Kyle
3.5
Can't really say it's a memorable book, nor I book I cared for as much as I wanted to.
Definitely an improvement upon Wake. I do wish that they hadn't told you who was the perv when there was still 200 pages left though. That party scene was pretty intense, and it definitely helped with the present tense writing!
Now I have to go completely ruin my delight upon reading this by now going to finish off the trilogy with Gone, which I've heard is absoloutely horrible.
Absoloute BRILLIANCE people! Any doubts I previously had about whether or not Melissa Marr could end a series structured like this have been suspended! I will read anything that this woman writes.
That final scene with Seth and Ash, was just . . . PERFECT. Even though my feelings towards Ash have always been mixed, I loved her in this book. Even Keenan, who, if you look at my Fragile Eternity review, was #1 Asshole of the series.
Was it a little too Happily Ever After? A little, yet it's still a dark, dark book filled with death, hope, war, depression, and yet still love.
I simply cannot explain my love.
Just read it.
2.5
God, will they just go to war already?! We know it's going to happen!
To say I'm dissapointed would be putting it lightly. The book lacks an actual plot for one thing. A lot of it WAS in fact Aislinn's romantic dabblings, not so much during the last 100 pages, but that was becuase the shift of perspective was focused mainly on Seth.
Here's another issue: Keenan is an asshole. I liked him enough in Wicked Lovely, but I don't know what went wrong. All of a sudden he's going around acting like he's king (okay, technically he is, but you know what I mean) saying, “Ooh, I'm so going to kill you if I think I need to!” The appeal that Ash sees in him is beyond my comprehension clearly.
Now, Ash. Ash isn't so much a bad character, but she's boring. She can be strong and assertive at times, but mainly when he wants things to go her way during Court, and of course, because Keenan is her “husband”, her word is law.
I don't mind Seth. I actually really like him, even when I was getting frustrated with him in this book. However his desperation to make his relationship with Ash last forever really got annoying, especially since it's clearly going to cause issues between him and Keenan.
Also, this book lacks something that is VERY important to me. There is no definite climax, and if there was one, it happened far too early to hold my interest until the very end.
This book is the longest of the five, clocking in at 389 pages. Why is this one so much longer than the others? Nothing too important happens that it requires 50+ pages than any other book.
I do enjoy certain relationships in the series (not nessecairily romantic): Seth and Sorcha, Niall and Seth, Leslie and Niall, Lesie and Irial - but the last two were gone in this book.
I will read Radiant Shadows, since I do have hope that these final two installments will be an improvement on a series that is going downhill at 100 miles an hour.
3.5
Still not sure how I feel about the “Gray Streak Plot Twist”. It definitely changes how I feel about the next book in the trilogy, but in a good way. I have no clue where the series is going to go, or how it could possibly end.
However, Amy annoyed me endlessly in this one. I don't know how to desribe it, but she does all these reckless things, and then Elder needs to come in, when he already has so many over problems to handle. Speaking of Elder, I love how his development has become. He's grown a pair and is now more of a fighter than in ATU, but I still wish he could be more assertive.
The writing is pretty good, and it has some pretty poetic moments, particularly during the “Gray Streak” moment. However, it's not quite at the level to reach my ‘Writing Style Lust' shelf.
The plot twists were too many. All this book REALLY needed were one or two, MAYBE three really good plot twists, and I would've been satisfied. Yet we had far too many. We had one in the first few chapters, several at the end, the “Gray Streak Plot Twist” a little over halfway in, several before that, and it was TOO. MANY. PLOT. TWISTS.
Yet I still couldn't help but love some of the twists, and the actual plot itself. I loved how the rebellion was unfolding, and how you could slowly see Godspeed succumb to the chaos. I can actually compare this world to the world of Blood Red Road, a “dystopian” which is really more post-apocalyptic, since drugs seem to be the main way of control.
I absoloutely love the setting of this series (or at least for the first two books). Godspeed is claustrophobic, equally in both books. In the first book, you're trapped in this giant metal ship in the middle of the universe, with a killer on the loose. That could really make a person go a little crazy, and just a tad bit paranoid. In AMS, a revolution is unfolding, MORE KILLING is going down, and shit is hitting the fan.
So, if you haven't yet started this series, what are you waiting for? Despite the numerous plot twists that eventually became unnessecary, and the somewhat annoying female lead, this series is pretty great! I for one cannot wait for Shades of Earth in January!
*3.5/5 Stars
The last 25% of the book, or Part III, saved the book from getting a solid 3 stars. I'll definitely read on with this series however, since the writing is decent, the characters did become a bit more interesting and have more distinct personalities, the story was fairly interesting, and the world is incredibly fascinating.
Pretty light considering it was a murder mystery, but still lots of fun, and it definitely had more laugh out loud moments than I expected! However, I wanted to give it a 3.5/5, but not only did I predict who the killer was, but I also predicted their motivation for killing who they killed. Normally I guess the first part, but the second part is never quite as obvious to me.
Still, I definitely check out the sequel, since Hartley is a fun main character, Chase is pretty cool too, and I hope Sam becomes a bit more of a prominent character than the sidekick.
*4.5/5 Stars
Melissa Marr did that rare thing: she wrote a sequel that improved upon it's predesscor.
High Points:
-Characters: Really enjoyed Leslie (definitely more interesting than Aislinn), and I really liked getting to see more of Niall, since I thought he was interesting in Wicked Lovely. Irial was difficult to like, but I didn't mind him by the time I ended the book.
-The Lust: Now, I'm normally all against lust over love, but Melissa Marr does the lust just to my liking. Not to say that these books are over-the-top sexy, but the sexual tension is enough.
-The Story: So far, I've been loving the stories in these books. I loved how the story in this one was darker and edgier than in WL, and the whole thing with the ink exchange really intrigued me. Also, the three central characters (Leslie, Niall, Irial) had great back story.
-The Addictive Quality: I eat these books like there nothing. I was able to read this entire book in about three or four sittings. Something about the story arc of the whole series, and the great atmosphere just really pull me in.
Okay Points:
-The Writing: It's nothing phenominal, and I really don't like how it gives half-descriptions, and how we still are never given a good idea as to what the fey are supposed to look like.
The Fey Mythology: In this series, everything seems too vague. I don't study fey mythology. I don't like 90% of the fey books I've read. I only know this much: Seelie good, Unseelie bad. I don't know the difference between the High Court and the Dark Court and the Winter Court and the Summer Court. TEACH ME!
3.5 EDIT (6/10/12): As time has passed, I find myself liking this installment less and less.
I wasn't entirely dissapointed in this sequel to Unearthly, a paranormal YA book that I fell in love with earlier this month. I thought it was a well-written, welll-researched, trope-defying YA paranormal angel book. However, there are three things that seriously ruined this sequel for me: the predictability, the lack of tension, and the climax, or lack of one.
Now, Hallowed is basically a continuation of the story that Cynthia Hand started in her first installment. After Clara's vision unfolded in Unearthly, this book picks off with Clara beginning her senior year at school, wondering what the consequences of her choice at the end of the first book will be, dealig with her complicated feelings for Christian, and her boyfriend whom she loves named Tucker. Along the way, Clara begings to have a new vision, which she lerns is now part of her “purpose”. She pieces everything together to learn somebody she loves will die - very soon.
Now, that part about somebody dying? Yeah, I guessed who it would be just by reading the inside flap. So, when you're meant to be shocked out of your mind when you're told who will die 150 pages in, you're just left sitting there, reading 200 MORE PAGES before the death actually happens. Now, that doesn't mean I wanted the person to die. I actually enjoyed that person's character, and I teared up when it was confirmed they would die. However, learning about the death so early into the story, the tension completely collapses.
This book has no climax. There is no high point in the story. Now, Unearthly didn't have the most action-packed climax, but you could still tell where the action became a climax. Hallowed has little to no action. The last 50 pages are just the death, the funeral, some love triangle stuff, and it's over. By the way? That death happened in one sentence, so there wasn't anything very dramatic about it.
So, knowing exactly how the story was going to end not even halfway in definitely makes the book . . . well, boring. Not the kind of boring were I still wasn't excited about it - because I was, even when I had 15 pages left going “WHERE IS THE CLIMAX?!”
Now, while I am definitely rolling my eyes at the ending, I won't deny it: I still love this series.
First off, I loved the hits it takes at Twilight (Edward watching Bella snooze to be specific). Seriously, they had me laughing until it hurt.
Clara isn't the best female protagonist out there, but she's not the worst. She doesn't let Christian or Tucker give her BS, she won't let anybody push her around for that matter, and you can feel her struggle about wanting to be strong, even when her whole life was unraveling.
Tucker . . . well, I like him. He's funny, not abusive, or a stalker, and has a personality! But you can definitely tell he's the jealous type, especially when he got jealous over one dance. However, it's quite obvious where his character is going.
Christian is fine to. However, his whole “watching over Clara outside her window” kind of had the whole EDWARD ALERT! EDWARD ALERT! going off in my head. Still, he's not too bad. At least his character is interesting.
The love triangle is okay, although I think everyone but the 2% Team Christian fans know how this is all going to end. It's fairly well-done, but I did prefer it in Unearthly, when it wasn't as official as it is in this book. Still, it's not as awful as it is in some books.
The mythology is interesting, and some people won't like how the book has a strong religious tone to it (not preachy, but more prominent than in Unearthly) but I don't mind (seeing as I believe in it).
The writing is still great, and I like that while it's present tense, it doesn't sound off. In Wake by Lisa McMann, another book in present tense, the whole book felt weird, because of how it was written. In this book, I felt like it pulled me into the story more, because of how you don't know what's going to happen to Clara, and neither does she, because it's all so in the moment.
So, while I didn't like it as much as Unearthly, I'm still going to be anixiously awaiting the next book. So, if you're worried about Hallowed not living up to Unearthly, don't. For the most part, everybody has at least enjoyed it, just as much, if not more than Unearthly.
4.5Okay, so on Wenesday, I remember walking through Barnes & Noble, going to buy my copy of [b:Fear 8811134 Fear (Gone, #5) Michael Grant http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1309186708s/8811134.jpg 13685368]. Now, of course whenever I go to a book store, I never just go in and get the book I want. No, I always go in and look around.I went through the Adult Sci Fi & Fantasy section on the off chance they had the Fever series by [a:Karen Marie Moning 48206 Karen Marie Moning http://photo.goodreads.com/authors/1235014339p2/48206.jpg] (no such luck there), and then I went browsing through the YA section. What do I so happen to find there?Well, I discovered that my branch of the store FINALLY had bought the entire trilogy, since never before had they had any Holly Black books, except for two anthologies she's done, which I've never had big interest in reading. Seeing the books in they're (rather ugly) new covers, I remembered how much I immensely enjoyed reading [b:White Cat 6087756 White Cat (Curse Workers, #1) Holly Black http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1331930853s/6087756.jpg 6264661] I almost went right ahead and bought [b:Red Glove 8288246 Red Glove (Curse Workers #2) Holly Black http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1327888670s/8288246.jpg 13136697]. Since I only brough enough money to buy FEAR by Michael Grant. So, I decided I'd do the next best thing: write a book review!Okay, so since I need to summarize what the book is about, I shall go ahead and do that.In this alternate reality(?) of our world, some people are gifted with certain magical abilities: luck, death, memory, and the rarest of them all, transformation. This is known as curse working. In this (our?) world, magic has been banned, it's illegal, and so now we have the magical mafia. Cassel Sharpe is the only non-worker in his family, and is dealing with the guilty conscious of the fact that he killed the girl he loved, Lila Zacharov, who is also the daughter of a wealthy crime boss (yeah, not going to score you any points buddy). After being caught sleep walking on the roof of his boarding school, he's put on suicide watch and is sent home for a remainder of time. During this process, he learns some crazy shit, a possible assassination, and some new truths involving a white cat.The whole book was awesome for a few reasons.1. The EndingThat whole ending was exactly what I love. Shit was going down, people were coming out of nowhere, guns were being drawn, accusations were being thrown, and, and, and . . . my lips are sealed. Point is, that ending really makes me want to read the sequel now.2. The CharactersCassel Sharpe is one of the most realistic portrayals of a male I've ever come across in a YA novel from the female perspective. There's no sweet, gentle, inner tortured emo kid like Ethan Wate from [b:Beautiful Creatures 6304335 Beautiful Creatures (Caster Chronicles, #1) Kami Garcia http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1327873282s/6304335.jpg 6488966] or the extra over-the-top emo Sam Roth from [b:Shiver 6068551 Shiver (The Wolves of Mercy Falls, #1) Maggie Stiefvater http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1328839272s/6068551.jpg 6244926]. Yes, he feels bad about killing his crush. Most people would. His dedication to his family, which he definitely doesn't need to feel, is also rather endearing. Lila is everything I want from a female lead. She was smart, quick, witty, dangerous, interesting, hot, and wanted to be involved in the mafia. Definitely not a Bella Swan I assure you.3. The World/Originality (they all go hand-in-hand)One of the most creative/original set-ups for an urban fantasy world. I mean, I can think of only one other YA book that has ANYTHING to do with the mob, and if what I hear is correct, that deals more on a forbidden romance in a completely unrealistic dystopian setting (those are becoming the norm, aren't they?). Not this. Now, this is a completely miniscule romantic SUB-plot. Yes, it is possible for a book to have romance that doesn't become the plot. Yet also, because of this ending, the romance storyline will actually be interesting!The world is also well set up. There's backstory to it, it's gritty, and dark, just like in [b:Tithe 46777 Tithe (The Modern Faerie Tales, #1) Holly Black http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1332451294s/46777.jpg 1460966]. Now, I could also go on and rave about the plot and the pacing, but let me just leave you with this: I have no complaints about this book. If I'm correct, I believe the Kindle addition of this book, which I own, is only $2.99. So, unless you don't own an e-reader/Kindle, I see very little reason for you to not go and read this. So just do it.
Since [b:Girl of Nightmares 12507214 Girl of Nightmares (Anna, #2) Kendare Blake http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1344463840s/12507214.jpg 17492836] is ready for me to pick up at the library since I had it on hold for about a month, I feel the need to explain my dismal 2 star rating of this book that everybody seemed to love. I initially gave this book a nice 4 star rating, and then immediately went back and dropped it to a 3.5 the second I posted my rating. Here I am now, dropping my rating even further. Upon reflection, I really didn't care for this book. It was just one of those “blah, meh, average, mediocre” feeling books. It did absolutely nothing for me - the characters, writing, story, romance, ending. The only saving grace I can truly think of with this book is Anna herself. Cas is a pretty dull protagonist, and I don't really care what happens to him at this point. The side characters felt very flimsy and underdeveloped, and I wish that they weren't even in the damn thing since they were just taking up space IMO. I never felt this big pull from the book. It never enticed me to keep reading, it never scared me, excited me, or even interested me after the first couple of chapters. The romance was also another big blah, and I don't know why [a:Kendare Blake 4086715 Kendare Blake http://photo.goodreads.com/authors/1276645449p2/4086715.jpg] felt the need to include it since it didn't add any depth to the book, and just made it feel like just another average YA book. Clearly there's something wrong with me, since just about everybody that read the book at least liked it to some degree, if they didn't outright love it and declare it one of their 2011-Favorites. Alas, this is not a book that has stayed with me, and I just want to get this final book over with, since I'm pretty sure I won't end up liking it one bit.
*4.5/5 Stars
Not going to do a full-length review (honestly, what can be said that hasn't already?) but if you're wondering what this is like, think the action and adventure of Blood Red Road, meets a catastrophic angel apocalypse. Yes, a book can be that awesome and not look like some poorly written joke, but can actually be well-written and well-plotted.