I ended up DNFing this one because I felt so disconnected to it. I also found something about the obviousness of the names/words very...cloying, I gueI ended up DNFing this one because I felt so disconnected to it. I also found something about the obviousness of the names/words very...cloying, I guess? IDK, just didn't end up being the book for me. ...more
I. DON'T. EVEN. KNOW. where to begin with this book. I feel like I maybe read a different book than all of the many 4 and 5 star reviews I'm seeing? TI. DON'T. EVEN. KNOW. where to begin with this book. I feel like I maybe read a different book than all of the many 4 and 5 star reviews I'm seeing? THE FLAWS. THEY ARE MANY.
...and yet I read the whole damn thing? idek. Review soon!...more
Read this in late May, and man, was I disappointed. I'd loved volume 1, but pretty much everything I said about it took a nosedive in this. The art feRead this in late May, and man, was I disappointed. I'd loved volume 1, but pretty much everything I said about it took a nosedive in this. The art fell apart to me, and I sometimes even had trouble distinguishing some of the main characters -- like they were continuously being drawn by different artists who didn't agree on the character direction. In the first volume, I said some people would find it confusing, but I didn't/it didn't bother me, but this volume is DEFINITELY confusing -- chaotic and disjointed, and it doesn't seem to be in a very purposeful way. It reminds me of Rat Queens, in that I loved it in the beginning and then I really didn't; in that the art went downhill and became messy and purposeless; in that it seems like there's turmoil and clashing in the art and story direction, making the whole a chaotic mess; in that I was excited and now feel let down. I'll give it another chance, because I am curious and I want to see it come back around, and see how everything plays out, but I'm not holding my breath....more
This had a lot of flaws, which I'd normally be happy to go over in detail, but honestly? It's main flaw is preventing me from doing so, and that is ovThis had a lot of flaws, which I'd normally be happy to go over in detail, but honestly? It's main flaw is preventing me from doing so, and that is overwhelming blandness. I'd literally forgotten I even read this until I opened up my kindle today and saw that it was still front and center -- and it's only been like, three weeks. Being free is no excuse for being bad, and nothing is an excuse for being boring....more
This was just... not good. There's really no getting around it. It popped up as a featured or recommended comic on Hoopla (which doesn't give ratings This was just... not good. There's really no getting around it. It popped up as a featured or recommended comic on Hoopla (which doesn't give ratings and reviews, so I had no warning), so I thought I'd give it a try. Wasted a credit on this disjointed, schlocky mess that masquerades as an intelligent, edgy, artful exploration of all these THEMES that are really just barely-existent veneers for bad sex. Blah....more
2.5 if I'm feeling generous. There were parts that I kind of liked, and there were definitely moments where I saw potential for a great story, or for 2.5 if I'm feeling generous. There were parts that I kind of liked, and there were definitely moments where I saw potential for a great story, or for me to like Ahdieh's writing, but those parts never overcame my general negative feelings for this book. Full review to come where I'll get into all of it, but for now, I was definitely underwhelmed and a little squicked out....more
It's been a good long while since I've had to do one of these, but: This is a DNF review. That means I did not finish this book, and am going to attemIt's been a good long while since I've had to do one of these, but: This is a DNF review. That means I did not finish this book, and am going to attempt to tell you why, so if these types of reviews are not your cup of tea, or you don't think someone is able to form an opinion without having seen a book through to the last page, then you'd probably be better suited looking elsewhere (and I won't blame you -- there are plenty of glowing reviews out there). But for those of you who are curious to hear my thoughts, or wonder why I couldn't see this one through, I'm going to do my best to lay that out, and I want to start by telling you a bit about me as a reader: 1) I try my best to give a book multiple chances when it's not working for me -- I don't have a super happy DNF trigger finger (though it does itch from time to time). 2) BUT that said, I know myself as a reader, and I know when I'm unlikely to enjoy a book. Life is short, and I've grown unwilling to force myself to finish something that I'm not enjoying. 3) A book doesn't have to be horrible for me to DNF it. Actually, it's more common that I'll give up because I'm indifferent; if I am truly hating a book, I might finish it out of spite, just to be able to fully explain why I loathe it so. But indifference is often the death knell... 4) When I've decided to DNF a book, and still "review" it, I try to make sure I've read enough of it to feel like I've got a handle on the things I want to say, and a clear indication that it's probably going to remain so throughout the book. In this case, I stopped at about 25% of the way through, which is a bit shy of the 100 page mark.
So, all of that said, these are the reasons that I just couldn't bring myself to keep reading:
*
It does feel overly reminescent of other things out there, most notably Daughter of Smoke and Bone. It's not that DOSAB was so wholly original in every element, because I'm sure there were things in it that seemed unique but had been done before. There's nothing new under the sun, and all that. But there are times that this feels like a straight knock-off: not just influenced by, but actively used as a format /slash/ jumping-off point. When I love a book the way I loved Daughter of Smoke and Bone, comparisons to it can go two ways: either, 'yay! hopefully that'll be really good!' OR 'it can't even compare, I already know it.' When a book is as stylistically strong as, well, any of Laini Taylor's books, it's likely that the comparison will go the second way, and not work out in its favor. If, the entire time you're reading something, you're comparing it to something else that was excellent, then it's bound to suffer in comparison. If someone does something exceedingly skillfully, and then someone else does nearly the same thing, but less so, all of the flaws are going to stand out FAR more than they would have otherwise. ***Weird Misty Food Analogy in 3...2... If you've only ever had Rice-a-Roni, it's fine. But then if one of the world's top chefs makes you a delicious plate of risotto, and then someone hands you a plate of the Rice-a-Roni you were used to, and calls it risotto, it's probably going to make you a little angry. You've had it before, and you know how much better it could be... It may seem unfair to compare it to someone else's book, and honestly, it probably is. But sometimes these things stand out, and when they're so reminiscent as to seem like they're maybe ripping off that other book, it bears mentioning. (FYI, I've seen people compare it to other books as well, and say much the same thing, so something to bear in mind, especially if you've read one of the books it's compared to, namely Daughter of Smoke and Bone, the Grisha series, and The Mortal Instruments. If you haven't read these books, the similarities will be lost on you, so you may like it much better than I.)
*
Probably the biggest issue: I couldn't help but find it cheesy. Everyone has different triggers and levels of tolerance for this, so the things that bothered me may not bother you. BUT I found myself rolling my eyes quite a bit more than I'd like, especially for the amount of pages I read. I found the names cheesy (the types of names I would have come up with and been very pleased indeed with myself in middle school); I found the setup and the way the conflict between these two factions was kind of talked around a good bit before it was actually addressed, and I found it cheesier when we were given info, always in very obvious setups and clumsy attempts to work the info-dumping into dialogue. (This is generally something I appreciate, but it's gotta be subtle. This ... was not.) And I found cheesiest of all the main character, Echo; her interactions with others, and really, her entire being. And I felt this was likely to get worse.
*
And it was this cheesiness that lead to the death knell: I was indifferent. I couldn't connect, and there came a time that I just had to admit to myself that I'd been putting off reading it for a month, and hadn't been reading anything else because I didn't want to let myself get sucked away and find excuses not to finish it, and that it was just dragging down my reading pile for the month of May, when really, did I even care what happened? I did not. I couldn't make myself care about these characters and their war, and their search for the "firebird;" I couldn't get past the jarring way that their otherworldly and high-fantasy selves didn't mesh with their uber-modern, carefree styles of interaction, and how I was never quite able to believe in any of them, at any time, enough to take a leap into the world and begin building my willing suspension of disbelief. I just couldn't.
And so that is why I had to give up. I am hoping that if I set the book to the side for a good long while, enough to clear my head of it and reconcile myself to what it actually is, versus what I was hoping it was, that I can come back to it and try again. Maybe like it more than I have this time around. Maybe even enjoy it. I'm borderline curious to see what is actually going on in this world, and I want to know what the fuss was about for my friends that have read and loved this. But for now, I know that any further reading is just going to make me resentful, and ruin any chances of me liking this down the road, so I've got to let it go. For now, at least. ...more
I hadn't heard of Sara B Larson's debut, Defy, until it showed up in my mailbox, which is shameful of me, because I'm normally pretty on top of anythiI hadn't heard of Sara B Larson's debut, Defy, until it showed up in my mailbox, which is shameful of me, because I'm normally pretty on top of anything that even hints at the phrase "gender-bender." (I blame this almost completely on Tamora Pierce, and probably a little bit on movies like Rocky Horror, Ladybugs, To Wong Foo and Just One of the Guys. My formative years in a nutshell, friends.) So even though I had no plans to read this, and a whole stack of other things that needed to be read instead, I promptly sat down with this one almost immediately upon opening the package. And for all my high hopes and a fairly strong start, I was sadly disappointed.
Defy was an oddly confused piece of writing. It doesn't know if it wants to be the next big smexy romance novel or a straight-forward epic fantasy, so it tries to do both, and fails. 'Hot and bothered' just doesn't work as well when there are more pressing concerns like fighting for your life. Now, I've always been one to say that romance still has a place - maybe even more of a place - when the setting isn't all that conducive to a romance; people still fall in love in the middle of wars. Emotions are heightened, life seems short, and people carpe the hell out of their diems. But... if that's the case you wanna make, then that mentality, that forced, manic, precarious vitality has to be represented and believable. And those other concerns, like war and death and hurt, loss, pain, anxiety — they need to intrude, need to make up a bulk of the characters' thought-space, even. Otherwise, it makes your characters seem vapid and self-absorbed, and all of the potential tension in your story (beyond the sexual) goes right out the window. If they don't legitimately fear for their lives, we won't. If they only care about the ills of society in a cursory way, when forced to, we'll either stop caring about the world, or stop caring about the characters. (And by we, I mean me, but I'm guessing some of you, too.)
Defy felt like a lot of potential, wasted. And I don't just mean the more dire aspects of the society, and the seriousness of the situation. Even Alexa's disguise as Alex felt wasted. Larson does have talent that tries to rear its troublesome head, but beyond the lack of depth and the apparent obviousness of Alexa's disguise (who doesn't know? I think just adults, who presumably are too busy or too obtuse to pay attention to anything around them...Like the fact that one twin matures from boy to going-on man while the other remains sexless and ambiguous. Or the fact that one twin (the not-boy one) seems to spend most of his/her time openly leering at all of the sweaty dreamboats in his/her regiment...), I just felt like there needed to be more follow-through, follow-all-the-way-through, in Defy. There needed to be some psychology, some cause-effect, and all those fundamental hallmarks of good world & character building. Two apparently-straight boys are in love with someone pretending to be a boy - shouldn't there be...a grappling with confusing feelings? As a woman in a society where women are forced into brothels to be brood mares for the army, shouldn't their be some real hatred and bitterness? More distrust, more paranoia and caution in regards to the "disguise," or some acting-out, and even some self-loathing for being a member of the Army that helps prop up this institutionalized sex trafficking? Though there was a scene - a single scene - of disgust for the world Alexa lives in, I can't say that it was really more than set-up for a pivotal moment of the book -- a means to an end, and not a real analysis or condemnation of the world. It was well-done in the moment, and then relegated to the d-plotlines once again.
There were things that should have been explored and capitalized on, that should have had a greater share of the focus, over faux drama and twu wuv. So Alexa's the best fighter ever, and she's maybe magic ooh ahh. She's also smart and resourceful (one assumes), so let us see some more of that. She shows moments, but let's have more than moments; let's have that be the bulk of the narrative instead. Not confused longing and a lip-service condemnation of the serious ills of the world, before getting back to the Very Urgent Business of who's hotter, the prince or the pauper? I try not to get too moral when it comes to a book and how it presents its story -- I generally don't feel authors have some sort of "responsibility" to...well, anything, really, other than the story they set out to tell. But as amoral a reader as I am, I couldn't help but be bothered by the shock tactic of using the forced prostitution of children as an easily-discarded frame for a story about how Alexa's milkshake swordplay brings all the boys to the yard.
Now. I've gone very negative, and some of that may be the wine talking (but probably not), so I do want to say that some of this I just saw as rookie mistakes. The story could have done with a lot of lengthening, which, beyond making more depth likely, would have allowed for more of an exploration of some of these difficult plotlines. The timeframe is very compressed, and if you're rushing to get your main characters alone in the woods together so they can get their angsty-flirt on, you're bound to neglect some of the more troublesome aspects of the story. They're just not as fun, amirite? The story as a whole would have benefitted from a slower pace, and I know I'm not the only one who thought that:
And while we're talking about rookie mistakes, even though it seems silly after the more serious stuff: the names! What was with the names? They were so jarring to me; every last one of them seemed like something the author thought sounded cool, and not at all like something that fit the world being built. Cultures have patterns, languages have forms and cadence and a feel to them, and these things all make part of a believable world. Names are a much bigger part of that than you'd think, because they represent the characters who are our 'in' to the world, and therefore represent the world itself; you can't have:
This one is Frenchish, and this one's English-like, this sounds kinda Spanishy, and ooh, this sounds "exotic" and maybe a little ethnic, so that's perfect - let's toss them all together into my insular, isolated world! Perfect! No one would ever believe they didn't develop organically as an extension of the culture and language of a people! *pats self on back*
Choosing something with no real rhyme or reason other than it sounds badass is something a budding writer does in middle school. You gotta murder your darlings, baby, and you gotta make sound decisions rather than "cool" ones. I just had to get that little rant out of the way, 'cause it bothered me...
BUT, all that said, it is very fast-paced, and managed to be engaging even when it was getting under my skin. I saw enough in it that I would read the follow-up, even if it won't be high-priority; there is talent there, it just wants developing, and I'm curious to see what Larson does in the future. And I think I'll get that chance, as I have a feeling Defy is going to find a very devoted audience. (In fact, judging from some of my GR friends' reactions, it already has.) No matter how much we all rail against it and its predictability, there's always a huge market for love triangles; everybody wants to be Team Somebody. Defy will have that in spades. It's just the rest of it - all of its other bookness - that failed to deliver. It's probably a good "epic fantasy" for people who don't actually like epic fantasy, but want to feel like they're reading one - it gives you the bare bones of such a thing, with some vaguely jungle-ish world-building, looming war and atrocities, and mad swordplay skillz, but in the end, it's really just a standard YA love triangle dressed up in epic fantasy's clothing, like a child wearing her mother's heels and playing house. ...more
I'm sorry, I just can't with this book anymore. If I force it, I'm gonna really hate it, and I just don't feel like ranting at the moment, so... on toI'm sorry, I just can't with this book anymore. If I force it, I'm gonna really hate it, and I just don't feel like ranting at the moment, so... on to the next!...more
I don't even know about this book. Weird, strange choices throughout. 1.5I don't even know about this book. Weird, strange choices throughout. 1.5...more
I might go back to this at some point, but for now, I just don't care enough about any of it, and the writing is too shallow and easy to hold my attenI might go back to this at some point, but for now, I just don't care enough about any of it, and the writing is too shallow and easy to hold my attention, so I'm setting it to the side....more
I feel bad about what I'm about to do. Honestly. I'm not one of those people who just writes snarky, mean-spirited reviews, just for the sheer black-I feel bad about what I'm about to do. Honestly. I'm not one of those people who just writes snarky, mean-spirited reviews, just for the sheer black-hearted, puppy-kicking glee of it. As tempting as that sometimes it, I just am not that reviewer (generally). I like puppies. And Leigh Fallon seems like a really nice person, and I had high hopes for this book. And everything I'm about to say makes me feel like a bully, but no. Just - no.
I knew almost immediately that I was not going to like this book. You may be asking yourself, then, why the hell I kept reading. Generally, I would not. But there were a few reasons in this case: 1. When it's a book I requested, and it's for an event like this, then I absolutely will make myself finish. 2. I was curious enough and it was a quick enough read that I was willing to give it a chance - and then at a certain point, when you get so far, you just can't back down. But mostly 3. I kept noticing these little things (that added up to one very big thing) that were driving me out of my mind, so I had to finish it just to see how many I would come across. (The little things are spoilery and rant-like, and OHMYGOD I could go on about them forever, but instead they comprise a chart at the bottom. Read at your own discretion)
Beyond the one-very-big-thing-comprised-of-little-things, I never connected with the writing in this. The characters speak like they're in an after-school special. It was strange: by turns formulaic, other times robotic, and often just not natural. They were caricatures rather than characters, and they crossed the line into cheesy one too many times for my liking. It was all these stupid, seemingly insignificant things (for example: people don't generally say each other's names a lot in conversations. If someone were to speak to you like this: "Hey, Mary. What are you doing later today, Mary? I was thinking, Mary, that maybe we could go to the mall - what do you think, Mary?" you would be like, WHY THE F*CK DO YOU KEEP SAYING MY NAME?! It's weird. It's uncomfortable. And it makes it seem like the characters aren't well acquainted, like they aren't comfortable enough with each other to just talk.
Sort of in-line with that, the characters have a tendency toward woodenness. Megan's dad is ridiculous, as cardboard and saccharine as they come. There's never any tension or discover with any of the characters because they are all basically what they enter the story as, and what you are expecting them to be. Rian is the only one who changes(ish), but the rest pretty much leave the story as they entered it.
And I think this is emblematic of the problems with the book as a whole: there isn't enough depth and tension. There's an immaturity to the writing that deprives the story of tension, of struggle, of that key element that makes you sit on the edge of your seat. Instead, everything is obvious and the reader is hit over the head with it. But worse, everything comes so easy. Megan accepts what she is too easily, she transitions into the deRis family too easily, she and Adam fall in love too easily, become comfortable with each other and the situation to easily - everything just happens and it's not really built on any kind of foundation other than "I say so". The monk and the bird and the rumors and the OBVIOUSNESS of it all, and the suddenness and the easy acceptance - the way is cleared time and time again for things to just happen and as a result all chances at the delicious tension readers crave is killed. There's never very much of a struggle on Megan's part to understand* or accept this whole new way of thinking about the world and herself. It's frustrating.
The only thing I can really say in its favor is that it did actually start to pick up at one point. The only thing is...that was 200 pages in. And for a review, I'll stick with it, but for pleasure, you are NEVER going to get 200+ pages out of me before I can call it enjoyable. That book will be put down (like a rabid dog).
*And on the note of "understanding", I do have to make a mention of the times when understanding does not come easily to Megan. There are times - huge swathes of the story - when Megan's intellect and powers of comprehension seemingly revert to that of a 4 year old. Every time one of the deRis' begin to tell her of the history of the Marked and all that jazz, she peppers them with "why"s and "what about"s and "I don't understand"s and "but"s - and it's all a sneaky little set-up for Fallon to do massive amounts of info-dumping in the guise of dialogue. I mean, paragraph upon paragraph, page upon page of convoluted, over-sharing info-dumps, with set-ups you can see coming a mile away. All for the sake of trying to explain what is a fairly strained mythology and backstory. It just - no. Just no.
And now: The Little Things: aka The Carrier of the Twilight Mark by Leighmeyer Stephallon; or, The Tale of an Epic Rip-Off (unless Misty is just hyper-aware of these things...)
I'm calling it on this one, too. I literally have like 15 pages left, and yet I can't seem to make myself care enough to finish it. It's been taking uI'm calling it on this one, too. I literally have like 15 pages left, and yet I can't seem to make myself care enough to finish it. It's been taking up space on the corner of my bed for MONTHS, untouched. It was fine, and though I did have some pet peeves and things that really bothered me, I don't hate it. I just honestly got to the point where I realized I really didn't care at all what happened -- it's an interesting premise that I ended up feeling very lukewarm about. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯...more
Honestly, I was disappointed in this one. First of all, it's SO EFFING LONG. It doesn't look like it because the pages are super thin (damn you, marHonestly, I was disappointed in this one. First of all, it's SO EFFING LONG. It doesn't look like it because the pages are super thin (damn you, marketing ploys! *shakes fist*), but it tops 600 pages. Very few authors can sustain a book that long well enough to keep me fully invested. In fact, only 1 comes readily to mind, where I didn't feel anything should have been cut, it was perfect as it was. Stray needed some serious trimming with a sharp pair of editing shears. For real. There was so much info-dumping through out, and a lot of it only marginally expanded on ground that had already been covered.
I also didn't feel like there was anything in the story or world-building that I couldn't have gotten elsewhere. Hell, I didn't even find the characters all that likeable. A lot of PNR/UF runs the risk of falling into cliche territory, and sometimes flat-out biting other storylines, but there's got to be some twist or redeeming quality that makes me want to read this over that -- what does one offer that another doesn't, that makes me need to read it? I never really got that extra something from this, even though I help on for 620+ pages. I have an inkling there may be something coming that will interest me, but do I want to slog through 5 more books to get it?
In the (small) plus column, I thought the story picked up when Faythe* went home to the ranch and was thrust back into the paranormal element she'd been trying to escape** and when the ball finally got rolling and the Big Bad came in, I liked it. But it was a long, sometimes torturous road getting there, and I almost set the book down many times along the way. I think I could eventually like the series, and may read more if someone assures me Rachel Vincent learns to cut the dreck and get to the goddamn point, but until then, I'm shelving them.
* I'm not even going to address the ridiculous name-spelling. ** sound familiar?
There was a point in Manifest that things sort of clicked for me and I saw the potential for something pretty gripping and distrubing (without giv2.5
There was a point in Manifest that things sort of clicked for me and I saw the potential for something pretty gripping and distrubing (without giving too much away, there is a serious creep (in the real world sense) preying on the girls of Lincoln, and MC Krystal may be the next on his list. There was a dark, gritty and realistic edge to this side of the story that I didn't see coming, and it added much needed authenticity and danger. But this one almost-stellar aspect aside, Manifest fell flat for me.
One of the biggest problems was the main character, Krystal. Krystal is very, very hard to like for a good chunk of the book. She's angsty in the worst way, pouty and insolent, she's kind of obtuse and frustrating, and it was sort of hard for me to root for her. This did get better as it went along, and I realize that it was an intended progression because of things that had gone on in her life, but it doesn't change the fact that I didn't want to read her; I didn't want to be in her head. Of the other bigger side characters, Ricky was cliched, contradictory and silly, Sasha is a princess who has yet to grow on me (bad sign, as she's the star of book 2), and Jake, who I liked and felt was more developed, was often brushed to the side.
Another problem I had (and this was partly the result of my own expectations) was the cliched aspect of the novel, coupled with attempts to make it a more POC slant. I was looking forward to getting a new perspective, something more like a melding of urban fantasy and paranormal romance. But it never felt authentic to me. Ricky, the ghost gangbanger, wears his pants low and his Timbalands untied, and he speaks in alternating urban teen slang and well-spoken prepster -- sometimes both in one sentence, like this: "I'll admit, if circumstances were different, I might try to holla at you. But your foul attitude would probably turn me off." Really? What teen of any background talks in this weird mish-mash? And what teen says 'foul attitude', other than in a mocking way when they've just been written up for it? Overall, the way it was handled, I just felt like the author had to try to connect with an audience so she sprinkled some stuff in hoping it worked, or even worse, maybe thinking it rang true, and it didn't. For me, this was hard to get past, and I found myself rolling my eyes a lot. The same is true of the "Mystyx" powers (and the name Mystyx) -- it was sort of too grandiose and I rolled my eyes. A lot.
But even though this bothered me, and I've been fairly negative so far, but truth be told, I did see potential. As I said in the beginning, there was a darker, more raw undercurrent that really could have made something of the book, and as is, saved it from completely flopping for me. I feel like Arthur has given herself room to grow over the series, and I'm curious enough, and saw potential enough, to be willing to read book 2 and see what she makes of it. I wouldn't push Manifest on anyone, but I wouldn't completely dissuade them from reading it, either. Caution, maybe, but not dissuade.
In the end, I went into Manifest with hopes of a good POC take on paranormal YA, with maybe some romance. What I got was a letdown: a cliched story of a hard to like main character, with slang and skin color thrown in to mix it up. But I also caught glimpses of something better, and I'm hoping to see it expanded upon. ...more
"I hate skin; I hate bones and bodies. I want to curl up inside of him and be carried there forever."
Earlier this year, I fell in love with La2.5 - 3
"I hate skin; I hate bones and bodies. I want to curl up inside of him and be carried there forever."
Earlier this year, I fell in love with Lauren Oliver's debut, Before I Fall. So understandably, I was very excited to hear about her next book, Delirium. A dystopian world where love is a disease, written by the clearly very talented Oliver? Yeah, I can get behind that. I settled in to wait the long, cruel months until the February release date, when I got a surprise package in the mail from the Polish Outlander -- her ARC of Delirium! Imagine my delight. I held off reading it for a few days, just to give myself some distance from Matched, which has a very similar concept, and which I'd just finished. But I didn't want to wait too long, so, similarities be damned, I went ahead and read it.
I'm going to try to not keep comparing this to Matched, which isn't fair -- Matched had its own review, after all -- but I do have to say that, though each is its own thing, the similarities are pretty strong, and my reaction to each was the same -- I wanted so much more than I got.
Lest you think this review is wholly negative, let me start with the things I did like. I love the concept, and think it has the potential to be really powerful and fascinating. There is a flow to it most of the time that kept me reading even when I was frustrated by other things. And there are these moments that shine through, these beautiful little word gems that Oliver creates, that reminds me of why I loved Before I Fall, and why I was so excited to read this. But.
But I was so very, very excited for this that I think I was even more let down by it than Matched, which was also something I was eager for. Before I Fall was fresh and compelling, and I felt like so much of Oliver, so much heart and so much work, went into it. I didn't feel the same about Delirium. I'm not going to accuse Oliver of selling out or hopping on a trend, but I do wonder how much passion was behind this story. It seemed sort of sloppy (and yes, I know, I read an ARC, and that may account for some of it). But there were so many inconsistencies and questions I had that I couldn't ever commit. I could only go along so far until logic would intrude. I would be forced to ask myself things like, If Lena was just bitten (badly) in the leg by a dog, why does Alex kissing her seem to erase not only any pain, but even any mention of the bite, until it's like an afterthought? How does her family not notice that either a) she's wearing pants in the middle of sweltering August, and limping, or b) she's not wearing pants and the scar is showing and she's limping? Because it has to be one of those 2 things. And though the "cure" may not make them care for her safety so much, it doesn't take away their suspicious natures. [Also, setting aside the fact that she walked home, how did they just walk home? Just like that. With raiding parties everywhere, and her bitten terribly, they just strolled on home, illegally, down the street? How do they get away with all the shit they get away with, in this repressive society? Hmm...] Things like this were peppered throughout the story, and they just made it nearly impossible to buy in to what was going on.
Smaller things, too, like words and phrases and things we have now that I don't see any use for, or don't believably buy would be in the world Oliver created. And, of course, the much bigger things, like how did all this -- the discovery of the "deliria", the cure, the restrictions, the beliefs, all of it -- come to be? I know it may not be what Lauren intended, but with such a seemingly science-influenced dystopia, I need some good scientific reasoning, some "evidence" -- real or gov't created -- that backs everything up, some explanation or plausible scenario that lets this total overhaul of human beliefs and passions come to be in a matter of 60 years or so. That's a very, VERY brief period of time for such a huge and total change to take place, so I need reality to intrude a little. I need either some hints of a really big conspiracy, or something so huge and devastating that people as a whole almost go into a state of shock or numbness that allows this to happen. Because, as a general rule, people don't willingly submit to mass lobotomies or the eradication of their feelings for the people they love -- or hate -- without some serious something acting as a catalyst. Petty strife and crimes of passion may make you think of Eternal Sunshining your mind spotless, but in an abstract, angry, wouldn't-it-be-lovely kind of way, and not a bring-on-the-procedure kind of way. Some science, some history, some dogma, some thing beyond the sometimes eerie, sometimes meh snippets of "texts" that start every chapter, would have gone a long way toward helping me willingly suspend my disbelief.
But even if I could have set the worldbuilding and believability aside -- no easy task in a concept novel like this -- for it to be saved, the characters and plot would have had to really shine. But I felt like everything was a little wooden, a little cardboard, a little less than believable and real. The love interest, Alex, was okay enough, but why should Lena care about him, and why should I? I understand why he cares about Lena, but that's not something we really find out until Lena is already head over heels infected/in love, and I don't understand how she got there. As a reader, in order to take that leap with a character, we need to know why, we need to feel it. All I got was that he was a boy who payed attention to her, he winked, he smiled, he seemed a bit smarmy and she's hooked. Now, yes, I get that's enough for a teenage infatuation, and it may be heightened by the taboo nature of it. I even get that his more easy manner reminded Lena of her mother, who was incurable.
But for Lena, who has always been terrified of the deliria, which tore her world apart, and who has always looked forward to her procedure, and been so afraid of stepping out of the box, who is afraid to say, to even hear, the word love -- for her to completely flip and become reckless and passionate and all the other stuff that comes with being the things she's always feared...hmm. The only way this really works for me, the only thing that would make me buy it and appreciate it, was if it took the slant that the deliria was real and she'd become infected. Otherwise, I have no choice but to think this is a cheesy, run of the mill YA romance where one look from a guy makes a girl throw her entire being out the window and become a swooning, fluttery mess with no relation to the person she once was, and who would die for the roguish boy she knows nothing about. Which is, apparently, what every teenage girl is secretly waiting to do. Maybe the deliria is real.
Loading...
