another thing I think really suffers because of all the extraneous subplots. I wanted more introspection, more dissection of Ryn's feelings and her coming to an understanding about herself, but we didn't get that. At least, I wasn't satisfied with the way we got it.
The romance. This isn't really 'insta-love' in my opinion. These characters aren't promising to love and cherish each other for ever and ever by the end of this book which takes place over the course of about 12 hours. They feel an attraction to each other and even kiss at the end, but on the whole their relationship felt more like a friendship. And I wish it would've just been a friendship with maybe a hint that if they met again something could grow from it. That would've been far more powerful to me I think. Also, they spend a huge chunk of this book apart or dealing with other people, so the idea that they would get to the point of being kissy-face with one another felt a little unrealistic.
The worst part is that this book starts to veer into the love-conquers-all trope. At the beginning of this book, Ryn can barely function without her phone, which she uses obsessively to ask whatever questions pop in her mind to google. By the second half of the book, she's running around the airport without it because it was taken from her -- and she's perfectly fine. And then by the end she's said goodbye to the Lottie in her head and everything is looking up. She's realized that she can't lie to her parents or her therapist and we're supposed to leave the book with a sense of hopefulness...I just felt doubtful.
Other odds and ends:
1. As much as I felt sorry for Ryn, I found it really difficult to connect with her. Not only was she very closed off with all of the people around her, but she was very closed off in her own inner monologue. It made it difficult for me as a reader to like and root for her.
2. I felt like there was a darker story about Lottie regarding her father that felt like it was just dropped. I don't know if the author intended it, but I felt really disturbed reading the passages where the girls would talk about Lottie's father and when they followed him to the airport. Later, after Lottie has binged on the little bottles of booze, she starts ranting about someone being a disgusting cheater and asshole and Ryn thinks she's talking about her latest hookup, but then some of the things Lottie says don't apply to him and Ryn is confused. They do, however, apply to her father. It makes the airport chase look more like a jealous girlfriend rather than an angry daughter. I also felt like Lottie's rebellion with drugs, sex, x-rated movies, shoplifting, etc. don't seem like an organic reaction to learning one of your parents is cheating. It just seems really extreme, but again, it's never really addressed. Again, I don't know if that was the intention, because it's never actually explored, but I just felt really uncomfortable reading those scenes.
As much as it seems like I'm railing on this book, there were some good moments that I enjoyed. I just felt like it didn't live up to its potential.
For quite a while I thought that this was going to be a solid four-star book. Unfortunately, it fell off for me by the end.
What I liked:
1. The premise. I don't know why, but I enjoy books where characters are stranded, but not in a life-threatening way. Airports, libraries, schools...it is a weird little pet love of mine in books. I was excited when I realized that's the book I'd stumbled into.
2. The portrayal of grief and survivor's guilt (in the first half). Everyone grieves loss in different ways, and this book is just one example of one person's journey through grief. Ryn's actions in the first half of the book felt authentic.
3. The flashbacks. I liked that this book didn't fall into the annoying trope (although that's not quite the right term) of vaguely alluding to some past horrific trauma but not actually clarifying it for the reader until the end of the book. We know from the very beginning that she is grieving her best friend's horrific death. We know how she died and that Ryn feels guilty because she would've normally been with her. I appreciated that.
What I didn't like:
1. Lack of focus. As the book went on, I felt like it lost focus and the pacing really suffered. I would've enjoyed the book far more if it had just been Ryn and Xander becoming friends on this one night stuck in an airport. But then we get all of these side characters who were really one-dimensional (Siri was really obnoxious) and subplots that seem to go against all of the things we've been told and shown about Ryn in the first half of the book. Taking time to go on a conspiracy hunt with a young genius and attend a rager really messed with the pacing for me, and I felt like the second half dragged. Introducing all of these tangential subplots made it difficult to invest in Xander and Ryn's relationship as well.
2. Lackluster side characters. Siri was awful. I'm not someone who absolutely has to have their phone on them at all times, but when she stole Ryn's phone and wouldn't give it back, I found myself really angry for Ryn, because I knew that she used her phone as a coping mechanism when she had anxiety. Nothing she did after that made me like her at all, and I feel like we were supposed to like her, so that is a problem. Jimmy was the token gay character, which seriously just felt like it was thrown in so the author could check the sexual diversity box. Oh, I think Siri was also an ethnically diverse character. There is some off-hand comment about her parents being in an arranged marriage, but that is about all we get, so I guess she's also a diversity box checked. Troy was kind of interesting and quirky, but I didn't really feel like we got to know him very well and the scenes where he and Ryn go searching for evidence of a conspiracy in the Denver airport is more than a little silly. Mostly, these characters and the subplots they were a part of felt unnecessary.
3. Lottie and Ryn's relationship. Ryn is grieving the loss of her best friend. Through flashbacks we see their 'friendship' and I have to say, it made me very uncomfortable to read. Lottie was a liar and a manipulator. She pressured Ryn endlessly, and Ryn never stood up for herself and said no. It was really frustrating to read about. There is actually one part with Xander where he wants her to 'surf' on the airport trains and she puts up this huge fight about it and says that she follows the rules and never let anyone including Lottie tell her what to do. Then we proceed to get countless flashbacks of Lottie lying to or manipulating Ryn to do whatever reckless or downright dangerous thing she wants. It felt like a huge discrepancy.
Now, I'm not saying that this couldn't have been a powerful story. Emotions are complex, and you can still love and miss someone and still acknowledge the fact that the relationship you were in wasn't healthy. But that isn't where this book goes. Never once does she challenge her relationship with Lottie, either in the flashbacks or in the present day. She sees that her friend was wild, but it seemed obvious to me as the reader that there was something really dark going on with Lottie, and that was never addressed or explained. We see that she is a lying user, but Ryn never does. And I get that grief can sometimes cause a person to put on rose-colored glasses, but I feel like Ryn's arc would've been more powerful if she could've recognized that even though she loved her friend and misses her dearly, she wasn't as good a friend as she should've been to Ryn.
This is another thing I think really suffers because of all the extraneous subplots. I wanted more introspection, more dissection of Ryn's feelings and her coming to an understanding about herself, but we didn't get that. At least, I wasn't satisfied with the way we got it.
The romance. This isn't really 'insta-love' in my opinion. These characters aren't promising to love and cherish each other for ever and ever by the end of this book which takes place over the course of about 12 hours. They feel an attraction to each other and even kiss at the end, but on the whole their relationship felt more like a friendship. And I wish it would've just been a friendship with maybe a hint that if they met again something could grow from it. That would've been far more powerful to me I think. Also, they spend a huge chunk of this book apart or dealing with other people, so the idea that they would get to the point of being kissy-face with one another felt a little unrealistic.
The worst part is that this book starts to veer into the love-conquers-all trope. At the beginning of this book, Ryn can barely function without her phone, which she uses obsessively to ask whatever questions pop in her mind to google. By the second half of the book, she's running around the airport without it because it was taken from her -- and she's perfectly fine. And then by the end she's said goodbye to the Lottie in her head and everything is looking up. She's realized that she can't lie to her parents or her therapist and we're supposed to leave the book with a sense of hopefulness...I just felt doubtful.
Other odds and ends:
1. As much as I felt sorry for Ryn, I found it really difficult to connect with her. Not only was she very closed off with all of the people around her, but she was very closed off in her own inner monologue. It made it difficult for me as a reader to like and root for her.
2. I felt like there was a darker story about Lottie regarding her father that felt like it was just dropped. I don't know if the author intended it, but I felt really disturbed reading the passages where the girls would talk about Lottie's father and when they followed him to the airport. Later, after Lottie has binged on the little bottles of booze, she starts ranting about someone being a disgusting cheater and asshole and Ryn thinks she's talking about her latest hookup, but then some of the things Lottie says don't apply to him and Ryn is confused. They do, however, apply to her father. It makes the airport chase look more like a jealous girlfriend rather than an angry daughter. I also felt like Lottie's rebellion with drugs, sex, x-rated movies, shoplifting, etc. don't seem like an organic reaction to learning one of your parents is cheating. It just seems really extreme, but again, it's never really addressed. Again, I don't know if that was the intention, because it's never actually explored, but I just felt really uncomfortable reading those scenes.
As much as it seems like I'm railing on this book, there were some good moments that I enjoyed. I just felt like it didn't live up to its potential.
3.75 stars I wasn't sure what I was getting into when I picked up this book. I read a couple of reviews that said this was a Twilight-era book (it came out 8 years *after* Twilight, but sure.) that was full of tropes and insta-love. It actually kept me from picking it up for quite a while. Reading this book was a good reminder that just because something may seem trope-filled to one person, doesn't mean I will agree.
Did this book have a lot of tropes? It had some. But did I still enjoy it? Yes. Thoroughly.
What I liked:
1. Originality of concept. I thought the idea of being able to travel inter-dimensionally was really intriguing. I thought the author did a decent job explaining the rules to the world and following them. And the different universes were interesting, both in their similarities and their differences.
2. Pacing. There were a couple of times the pacing slowed down a bit too much for my liking (during the Russian universe is one example) but I felt like the book's pacing was actually pretty good. The book had a decent amount of action and I never felt bored listening to it (I listened to the audiobook)
What I didn't like:
1. It tended to get a little repetitive each time Meg would jump into a new universe.
2. The plot 'twist' near the end. I didn't hate it, but it was predictable. I had figured it out back near the beginning of the book.
3. The audiobook narrator's Russian accent. For the most part, I felt like the voice actor did a fine job with this book. However, I thought her Russian accent was a little cringey. The fact that we spent so much time in that universe didn't help.
Other odds and ends
1. Reviews I read mentioned the tropey nature of the book. They specifically named two: Insta-love, and the love triangle. I want to say, I usually dislike both of these tropes as well, because I don't think insta-love is realistic, and I don't think love triangles are usually well-written.
However, I would dispute the idea that insta-love exists in this book. These characters have known each other before the book begins, and we are told from the beginning that Meg has had romantic thoughts about both Theo and Paul in the past. We even get flashbacks to moments she spent with each of them that had a lot of impact on her.
As far as the love triangle goes, yes, there is a love triangle in this book. HOWEVER, I will say that, as much as I don't care for them, this love triangle actually makes sense to me. In most triangles, two men will love one woman (it's almost never the other way around) and she will love one of them, but not the other, and it's never in doubt which one she would pick. In this book, she has feelings for both of them, and throughout the course of the book feels torn between her feelings for them. There is ultimately one she prefers, but I could've seen it go either way, which is the way it should be. Otherwise, it's totally unnecessary manufactured drama. Again, I'm not a proponent for love triangles, and I don't know if we needed one here, but at least it felt a little more triangly (I know that's not a word...just go with it.) here.
Did this book have a lot of tropes? It had some. But did I still enjoy it? Yes. Thoroughly.
What I liked:
1. Originality of concept. I thought the idea of being able to travel inter-dimensionally was really intriguing. I thought the author did a decent job explaining the rules to the world and following them. And the different universes were interesting, both in their similarities and their differences.
2. Pacing. There were a couple of times the pacing slowed down a bit too much for my liking (during the Russian universe is one example) but I felt like the book's pacing was actually pretty good. The book had a decent amount of action and I never felt bored listening to it (I listened to the audiobook)
What I didn't like:
1. It tended to get a little repetitive each time Meg would jump into a new universe.
2. The plot 'twist' near the end. I didn't hate it, but it was predictable. I had figured it out back near the beginning of the book.
3. The audiobook narrator's Russian accent. For the most part, I felt like the voice actor did a fine job with this book. However, I thought her Russian accent was a little cringey. The fact that we spent so much time in that universe didn't help.
Other odds and ends
1. Reviews I read mentioned the tropey nature of the book. They specifically named two: Insta-love, and the love triangle. I want to say, I usually dislike both of these tropes as well, because I don't think insta-love is realistic, and I don't think love triangles are usually well-written.
However, I would dispute the idea that insta-love exists in this book. These characters have known each other before the book begins, and we are told from the beginning that Meg has had romantic thoughts about both Theo and Paul in the past. We even get flashbacks to moments she spent with each of them that had a lot of impact on her.
As far as the love triangle goes, yes, there is a love triangle in this book. HOWEVER, I will say that, as much as I don't care for them, this love triangle actually makes sense to me. In most triangles, two men will love one woman (it's almost never the other way around) and she will love one of them, but not the other, and it's never in doubt which one she would pick. In this book, she has feelings for both of them, and throughout the course of the book feels torn between her feelings for them. There is ultimately one she prefers, but I could've seen it go either way, which is the way it should be. Otherwise, it's totally unnecessary manufactured drama. Again, I'm not a proponent for love triangles, and I don't know if we needed one here, but at least it felt a little more triangly (I know that's not a word...just go with it.) here.
3.5 stars
I actually received two copies of this book from subscription boxes the month it came out. I can't lie, I was a little annoyed by that. There are so many different releases each month that I feel like this shouldn't happen, especially when I hadn't even heard of the book before receiving it in the mail. That being said, I put off this book for a couple of months because I was going through a weird slump with fantasy stories and just didn't feel like reading it.
Funny enough, I actually listened to this on audiobook for the most part. I was going to be driving for a couple of hours and needed something to pass the time. I wanted a book that was actually on my shelves and this one was available.
I am so glad that I finally got to this story, because it was really entertaining. Giving it three stars feels like I'm underrating it, but I can't quite give it four stars.
What I liked:
1. Bad-ass lady protagonist. There are so many books and series out there (especially in YA) that tout strong, bad-ass lady protagonists that end up being really underwhelming. Luckily, Eelyn does not fall into that category.
She is a warrior for her people, and we see examples of her physical strength all over the place in this book. There is a torture scene about 2/3 of the way through the book that is pretty shocking. I read some reviews that claim that she is always being saved by the men around her, and honestly, I don't see that at all. If anything, I think the saving is a mutual thing. She is able to fight alongside both men and women and hold her own. She is put into some dire situations (one in particular) where she is helped by a man, but she is also helped by other women.
2. Graphic violence. Now, I'm not necessarily super excited about graphic violence. But in a book about warriors and war, I expect to see the bloodier aspects of war. So many YA fantasy series water down battle scenes. But this book is very descriptive and blunt about fighting and war. I appreciated that.
3. Premise. I love the idea of the warring factions and what would happen if one rescued and adopted a member of the other. It hooked me pretty much right away. I felt so many feels toward Iri in the beginning. I just didn't understand how a person could betray their family and feel so little remorse. I was really angry on Eelyn's behalf, which isn't something that always happens with me.
4. The world. I haven't read many Viking-inspired fantasy books, but I really enjoyed this one. I liked that the culture was so different from the vaguely-European fantasy worlds we see all the time. Learning about the cultural differences and similarities between the Riki and Aska was very interesting.
What I didn't like:
1. I didn't feel like the romance was well-developed. Many critical reviews I read talked about the fact that Eelyn falls in love with her kidnapper and how that's problematic. Honestly, that didn't really bug me. Their people were at war. She was initially taken because she would've died if she'd been left. She and Fiske proceed to learn about the other and the fact that their people's similarities outweigh their differences, and they fall in love. My biggest issue was just that we didn't get enough time with the two of them connecting. Eelyn spends a good part of the first half of the book sulking about Iri's betrayal (which I totally get...I would be furious) and plotting to escape. Once she finally starts opening up to them, the romance happens very quickly and I just didn't quite buy it. I would've preferred if this book didn't have a romantic subplot, and that's coming from someone who is a sucker for romance.
I would've preferred if this book had focused more on Eelyn and Iri's sibling dynamic.
2. I think the book could've been longer, or maybe a duology. I love stand alone fantasy novels. I wish there were more of them. But I do think that this book could've benefited in being longer, if not a 2-book series. I just wanted more build up to the big battle. I wanted to know more about the Herja. Why do they raid and kill these people? Where are they from? What are their villages like? I wanted to learn something about their culture. All we really get is: "We thought they were myth."
I also felt like the romantic subplot could've been more slowly developed with more time. And even though we learned quite a bit about both the Aska and Riki cultures, I wanted more. I also feel like the ending all happens so quickly. It felt a little rushed.
3. The writing wasn't super strong. I know this is a debut novel, so this is a little nitpicky. I just felt like some of the writing was a little simplistic. It wasn't bad. I've read FAR worse by authors who have published multiple series, so I have a lot of hope for the future for this author, especially if she can keep on coming up with interesting settings and story ideas.
While this wasn't a perfect book, I found myself completely engaged and when after I started reading/listening to it I had it done in just a couple days. I would recommend it to anyone who is looking for a fantasy stand alone or a fantasy with a world that isn't cookie cutter to so many others.
Just a note: I know it seems like I'm coming down on YA fantasy in this review. I honestly don't mean to. I usually enjoy this sub-genre of Young Adult quite a bit. That being said, I do find that there are many that are very similar to one another. I felt like this book stood out for me both in setting, world, and character.
I actually received two copies of this book from subscription boxes the month it came out. I can't lie, I was a little annoyed by that. There are so many different releases each month that I feel like this shouldn't happen, especially when I hadn't even heard of the book before receiving it in the mail. That being said, I put off this book for a couple of months because I was going through a weird slump with fantasy stories and just didn't feel like reading it.
Funny enough, I actually listened to this on audiobook for the most part. I was going to be driving for a couple of hours and needed something to pass the time. I wanted a book that was actually on my shelves and this one was available.
I am so glad that I finally got to this story, because it was really entertaining. Giving it three stars feels like I'm underrating it, but I can't quite give it four stars.
What I liked:
1. Bad-ass lady protagonist. There are so many books and series out there (especially in YA) that tout strong, bad-ass lady protagonists that end up being really underwhelming. Luckily, Eelyn does not fall into that category.
She is a warrior for her people, and we see examples of her physical strength all over the place in this book. There is a torture scene about 2/3 of the way through the book that is pretty shocking. I read some reviews that claim that she is always being saved by the men around her, and honestly, I don't see that at all. If anything, I think the saving is a mutual thing. She is able to fight alongside both men and women and hold her own. She is put into some dire situations (one in particular) where she is helped by a man, but she is also helped by other women.
2. Graphic violence. Now, I'm not necessarily super excited about graphic violence. But in a book about warriors and war, I expect to see the bloodier aspects of war. So many YA fantasy series water down battle scenes. But this book is very descriptive and blunt about fighting and war. I appreciated that.
3. Premise. I love the idea of the warring factions and what would happen if one rescued and adopted a member of the other. It hooked me pretty much right away. I felt so many feels toward Iri in the beginning. I just didn't understand how a person could betray their family and feel so little remorse. I was really angry on Eelyn's behalf, which isn't something that always happens with me.
4. The world. I haven't read many Viking-inspired fantasy books, but I really enjoyed this one. I liked that the culture was so different from the vaguely-European fantasy worlds we see all the time. Learning about the cultural differences and similarities between the Riki and Aska was very interesting.
What I didn't like:
1. I didn't feel like the romance was well-developed. Many critical reviews I read talked about the fact that Eelyn falls in love with her kidnapper and how that's problematic. Honestly, that didn't really bug me. Their people were at war. She was initially taken because she would've died if she'd been left. She and Fiske proceed to learn about the other and the fact that their people's similarities outweigh their differences, and they fall in love. My biggest issue was just that we didn't get enough time with the two of them connecting. Eelyn spends a good part of the first half of the book sulking about Iri's betrayal (which I totally get...I would be furious) and plotting to escape. Once she finally starts opening up to them, the romance happens very quickly and I just didn't quite buy it. I would've preferred if this book didn't have a romantic subplot, and that's coming from someone who is a sucker for romance.
I would've preferred if this book had focused more on Eelyn and Iri's sibling dynamic.
2. I think the book could've been longer, or maybe a duology. I love stand alone fantasy novels. I wish there were more of them. But I do think that this book could've benefited in being longer, if not a 2-book series. I just wanted more build up to the big battle. I wanted to know more about the Herja. Why do they raid and kill these people? Where are they from? What are their villages like? I wanted to learn something about their culture. All we really get is: "We thought they were myth."
I also felt like the romantic subplot could've been more slowly developed with more time. And even though we learned quite a bit about both the Aska and Riki cultures, I wanted more. I also feel like the ending all happens so quickly. It felt a little rushed.
3. The writing wasn't super strong. I know this is a debut novel, so this is a little nitpicky. I just felt like some of the writing was a little simplistic. It wasn't bad. I've read FAR worse by authors who have published multiple series, so I have a lot of hope for the future for this author, especially if she can keep on coming up with interesting settings and story ideas.
While this wasn't a perfect book, I found myself completely engaged and when after I started reading/listening to it I had it done in just a couple days. I would recommend it to anyone who is looking for a fantasy stand alone or a fantasy with a world that isn't cookie cutter to so many others.
Just a note: I know it seems like I'm coming down on YA fantasy in this review. I honestly don't mean to. I usually enjoy this sub-genre of Young Adult quite a bit. That being said, I do find that there are many that are very similar to one another. I felt like this book stood out for me both in setting, world, and character.