Publisher: Harper Teen
Release Date: May 31, 2011
Warning: Review might contain very minor spoilers.
"Helen Hamilton has spent her sixteen years trying to hide how different she is--no easy task on a island as small as Nantucket. And it's getting harder. Nightmares of a desperate desert journey have Helen waking parched, only to find her sheets damaged by dirt and dust. At school she's haunted by hallucinations of three women weeping tears of blood...and when Helen first crosses paths with Lucas Delos, she has no way of knowing they're destined to play the leading roles on a tragedy the Fates insisted on repeating throughout history.
As Helen unlocks the secrets of her ancestry, she realizes that some myths are more than just legend. But even damaged powers might not be enough to defy the forces that are both drawing her and Lucas together--and trying to tear them apart."
Review:
There has been a lot of hype on this book lately, and I just have to wonder exactly why. Yes, this book is written without any grammatical error, that I've caught, and the synopsis for this book does draw you in quite well, but I have found myself quite confused throughout the whole book. It seems like with each explanation the author gave, more questions were developed. A lot of these questions were left unanswered (or maybe the answers were too complicated for me to grasp).
I felt no connections to many of the characters, including Helen and Lucas. As the book dragged on, I felt that I didn't care to create a connection to them, unless it was my fist connecting with their faces (only to have my fist shattered into a million pieces because, well, they're invincible). Helen was just one of those heroines that was very much capable of defending herself, but she refused to fight. Most of her actions throughout the book were also made with little thought.
Let's face it, no matter how smart this girl is academically, her street smarts are lacking.
Other than my problem with Helen, I do feel the need to say that Lucas annoyed me as well. He was way too over-protective. Protective-ness is only attractive to an extent.
The only two characters I enjoyed reading about were Jason and Matt. Jason because he was, to me, pretty funny (unlike Claire, who I felt tried too hard), and Matt because he was an all-around sweet guy, and NORMAL (also unlike Claire, who pushed her best friend off the roof. I mean, really...).
The romance between Helen and Lucas was flat and boring, and I was kind of expecting it to be. The second they stopped trying to kill each other, I was mentally groaning and hoping the Furies would come back and make them strangle each other...at the same time. Dying at the hands of your lover is romantic...right?
I will give Angelini credit: her writing did flow well and her grammar was really good, but that obviously does not make the story. Right, if the grammar is really bad, it does turn you off to a book (at least it does for me), but it doesn't work both ways.
All-in-all, I did not enjoy this book, but I don't blame the people who did enjoy it. I would actually recommend people to try reading this book. I didn't like it, but I am part of the minority.
My Rating:
D
Reasons for Rating:
- Explanations were confusing and didn't answer many of my questions.
- The characters you were obviously supposed to like came off as annoying.
- Romance was boring and rushed.
- Claire (worst. best. friend. ever.)
- The writing was good for a debut.
~Tye <3
No comments:
Post a Comment