By Tahereh Mafi
For Fun
Recommended by Me
First sentence I've been locked up for 264 days.
Synopsis
With a brush of her fingers Juliette can drain a persons life force. Locked in a cell alone for nearly a year life is routine and lonely but it's about to change, when a handsome boy is locked up with her. Suddenly her curse is being called a gift and everyone wants to use her for their own desires.
General thoughts
Alright, people. I'm sorry, this one had a great premise going for it and, yes, some nice writing, but I had some issues. Before I name them, though, I wanted to say, I didn't hate this book. I enjoyed it enough to read the rest of the books in the series. Now, with that out of the way, let me tell you why it bugged me. Everyone has been raving about this one and how freaking amazing the writing was. So what the heck was my problem? The writing was good...for about two seconds. Then I wanted to shout, "shut up and just tell the dang story! If you're going to cross out sentences why bother writing them at all?! Quit repeating words over and over! Come up with some new phrases! Argh!" Further more, the whole style conflicted with the story. You have this fast paced exiting story littered with so much slow flowery writing it just wasn't meshing! And then came the lack of conflict. But, Jenny, they're was conflict. Warner was trying to use her for his own evil wishes, and society was way messed up, and she couldn't touch anyone!!! You can yell at me all you want, but let's look at these points, shall we? We were told Warner was freaky and smart, so smart he was in charge of a sector at only 19, but he wasn't smart, or evil, or even dangerous. They easily escaped him! Juliette sorta kinda, liked him??? Maybe??? Whatever THAT was. The society was hardly even talked about. I'm not sure why things were the way they were, it was never explained very well and I'm not exactly sure how they're supposed to be fixing it. I don't really care either; I'm sure that will be explained later...hopefully. But the biggest nonconflicting thing of all: The WUUUUV of her life could touch her???? Oh how convenient! Phew! I don't think I coulda handled there being any actual conflict! So, yeah, see why it wasn't THAT amazing after all? Not the worst thing I've read but come on!!!
Characters
So, what did I think of all those characters? Juliette was pretty stupid. Sorry, but Adam had to tell her he loved her twice and she still didn't get why he was rescuing her. Looks like all that time in the dark cell knocked a few brain cells loose. And speaking of Adam, he just wasn't swoon worthy for me...at all! It's not his fault, he's just not my type. And what was up with Warner? Did the author want us to sorta like him? Was that supposed to be a lead up to a love triangle? I felt like even the author didn't have a good hold on who Warner was.
Would I recommend it?
Oh, I'm sure people will just eat this one up, a lot of people already have so, yeah, go ahead and read it...I guess! ;)
Ha ha! I love reading your reviews. I will go into this one with a grain of salt, at least. Too many rave reviews spoil it for me sometimes.
ReplyDeleteReviews like this are the reason why I love reading your blog so much Jenny! I think a lot of people get caught up in the hype of a book and feel a certain amount of hesitation when they don't go with the flow and give glowing reviews. Your honesty is refreshing. And hey, you did point out the reasons why you didn't completely enjoy it and they were good reasons too. I've read a short snippet of the first chapter and you're right, why cross out words? Just don't write them. If it's meant to show how Juliette is messed up in the head...well then it's the worst kind of telling not showing I've ever seen.
ReplyDeleteMelissa, Yeah, my expectations were probably to high but how did people miss all these bad things?
ReplyDeleteLan, Yeah there was A LOT of telling not showing and too many holes that weren't explained. Thanks for enjoying my rant. ;)
Well, uh, I think actually I'll skip it. But, I certainly enjoyed reading what you had to say!
ReplyDeleteBookfool, Thanks. It wasn't THAT bad but I've read sooo much better.
ReplyDeleteHmm... now that you mention it, the whole idea that THE guy can touch her without dying is kind of lacking in conflict. I've been seeing this being RAVED about all over the blogosphere, and I'm glad to have you here to balance it all out!
ReplyDeleteI always like to read a not-so-positive review about a book everybody has been raving about! Not everybody is going to like a book!
ReplyDeleteRecently I read Divergent but didn't like it at all even though I've never read a single negative review about it. I've still got to write my review for that yet but I'm kind of worried about being forever shunned by the book blogging community :P
Phew! So glad to finally come across a review that didn't rave about this book! I've been wanting to read it but I've been too worried that my high expectations would make me not enjoy it as much. Now I can go in having my anticipation dropped down a couple of pegs! Thanks for your honest review! I love them so much!
ReplyDeleteJessica, See? Doesn't that just ruin the book?
ReplyDeleteChrissie, You HAVE to review Divergent. I hated it too! You should read my review on THAT one. Ouch! ;)
Natalie, Glad to help. I think my expectations were just too high. If you lower yours a tad you might enjoy this one.