Khanh, first of her name, mother of bunnies
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Books:
angels
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| 0345549252
| 9780345549259
| 3.76
| 413
| Jan 01, 2014
| Apr 15, 2014
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did not like it
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DNF @ 20% To give you an impression of how much I hated this book, I will read the Halo trilogy in its entirety several times over rather than finish t DNF @ 20% To give you an impression of how much I hated this book, I will read the Halo trilogy in its entirety several times over rather than finish this. There was nothing good about this book, and there is so much that is bad that I can write an entire fucking rant review based on the little that I've read. To sum it up (details further down): 1. The writing is atrocious 2. It has every romantic trope in the book 3. The main character is fucking dumb and judgmental 4. The angels are fucking dumb 5. The demons are fucking dumb The Summary: This class is way over my head. Half an hour of this and I swear my notes were penned by a retarded monkey who is just as confused as I am.Sophia St. James has delusions of going to Stanford one day. She's not only stupid, she's judgmental, offensive, and can't keep her fucking mouth shut. “What kind of obtuse podunk outfit is this anyway? Supersized, narcissistic Rent-a-Cop!” I sit back and realize the cop has returned to my window. Aw crap.Sophia has just moved from California to Connecticut, where they speak with weird accents, and words like "asshole" is pronounced "eh-hole." His voice is rich with a funny eastern accent, which under lighter circumstances I would find amusing.Hint: Eastern people don't really have accents. Newly arrived in Connecticut, she not only gets into trouble with the law, but she witnesses a strange guy hovering over a scene of a car accident. Cue insta-love. Sophia feels a "second heartbeat." His head is now turning slowly, methodically, and he is looking at me as though I’m one of the Seven Wonders of the World.He looks at HER with concern! His concern for me is palpable, like a hand caressing my cheek.She looks at HIM with concern! He could feel her concern for him radiating like a lighthouse.He vanishes! It turns out that Mysterious Boy is Michael, named after the Archangel. He's only a Guardian Angel himself; he lives with his "brothers," Raphael, and Gabriel. They're all extraordinarily handsome, and they are so well-disguised (not). Way to stay the fuck under the radar. He is incapable of love! He shouldn't love! It is beyond his capacity for a heavenly being...but Michael can't help it! For the first time...he feels...EMOTIONS for the sexy Sophia. No, not just hot but sexy as hell and— Wait, what?But Michael is not alone in his desire for Seductive Sophia. There is a Demon Knight in Hell, and he wants her, too. Specifically, her soul, because why? He had been tracking his lost lover’s soul and found it in Sophia.So Dante has to go to HUGE GREAT DESPERATE STEPS in order to come back to Earth and win over her soul. He's not alone, his cohorts, Vaughn, Santiago and Wolfgangare coming with him to Earth. THEY MUST GET SOPHIA'S SOUL. But first, they have to worry about what to wear. Vaughn, well... So his wardrobe was chosen with care: black jeans and a long-sleeved black shirt buttoned at the throat. And for good measure, he wore a long black duster, a favorite from the old days.Santiago's a little more down-to-earth. So to speak. He opted for black skinny jeans with multicolored Converse high tops and a black T-shirt that said, I DIED FOR AN IRON MAIDEN.Wolfgang... He wore black jeans rolled at the cuffs, black combat boots, and a tight black T-shirt over his beefy chest. His hair had been cut shoulder length and gathered at the back of his head with a leather, noose-like strap.Finally, Dante! He's got to look sharp for his long-lost lover. Dante changed clothes three times before settling on black designer jeans and a charcoal mock turtleneck. After all, this was a special occasion. He should look nice and sophisticated but not like he was trying too hard.*chokes with laughter* AND FINALLY, NOW THAT THEY'RE ALL DRESSED, THEY CAN FINALLY LEAVE FOR THEIR MISSION. “Now we go to America!” Dante announced the command he had been waiting years to say.Or not. Now do you see why I'm DNFing this book? The Writing: He seems disjointed from the others like a curious bystander.Teeeeeeeeeeerrible. Littered with some mind-blogging metaphors... - "Controlling Wolfgang’s demon was impossible, like taming a lion with a wet noodle." - "That’s when it hits: a painful explosion in my chest like I had dynamite for dinner and it’s just now digesting." - "I can already imagine my evening camped out on the couch, an array of books scattered about like a litter of teething puppies." - The scar in my eyebrow? A sleeping caterpillar. I’ve checked it continuously for two weeks hoping one day it will turn butterfly and flit away. Factual errors: Eastern accents are barely detectable, if at all. Los Angeles High school does not have a junior class size of 250. Try twice that. A person who can't breathe does not actually turn blue. They only have a blueish tinge to their face. He was blue!”Spelling errors: Coco Chanel is the name of the woman who started the brand, it's not the brand itself. Furthermore, it's spelled Chanel, not Channel. A psychiatric ward is shortened to a "psych ward," not a "psyche ward". Terrible dialogues: From outrageously absurd characters: - “She’s their cousin. Hashtag—most fun person in the world!" - "What’s up, teacup?" - “Holy horndogs, Batman. I got Jordan. I’ll be sure to Brinks secure my thong.” Sophia: The main character is fucking dumb. She wants to go to Stanford when she goes to college. I'm sorry to tell her she doesn't have a special snowflake's chance in the deepest pits of hell. She is a pastor's daughter who doesn't see the significance between all the supernatural shit she's been seeing and the fact that there are three angelically beautiful young brothers in her town with the names of Michael, Gabriel, and Raphael. She cries at the drop of a hat. She is nasty, mentally calling people names, like a "Rent-a-Cop" with a "McBelly." She was abused by an ex-boyfriend. It doesn't feel real, and I am the first person in the world to hop onto the victim-defending wagon. Her abuse feels superficial. The mental scars do not feel real. She only brings it up from time to time when she remembers it. There was no point to the inclusion of the abuse, and I found it offensive to victims of true abuse. The Angels: Fucking dumb. Heaven can't see fit to give them a collective brain, much less three. They are so well-hidden that they can't think to disguise themselves under any other names but the three most famous motherfucking Angels in the Bible. Way to stay under the motherfucking radar. They can't hide how gloriously handsome they are? They're so fucking stupid that they can't save a guy who's choking on a piece of food. I look and see Casey James laughing at his own joke. A moment later he stops, and his mouth opens and closes like a fish. His eyes gradually bulge in panic. Before I can think the words, He’s choking, Michael is there, wrapping his arms around Casey’s waist and hauling him out of the chair.Three motherfucking Guardian Angels can't save a guy who's choking. What the fuck kind of incompetency is this? Casey James died. And the motherfucking angels are so fucking good at staying under the motherfucking radar that they bring the dead guy back to life in front of the entire fucking school. “But he was dead!” I whisper. “And Raph didn’t do CPR!” We stop at my locker and I throw my books inside.The Romance: It has every romantic trope in the book, including a love triangle between a Guardian Angel and a Demon Knight. There is insta-love between the MC and the Angel. There is a hint of reincarnated soul mates between the MC and the Demon. And I'm just done with this. ...more |
Notes are private!
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1
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Apr 17, 2014
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Apr 18, 2014
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Feb 21, 2014
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ebook
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| B00B27GAC2
| 3.93
| 7,608
| Jan 18, 2013
| Jan 16, 2013
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did not like it
| “What’s wrong with me?”[image “What’s wrong with me?”[image] Fuck special snowflakes. Fuck insta-loves. Fuck heroines who do jack shit but to call upon their knights in shining armor to save them. Her fucking destiny? One of a kind. Bullshit. There is an age old prophecy which tells of the one that will be born of Angel and Abomination. A child that will have the power, greater than the angels. A power that can bring change, and save the earth from total devastation.Fuck heroines born to a special destiny who do absolutely fucking nothing to deserve it and nothing to fucking earn it. I'd rather read about Paris Hilton. Emma whines. She is petulant. She is immature. She talks like a 13-year old addicted to social media and I am just through with idiotic fucking helpless fucking heroines who claim to be the savior to the human race. There are Darklings in this book. Fuck that shit. Go read Siege and Storm if you want a half-decent Darkling character. This book is a joke. In the gun-happy United States, we have an expression: trigger-happy. It is used to indicate someone who shoots first, thinks later. As a slang, it is used to indicate the act of doing before thinking. The phrase trigger-happy would also be perfectly applied towards the "Request" button on NetGalley. You browse through all the available books, and before you know it, you're breathing heavily, with a crazed gleam in your eyes, sweat forming on your brows, clicking with wild abandon, not knowing what the fuck you just got yourself into. This would be one of those situations. Man. I hate myself. I wish I had never gotten approval to review this book. Some YA books are wonderful, they can be read by people of all ages, they can be enjoyed by a wide range of audiences: this book is not one of them. It is best enjoyed by those who: a) doesn't want to inject the tricky process of thinking into their reading experience b) are between the ages of 9-12 (with exception to the emotionally mature ones of this age group). The vocabulary will not give this age group any trouble whatsoever. O, Editor, Where Art Thou? I have read fanfiction that were better written than this book. I had to stop and wonder at one point if this book had ever been corrected by an editor, or whether an editor even so much as sneezed in its general direction. A generous person might call me nitpicky, a not-so-generous person might call me a grammar Nazi. My inner grammar Nazi was on full swing throughout the reading of this book. I have never read a book with so many errors. Grammatical errors, misspellings, mistakes in punctuation. The book is ridiculously inconsistent on capitalization, the word aunt is uncapitalized in some instances, capitalized as Aunt in others. Errors in spelling abounds, for instance, a border is spelled as "boarder," branches are "braches," copacetic is "copasetic." And then there are the terrible word usage, like "aloneness" instead of loneliness. God save us all. There was a grievous crime committed against the comma in this book. Commas were used where they shouldn't be, creating odd breaks in sentences that pissed my inner editor off like you wouldn't believe. For example: The once beautifully, quilted fabric of my life was quickly unraveling into one giant, tangled mess.And commas were omitted where they were needed. For example: "I’ve never seen anything like it! You Kade?”And... “What’s your name child?” he said in a very kind voice.These are but a few of the multitudinal errors within the book. And, oh, my god, the stupid fucking things that come out of Emma's mouth... I slowly walked pass all the shelves, examining the books, art, and what looked to be ancient relics. Some of these things looked like they were dated way back, like as far as A.D. and maybe even B.C....Because it's not like we're living in A.D. 2014 or anything. You are a fucking moron, Emma. [image] The Writing: The writing is utterly juvenile, purple prosy in places, and completely overdramatic in others. And then it slammed me - reality did - like a Mack truck hitting me at full force. A shattering pain surged through my heart, quickly spreading like a brush fire, torching everything inside of me.The main character is 17, and I understand that there may be some 17 year olds who are completely idiotic and immature in their way of talking, but I've been fortunate not to meet any in real life. The dialogue in this book is utterly laughable, and the internal dialogue even more so. The belt was filled with large ammo and what looked like...grenades??? Oh my God!!!The Summary: Emma wakes in the hospital. It is her birthday, but alas, she has been left an orphan (not the fucking orphan trope again, please, won't someone think of the parents in YA fiction?). It was a devastating car crash of which Emma remembers nothing. Emma is a miracle. It was a complete miracle that you survived.Her wounds heal miraculously fast, to go along with the miracle theme of the day. She miraculously remains almost unharmed. Out of nowhere, an unknown aunt (or Aunt, in some cases, fuck you, editor) swoops in to save her from the foster system. Emma is going to Alaska to live with her half-aunt. ALASKA! Ohmygod ALASKA. It's so far north. It's so cold! There is a horrible lack of hot men!!!!!! I was going to Alaska, for heaven’s sake. I’d never heard of any hotties from Alaska. All I pictured were big, scruffy men in red flannels with facial hair.And the bears! And the moose! And not to mention all the criminals who live in Alaska! "You can get lost easily over there. I heard that people, criminal types, move there to escape justice...you know...lots of places to hide. So you’d better be careful, Emma. Don’t go out alone at night. And, watch for bears…and moose that have babies. They will charge at you if you get too close."Suddenly, electricity fills the air. It surges. An electrical current surged through my veins, and the same euphoric feeling, which I’d felt earlier, shot through me...intensified times ten.It's KADE! KAAAAAAADE! The intensely gorgeous, electrifying Kade. They touch. The sparks fly. But...but Kade is not who he seems! He's so...pale. Kade's not who he seems! He's so pale! His physique was statuesque, but his skin was pale…almost colorless. I assumed it was because he came from Alaska. No sun for half the year. That had to explain it.Wait a minute! Pale skin. Supernatural strength! IT CAN'T BE!!!!! IT SIMPLY CAN'T BE! All that was missing were vampires and werewolves. Wait…Vampires? Kade sure looked like a vampire with his pasty white skin.No, seriously. Is he a vampire? “I mean, you look human to me, but I’ve seen you do inhuman things.” I waited for him to answer, but he didn’t say a word. “Are you a vampire?”Lol. No he's not. But seriously, are there vampires? Emma really wishes for vampires. “Well… what about that thing that almost killed me in the bathroom? What was that? It looked like a vampire. Was it…a vampire?”FOR THE LAST FUCKING TIME. NO. Sigh. They get to Alaska. More sparks fly between Emma and Kade. Electricity literally sparks between them whenever they touch. It's not just a figure of speech. They spend time getting to know each other. They make friends with the other members of the house, all of whom are gorgeous fucking men, I mean, talk about raining men. 5 gorgeous guys, all ripe for the picking, and the only fellow female is a girl of 13, so young she doesn't even pose a threat. Out of nowhere, Emma is plopped into danger. The other guys fight like badasses. Emma's an albatross in a battle. She can do nothing but stand there and wail. Her weapons of destruction are her words, and my oh my, what brilliant words they are: “Damn, you stink and you’re freakin’ ugly. Poor God must have hurt his back trying to bend and scrape the bottom of the crap barrel to create you.”[image] This is the girl who is humanity's salvation. God save us all. The Special Snowflake: Emma is a miracle. She's got AB- blood type, a blood type that only appears in less than 1% of the population. An only child. There is nobody on earth left in her family. Until her "aunt" shows up out of nowhere, Emma thought she was alone in all the world. She heals supernaturally fast. She is special. Ever so special. “I know that right now you don’t feel like there’s anything special about you, but you are very special, Emma.Did I say she's special? Yeah. I’d say you’re a rarity…something specialYOU DON'T FUCKING SAY? “You are a special breed Emma. There has never been another like you.Where did all this specialness come from? How do people constantly ascribe brilliance to something completely fucking ordinary, like noticing some weird guys following you around. I notice creepy guys stalking me in the street? Am I special too? Or just Emma. Because apparently the ability to see something completely fucking obvious is absolutely fucking brilliant to the ever-so-easily impressed Kade. “You’re very perceptive, Emma Wise. I’ll give you that...but then again...I guess you aren’t like most people”During battles, what does she do? Does Emma fight? Does Emma stand up for herself? Does she become a warrior? Is she heroic? No. Emma stands back like a fucking pussy. She stands "frozen with fear," she is filled with "pain and helplessness". She waits for Kade to fight for her, to come to her rescue. Kade is her "real-life knight in shining armor, determined and unwavering in his responsibility to save [her] life." Fuck that shit. I'm out. The Romance: Do I need to say anything further? The romance in the book makes Bella and Edward sound like a timeless story of love eternal. There is literally nothing between them but insta-love and insta-lust and surges of "electricity" and numerous instances of euphoria that develops into love out of fucking nowhere. Euphoria that hits in between life and death. Because surely, love must interrupt the most dangerous of situations. He suddenly threw his body on top of mine.[image] There is no interaction between Kade and Emma whatsoever that hints at anything more than a superficial acquaintance. The book ends with the phrase: "God help us." Indeed. I received this book as an Advance Review Copy. ...more |
Notes are private!
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1
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Jan 17, 2014
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Jan 17, 2014
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Jan 17, 2014
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Kindle Edition
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| 4.18
| 83,884
| Feb 25, 2014
| Feb 25, 2014
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it was ok
| "Not everyone is created equal.” "Not everyone is created equal.”This is standard Armentrout. Fans of her books will love it, people who wants something a little less...formulaic, like me, will be disappointed. I keep reading her books, hoping that something will change for the better. So far, nothing had. This book is about gargoyles and demons. But don't get the wrong impression. It's less this: [image] And more this: [image] This is standard Armentrout in that: 1. The main heroine is the star of the show, there is no doubt about it, the universe revolves around her and only her 2. There is slut-shaming. There is an ample shortage of meaningful female friendship, there is plenty of slutty girls around, including her best friend, all designed to make the heroine seem virginal, chaste, and pure in contrast 3. The heroine is special, different, one of a kind, due to only the fact that she was born to an extraordinary heritage; she does nothing to earn our respect 4. There is a love triangle, and further than that, almost every eligible person with a penis around her age range wants her milkshake 5. There is more flirting than plot 6. The heroine is supposed to be kick-ass, but she is rescued all the fucking time The good: 1. The writing is enjoyable, the book itself is a light, quick read 2. The setting is a predictable, light, traditional Urban Fantasy with characters we don't see too often---gargoyes (but the book still needs more garrgoyles and less hot-men-outside-of-stone-form) The Summary: Gargoyles exist. They are called Wardens. 10 years ago, they came out in public. The world knows that gargoyles exist now, and there's surprisingly little hullabaloo about it. Miley Cyrus twerkin' on Robin Thicke's crotch got a more shocked reaction than we were shown in this book. ...the Wardens went public ten years ago. The Alphas had ordered the Wardens to come out of the shadows. To humans, Wardens had come out of their stone shells. After all, the gargoyles adorning many churches and buildings had been carved to resemble a Warden in his true skin.Huh, gargoyles exist. Ok. Layla is 17 years old. She is beautiful, but doesn't really consider herself that pretty. I mean, Layla only looks like an elf-princess. What's so special about that? Zayne said I looked like the long-lost sister of the elf in Lord of the Rings. That was a huge confidence booster. Sigh.Sigh, indeed. Fuck, it must be so horrible to go through life all blonde and elfin, looking like Legolas' sister. Tough existence, man. To top it off, she's in love with a gorgeous Warden guy (Zayne) who only sees her as a sister. A really hot sister with whom he loves going on coffee dates. Layla is special. She is half-Demon, half-Warden. She looks like a human and she cannot shift into a monster-like stone gargoyle form because she is a half-blood. Therefore, Layla is half-blood, all beautiful. Special without the ugly side effects of being a gargoyle-like Guardian. Layla is an orphan (oh hello there, trope). She has amnesia (trope). She doesn't know anything about her birth or her parents (trope). Her Warden guardians keep everything a secret from her (trope). One day, while stupidly chasing down a minor demon into a dark alley, Layla nearly gets killed. She is rescued by a dark, handsome, sexy Upper Level Demon. His name is Roth. He has a snake named Bambi. I don't mean to say his penis is named Bambi, I mean he has a snake tattoo that comes to life whose name is Bambi. No—not a mass, but a huge freaking snake at least ten feet long and as wide as I was.Sexy Demon Roth starts showing up everyfuckingwhere Layla goes. She goes to school. He's there. He shows up whenever she needs help, like a demonic guardian angel. Where I'm from, we call that a fucking stalker. Layla knows that. She trusts him anyway. “You don’t? I was following you.”Oh, he's not just a stalker, he's a pervert, too. He leaned in again, his lips brushing the curve of my cheek. “Let me suggest more appropriate places. I have this piercing—”Oh, wait, there's a reason he's following her. Layla is special. She was born to a special destiny, and he was meant to protect her. Roth let out a low breath. “Your mother was known by many names...And because of that, you’re on Hell’s Most Wanted List.”Naturally, Layla is inclined to believe the stranger she just met over the people who have raised her for the past 10 years. Roth and Layla kiss, they flirt, they go out on dates. They spend nights together, staring longingly into each other's eyes. They go to bed together---but they just talk, because demons are such gentlemen that way. What is The Lesser Key of Solomon? More importantly, will the two hot, gorgeous men in her life ever stop fighting over Layla? Zayne’s grip relaxed. “Shut up.”The Girl-Hate: There's room for only one good girl in this book, and that girl is Layla. Layla is virginal, pure. Layla and her best friend Stacey tease each other by calling each other names. Stacey is, of course, presented as the slut, the hobag, while innocent Layla is the virgin. Stacey only blinked, looking like she was coming out of some kind of bizarre trance. I scribbled hobag across her notes. She laughed and wrote virgin ice princess across mine.Even an insult, a tease, is designed to make Layla look good against her slutty best friend Stacey. Stacey is sex on wheels. Stacey started to tug her shirt up as a shield, but must’ve realized there wasn’t enough material there.She dresses sexily, and the book presents it to us as a bad thing. Stacey was saying as she threw herself into her seat. “I didn’t sneak out of the house dressed like this for no good reason.”Stacey constantly makes sexual jokes and gestures. “Great!” Stacey chirped, backing off and gesturing wildly behind Roth. She was doing something with her hand and mouth that I knew Roth would be oh so down for.She is presented as a good friend, but so completely hypersexualized compared to Layla. Her character is insiduously presented as not as good, due to her sexualization. The other female characters in the book are either stupid sluts (Eva, the glammed up hobag Mean Girl classmate) or a scared female Warden (never mind that she's also a badass warrior herself), or a nice, beautiful Warden girl who's meant to be hated because of her interest in Layla's first love, Zayne. Danika is nice, but everything she does is seem as mean, an attack on Layla when all she wants to do is be helpful. I dumped the stuff in the garbage can, shoulders stiff. “I’m not going to jump on you and suck out your soul, if that’s what you’re worried about.”Everytime a female character outside of Layla does something remotely normal and nice, Layla snaps at her. There is no room in this book for a positive female figure besides Layla. The Setting: It's your traditional Urban Fantasy, with Angels, Demons, all that good stuff. This book breaks no molds in the setting. It is completely predictable in this sense, and that's just fine. We have Fiends, we have Posers (demons, heh), we have Zombies. Nothing out of the ordinary. What I do not like: The setting in this book is anticlimactic. There are gargoyles, humans know they exist...and there's an odd sense of "so what?" about it. People aren't exactly freaking out. There's a church rallying against Wardens... Every so often the Church of God’s Children held a rally against the Wardens and then made headlines. They’d been doing it ever since the public had found out about the Wardens’ existence.And that's the last we hear about it. The book is so centered around Layla and Layla only, so much that the outside world becomes completely secondary and almost gathers no mention in the book. The setting itself has gaps. There are Wardens...gargoyles...but almost no instance of actual gargoyles in the book. We rarely see the Wardens in action. It's more internal politics and living with the Wardens in human form than anything else. There's also the unbelievable case of "OH HUMANS KNOW ABOUT WARDENS BUT LET'S HIDE THE FACT THAT DEMONS EXIST!" Wut? The world would descend into chaos if humans knew demons were ordering their morning coffee right alongside them.Ok, so you're telling me that the world is ok with the existence of gargoyles, that stone men can come to life, but they'd completely freak out if they knew about the existence of demons? Wut? Layla, you've got me on my knees: *lyric from Eric Clapton* Everyone with a dick loves Layla. From hot, protective brother-figure Zayne. Zayne, who always wants to reassure Layla that she is good, despite what Layla thinks of herself. Zayne’s eyes flicked up. They seemed brighter than usual. “You’re...perfect just the way you are.”To schoolboy Gareth. “Wow, he is so checking you out.”To evil pervert Petr who wants her body. The line of his jaw hardened. “I didn’t do anything wrong.”To Roth. Roth, who only has eyes for Layla. Oh, the love triangle... “I...” I didn’t know. I loved Zayne, but I didn’t know what kind of love that was, and Roth... I thought I could be in love with him, if given time. Or maybe I already was, in a little way. “I don’t know.”It's enjoyable, but only as brain candy. If you're looking for more plot, more substance, I wouldn't recommend this. The character development and plausibility of the plot is absolutely lacking. ...more |
Notes are private!
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1
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Feb 25, 2014
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Feb 26, 2014
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Jan 12, 2014
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Kindle Edition
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| 0670784761
| 9780670784769
| 0670784761
| 3.86
| 3,910
| Oct 08, 2013
| Oct 08, 2013
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it was ok
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[image] I appreciate the use of imagery, but the key to using it as a literary device is subtlety. In this book, imagery doesn't gently tap you on the [image] I appreciate the use of imagery, but the key to using it as a literary device is subtlety. In this book, imagery doesn't gently tap you on the shoulders from behind, it doesn't touch you with a gentle lover's caress. The imagery within this book comes running at you in a Pennywise mask wielding a chainsaw while screaming bloody murder. The writing is overwrought, leaning heavily towards purple prose. It tries too hard to be "gothic." It has all the subtlety of a purple plaid-patterned penguin. You could play a drinking game while reading this book. Take two imagery. Bells. Birds. You could take a sip---not a shot, mind you, just a sip---of a low alcohol-by-volume wine with every instance of those imageries and still end up dead by alcohol poisoning before you reach the 50% mark of this book. There is an emphasis on collective nouns in this book, because it's one of the things a girl entering Blythewood must know. You have to know terms like a teal of magpies. A murder of crows. An exaltation of larks. A cete of badgers. I would like to take this opportunity to create my own collective noun to describe the writing in this book: a fuckload of frivolity. (Yes, I deliberately used some terribly imagery and alliteration myself in describing the terribleness of this book. It's fine, I'm not an author, and the readers of this review are only subject to my atrocious writing for the length of an overly verbose review, not for all 400-something freaking pages of a book.) This is one of those times when I reflect back to 11th grade AP English Literature and mentally shake my fist at my old teacher. Thanks to that damned class, I can pick out and analyze every single terrible use of metaphor, imagery, symbolism in this book. This book wasn't terrible, but it was generic. The characters are recycled, the romance is chock full of tropes (and comes complete with insta-love and a love triangle), the atmosphere and paranormal premise is interesting, but it doesn't make up for the fact that I cannot get over the writing. This is, of course, my opinion. I understand perfectly if some people reading this book find the writing beautiful, evocative. Not me. Again, I blame the many analytical essays I had to write in high school for my aggravating reading experience. Summary: Avaline Hall is a seamstress at the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory in 1911 New York. That is a bad thing, and a real thing that actually happened. I won't go into the details because it is largely irrelevant to the story, but in short, nearly 150 people died, and Avaline was almost one of them, but she was one of the lucky ones who were rescued. It is a tragedy, yes, but in the middle of a fire, I would be screaming my ass off and running around like a chicken with its neck cut off (and probably die a horrible, fiery death), but I sure as fucking hell would not be having thoughts along these lines, looking at girls who are jumping out of a building to their deaths because there is literally no other way of escape. “I thought the same thing,” I said softly, my voice quavering, “when I saw the girls jumping...that they were like butterflies trapped between panes of glass.”Get your head on straight. Avaline's backstory is kind of a mess. Within the first 5% of the book, we learn a multitude of things about Avaline that makes her just about the most unrealistic heroine ever, even for an YA PNR. We learn that she's the daughter of a woman who was formerly wealthy but who ran away from home and works as a hat trimmer instead. Contrary to popular beliefs, the most dangerous occupation isn't that of a bomb squad technician, a soldier, a police officer, a firemen. Nope. The most dangerous occupation in the world is being the mother (or a close blood relative) of an YA heroine. Her mother commits suicide due to laudanum poisoning, and Avaline is forced to work for her own support. She ends up at the Factory as a curiously incompetent seamstress, despite her skills at making hats. She keeps hearing weird bells inside her head that warns her of imminent danger. She keeps seeing the same strange man in an Inverness cape everywhere. She falls into insta-love with some idiot boy (who is *GASP* not who he seems!!1!1!) shortly before the fire occurs. My whole body shuddered like a bell that had been struck. My hand, which looked small in his, was trembling. For a moment the din of the factory—the whirr of the sewing machines, the shouts of the foreman to hurry up, the street noise from the open windows—all receded. I felt as though the two of us were standing alone in a green glade starred with wildflowers, the only sound the wind soughing through the encircling forest...After being involved in the fire, Ava rants and raves like a lunatic because a weird boy with wings rescued her, and surprise, surprise, is actually committed to a mental hospital for 5 months. She is then rescued by her grandmother, and sent on an interview to Blythewood. Blythewood is the very prestigious girl's finishing school that her mother attended before her disgrace. Ava has harbored hopes of attending it, due to her mother's stories, and true to the tradition of cutting off your nose to spite your face, Ava acts like an absolute contrary bitch when she actually gets the chance to attend the school of her dreams. Wah wah wah. Boo fucking hoo. No, I don't want to attend a private school where my mother and I have always wanted me to attend. No, I don't want the protection of my wealthy grandmother. I just want to be a seamstress again so I can toil away my life without prospects. Shut the fuck up and enjoy your good fortune. Blythewood is...weird. Really, really weird. The interview itself was freaky enough, the people are strange, and curiously, nobody questions anything until they're confronted with the truth of the place. There is one eligible boy in residence. One. Boy. In an all-girls' school. Nathan is the bad boy. Enter the love triangle. Nathan is an asshat, a spoiled, carefree boy who scrapes along in life due to his money, good looks, and influential family. Naturally, in a school full of accomplished girls, beautiful girls, wealthy girls, Nathan would totally go for the one girl who's so *sigh* special. Yep. Avaline. The romance is dumb. The love interests are clichéd. The mysterious, ethereal boy is as generic as they come. He's apparently ebony and ivory. A marbled, chiseled Adonis... ...he possessed the finely carved features of a Greek statue, his skin pale as marble, his eyes the weathered gray of worn granite. And a heart as hard as stone...with wings so black you'd have to actually look close to see that his wings are actually all the colors of the fucking rainbow. Those wings weren’t entirely black—they held the iridescent colors of the sunset in them.WHAT THE FUCK? He's dangerous. The boy's name is Raven. He is a Darkling, but don't be fooled, this ain't Shadow and Bone's Darkling. There is no complexity here, and there is no questionable line of good versus evil. There's just a line between dullness and boredom. This book's Darkling doesn't hold a candle to the original. The characters are generic as all gets out. I don't have anything to say about Ava because she puts me to sleep more effectively than an overdose of Lunesta. The other characters in the book are cookie cutter. The silly, frivolous, but kind-hearted rich girl, Helen. The eager-to-please, naive, bumbling small-town girl, Daisy (from Kansas City, Kansas). Sarah, the intelligent, competent, poor scholarship girl who hates the status quo and is eager to prove herself. The bitchy "mean girls," clique of George, Fred, and Wallie (all girls, who are nicknamed after their enormously wealthy fathers). The fat, incompetent, bitchtastic Etiquette mistress. The ice-cold, butter-wouldn't-melt-in-her-mouth headmistress. The names are Dickensian, in that the characters' name are a reflection of their work, of their character. Cute, but if I wanted Dickens, I'D READ DICKENS. Matilda Swift, the bow mistress. Euphorbia Frost, the bitchy etiquette instructor. The kind, motherly cluck of a secretary, Miss Moorhen. Martin Peale, the Bell Master. Mrs. Calendar, the Latin teacher. Vionetta Sharp, with her violet eyes and violet-growing spinster aunts. Enough is enough. As I said. The characters are generic, through and through. The plot is decent, the use of the bells is unique, and the mystery---well, let's just say at least there are no vampires or werewolves. You can throw just about every single otherworldly creature into the mix, though. This was a really, really long book, and it got pretty boring before the pacing picked up. The worst part about this book was the writing. I just could not overlook all the terrible use of imagery, strange and stupid metaphors, and tendency towards purple prose. Allow me to present some examples. "It was like striking a match to kindling. What had seemed cold was now warm—or perhaps the warmth had been kindled in me at the thought that he’d lit up at the sight of me." "It spread like cracks in an old China teacup when you pour hot water into it, only these cracks were made of fire and burned away flesh, changing him before my eyes from the beautiful boy of my dreams into a horrid monster." "So that’s where he goes, I thought...he has a forest inside him." A blond head is a "golden waterfall, an "angel's halo". And the bells. THE BIRDS. SO MUCH BIRD IMAGERY. I feel like I'm in a Hitchcock film. [image] Here are a couple of examples. Or 10. "The names fluttered through the air like brightly colored birds." "You look as comfortable as an eaglet in its cliff-side aerie.” "She said something and Miss Sharp tossed her head back and laughed, the sound like the nightingale’s song." "In the firelight her pale gray eyes shone yellow, like the eyes of an owl sweeping the forest floor for prey." "...she moved around the room like a trapped bird in a cage." "He had taken himself off to a window seat overlooking the river and made a nest of books like a peregrine on a cliff." "I’ve seen you hunched over them like a hawk mantling its prey.” "I noticed how small my hands looked in his, like doves cupped in a nest. They fluttered like doves, too..." "Cam, her hair sticking up in spikes, looked like a newly hatched chick eager for her first flight." "...setting Miss Corey fluttering over the books like a mother hen gathering her chicks under her wing." "He lifted his head away from Miss Frost’s ear and swiveled his neck like Blodeuwedd when she heard a mouse squeak—only his eyes were colder than any owl’s." “And pale,” Miss Fisk added, tilting her head at me like a robin listening for worms in the ground. "Gillie scowled, his dark eyebrows swooping together like two hawks fighting over a morsel." ...you get the point. I believe you would be better off reading Libba Bray. It may be clichéd, but at least the writing doesn't stand out for the worse. ...more |
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Oct 29, 2013
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Oct 30, 2013
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Oct 13, 2013
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Hardcover
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| 3.88
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| Sep 17, 2013
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it was ok
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The premise doesn't break any grounds: it's your traditional Urban Fantasy involving Angels and their line of mythology, with a rampant amount of sex-
The premise doesn't break any grounds: it's your traditional Urban Fantasy involving Angels and their line of mythology, with a rampant amount of sex---that's not actual penetration sex (more on that later). It was a very fast read; whatever problems I have with Jennifer Armentrout's books, it is never her writing. The writing is straightforward, the book is easy to read, and a fast, light one. It was not a terrible book by any means, but it was far from perfect. In a good urban fantasy, as in any book I read, I want a rational, compelling heroine who does not behave foolishly, and is strong-willed, rather than bitchy and contrary. I also want compelling side characters, and an excellent plot. My problem is that this book: 1. Has a difficult, annoying, and contrary heroine, added to the fact that she is the only female in the story 2. Has an alpha-male Fallen angel love interest who is---frankly, a stalker 3. Has an unbelievable romance 4. Makes the characters' personal problems (and often, the sex) a priority over that of the actual plot Summary: Lily Marks is a Nephilim working under a Contract for an agency known as the Sanctuary. The Sanctuary is composed of people like her---children of Fallen angels, who have heightened abilities, who have taken on an oath to hunt and destroy creatures such as demons and minions. The Sanctuary do not trust the Fallen angels at all, because they are evil and they are deceitful; some years back, one of the Fallen seduced and subsequently killed one of their own, a young woman named Anna. Her memory lives on still, and Anna's betrayal and murder by the Fallen is a lesson deeply ingrained within the minds of her fellow Nephilim as a symbol of the Fallen's capacity for treachery. Despite knowing that, Lily has been embroiled in a complicated relationship with Julian, a stalker angel who has been trailing her since he saved her life when she was 17. Lily is now 26, still working for the Agency, and still behaving with the immaturity of a teenager. During a routine kill, Lily gets trigger-happy and slugs a cop. Lily, as well as the other Nephilims can sense another Nephilim when they touch them, and it turns out that said knocked-out cop (Michael) is a Nephilim himself. The rest of the book is devoted to (in order of precedence): 1. Lily's sexual escapades with Julian 2. The mystery of the traitor within the Sanctuary 3. Michael's training and personal discovery 4. Some subplot involving the Fallen and an US Senator who can't keep his dick in his pants The Plot: I don't know if there was another series around the people of the Sanctuary, but for much of the book, I felt like I was a character looking in from a window. I feel like I was missing out on something, that I've suddenly jumped into the second book of a series without knowing it. The book and the premise of the Sanctuary was well-explained, but I never felt immersed in the plot. I felt like a stranger, if I may be so overdramatic. The problem with this book's plot is that the actual plot (finding out the true traitor within the Sanctuary) was so utterly eclipsed by Lily's escapades. It was Lily this. Lily that. Lily eats a hamburger, Lily gets a Happy Meal, Lily is unhappy about the Happy Meal. Lily sips a Coke. Lily gives a guy in a laundry room a hand job. Lily goes out to kick minion asses. Lily jumps from rooftop to rooftop in an effort to unleash her frustration. Lily freaks out at Julian's stalkerish behavior (while being inexplicably turned on by him). Lily batting her eyelashes at her guardian and mentor and getting away with doing stupid things. Lily gives Julian a blow job. Lily gets fingered by Julian. (Note that there's no actual sex yet because the girl will insist on retaining her virginity for no known reason.) There is just so much unnecessary sex, I would swear that 25% of the book is composed of sexual acts that doesn't involve Lily losing her virginity. Speaking of virginity, Lily does everything short of lose the actual V-card, and I'm pretty sick of it. I do not have a problem with sex. I do not have a problem with sleeping around. I do not have a problem with a heroine who is not a virgin, and the insistence that Lily remains a virgin despite all the sexual play she does with her lovers is confusing and utterly ludicrous to me. The entire book is just eclipsed by Lily, her overwhelmingly selfish behaviors, her attitude, and her self-centered egotism. I wanted the plot to be centered on the traitor, on the senator, or hell, more on Michael's mystery. It is a pretty complelling mystery, and it could have been delivered so much better: We have a traitor among us. Someone has been working with the Fallen to expose the names and locations of the vulnerable Nephilim.Instead, I got Lily. And not much else. The Premise: Simple enough, doesn't break any grounds where UF is concerned, and adequately explained. The Sanctuary is a place for Nephilim to train and fight against demons and minions, disguised as an actual security agency. They are powerful, they are incredibly rich, they have connections everywhere, including at the police department, to smooth over minor details like disappearing corpses and hundreds of mysterious deaths per week. The Nephilim are children of angels who become Fallen when they mate with the daughters of men (seriously, why are angels so attracted to daughters of men, I don't get it, I mean, I'm pretty cute, but if I were an angel, I'd take a female angel---who probably look like a Victoria's Secret Angel---over me any day. Personally, I think angels are just into slumming). Minions are normal humans who have had their minds possessed. They can survive a gunshot to the chest. They turn into mindless creatures, impervious to normal weaponry, and it takes skills and specially engineered weapons to kill them. It takes a Nephilim to destroy one. The Sanctuary, how it works, the Contract, the training, all were well-detailed and consistent. I had no problem with the very traditional angel-centered premise of this book. The Characters: Ugh. You know the thing about first impressions? They stick. And my first impression of Lily was not a good one. For the first few chapters of this book, I pretty much knew I wasn't going to like Lily. She flounces the rules, she is impractical (fights minions in a miniskirt, jumps from rooftop to rooftop for fun). I am not slut shaming. I wear miniskirts, I wear short shorts. I don't care what she wears, but it is a matter of professionalism, and Lily is terribly immature for a character who is supposed to be 26 years old. Lily is the only female in the book who has a major role. There is no supporting female character. The entire fucking Sanctuary is filled with hot, muscled, Nephilim men, and Lily is the only female (not to mention the best and youngest fighter). Lily is also tiny and stunningly gorgeous. Thank god not everyone falls in love with her, because I was this close to calling Lily out to be a Mary Sue. Lily is so terribly bitchy. She is a jerk to everyone, she has a powerful guardian in the leader of the group, and thus feels like she can pretty much bat her eyelash at him and get away with doing dumb things. Lily is incapable of holding a normal conversation without snapping at someone. “It wouldn’t hurt you to shut up.”...and she has a temper that is more grating than endearing. Lily also has a tendency to talk with her fist. Lily is also a dumbass. She puts herself on the line, and she puts the Sanctuary in danger for her knowing acts of defiance. Lily is involved in a very, very complex relationship with an asshole of a Fallen angel named Julian. He pretty much stalks her, and she is falling in love with him. She does this with the full knowledge that Julian is dangerous. That Julian may be betraying her. That Julian is not to be trusted. But no. "He is different." "Julian is different." Different. Different. Different. Lily trusts Julian for no fucking reason besides the fact that he claims to be different, and the fact that he professes to care for her, despite what happened with Anna. I just do not understand how her trust can be so easily won when Lily is so hardheaded otherwise. Anyone can claim to be different. Trust has to be earned, and I don't believe Julian earned it, and I look down upon Lily for going against her typically distrustful nature for the sake of someone whose entire Fallen race has been shown to be deceitful. Not to mention her involvement with Julian has caused her to become the suspect herself. Lily would risk her reputation, she would risk her friends, her comrades, fellows-in-arms at the Sanctuary, who took her in when her mother died, for a guy she barely knows? Lily knows what she's doing is wrong, and yet---does it anyway. She didn’t have Julian—she couldn’t have Julian. It wasn’t like he was another Nephilim or even a human—a human would have been better choice.To be fair, Lily does have her moments of awesomeness, such as this one particular scene: Lily sighed wearily. This wasn’t going as planned. “Michael, sit down. Luke, shut up.” It was a sad day for Nephilim around the world when she played mediator. “If you guys want to pull out your dicks and see whose is bigger, can you go ahead and do it so we can move on?”The Romance: Just unbelievable, we have a hundreds-of-year old ANGEL, for fuck's sake. A Fallen angel, but still, an Angel, and out of fucking nowhere he swoops in and saves Lily and then pretty much stalks her and teases her and taunts her like a sadist, and manipulates her sexual emotions for years, and then falls for the girl for no fucking reason? Well, color me incredulous. Overall: a fast read, but not a good one. It needs more plot, less Lily, and less sex. ...more |
Notes are private!
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1
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Nov 22, 2013
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Nov 23, 2013
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Sep 19, 2013
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Kindle Edition
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| 1416989412
| 9781416989417
| 1416989412
| 3.92
| 712,969
| Oct 13, 2009
| Oct 13, 2009
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None
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Notes are private!
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1
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not set
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not set
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Aug 16, 2013
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Hardcover
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| 1922079928
| 9781922079923
| 1922079928
| 4.17
| 5,278
| May 22, 2013
| May 22, 2013
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None
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Notes are private!
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0
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not set
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not set
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Jun 13, 2013
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Paperback
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| 0991789741
| 9780991789740
| 0991789741
| 3.74
| 269
| Jun 11, 2013
| Jun 11, 2013
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None
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not set
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Jun 13, 2013
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Paperback
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| 1921921404
| 9781921921407
| 3.96
| 8,152
| Jun 01, 2012
| Jun 2012
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really liked it
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Actual rating: 3.5/5 For being the offspring of angels, the Rephaim sure are a bunch of asshats. This is one of the rare books for me where the writing Actual rating: 3.5/5 For being the offspring of angels, the Rephaim sure are a bunch of asshats. This is one of the rare books for me where the writing is great, the plot is free of holes and the mythology well-explained, yet I still ended up despising almost every single character. Essentially, I have no complaints about this book except for the fact that I started up disliking and ended up absolutely hating and distrusting almost every single male in this book. I am by no means a prude, but I avoid reading New Adult books because I know what pisses me off, and I will intentionally avoid that which will likely give me a headache. More often than not in New Adult, there's too much emotionless sex, there's too much gratuitous swearing, there's a lot of physical or emotional abuse, and there's a lot of alpha males who are complete assholes; luckily for me, only the latter applied to this book. I ended up enjoying Shadows a lot more than I expected, despite the presence of the omnipresent and aforementioned asshats. After having lived so long on this earth, one would think that these children of fallen angels would have developed some iotas of common sense. Nope, not here. They're dangerously precarious, notoriously short-tempered, and lacking in wisdom and maturity. They've got some serious power, and no sense of restraint. It's like giving a bunch of little kids playing cops and robber some real AK-47s. Out of all the male Rephaites I met in this book, two of whom are the main character's love interest/former love interest, I can only say one positive thing about Rafa versus Daniel: he's less abusive. Still immature, but less abusive. "He's nearly a hundred and forty but not too old to sulk." A glowing recommendation, for sure. Haven't these Rephaims ever heard of the idiom "You catch more flies with honey?" Apparently not. Surely beating the living crap out of a poor Rephaite who's completely lost her memory, trying to drown her, and siccing a demon-hellion on her must be more helpful than just being nice to her and earning her trust. Stockholm syndrome works, but I'm not sure if this is the way to go about doing it. And the gangleader of all this? The gentleman who's siccing his little army of sycophants on poor Gaby? None other than her former lover, who might still love her but is showing it in a really strange way. And by strange, I mean drugging. I really liked Gaby's character. She's obviously mourning for her brother, but while her grief is a crippling pain, she doesn't let her life get ruled by it. She makes an active effort to move on after Jude's death, and throughout the book, she shows a similar sense of strength and fortitude of will, despite all the overwhelming things that have descended upon her and despite the fact that her entire life or what she knows and remembers of it might have been a well-crafted lie. Gaby has a healthy sense of skepticism but she is openminded. She is receptive towards accepting things that have no explanation, and is not so stubborn that she is completely in denial of what's going on, even if what's happening is far beyond the stretch of the ordinary imagination. Still, Gaby doesn't hesitate to call out Rafa or Daniel on their bullshit when she sees it. The mythology is really well-done. Gaby is a great narrator in that she lets information be given to her and questions the things told to her in such a way that it never feels like the mythology is retold staccato or that information is spoon-fed to the reader. Gaby, again, questions things. She has a healthy sense of disbelief, and this works out so well in the context of learning about the angels and their offspring, so that in a sense, our skepticism towards the plot gradually fades as she becomes grudgingly resigned to her past. Rafa and Daniel frustrated me so much. I found Rafa to be agonizingly patronizing towards Gaby. He's possessive, he withholds information, and gets upset when she doesn't listen to his vague instructions: "His voice flattens. '...If you’d listened to me---' 'Listened to you about what?' The anger comes easily. 'You've kept me blundering around in the dark, and don't act like you haven’t been enjoying yourself...having fun at my expense.'" I found very little tenderness and credibility in Rafa and Gaby's relationship. It's just pure attraction (he's hot, they're all hot) coupled with the fact that she's grieving and "it was a bit easier because he’s grieving too." Still, Rafa is a gentleman and a prize compared to our Daniel. He's an abuser and a torturer under the guise of good. Daniel's excuse for his treatment of Gaby? "'Gabe, this is not the way I wanted to do this. But whoever did this to you left us with no choice.' 'Of course there's a choice---you could choose not to hurt me! You could accept my memories are gone. Whatever I may or may not have known about your precious Fallen no longer exists.'" Ugh ugh ugh. And his lackeys...what a bunch of witless drones. There is a phrase used in the book to describe the mindless idiocy of the demon spawned hellions that I think actually fits really well with the majority of the Rephaim: "they’ve got the vocabulary of a warthog and the brain function of a slug." I will be reading the next book because I am truly curious as to what will happen next, despite my dislike of the guys in this first installment. Thanks to Stacia and Ash for the recommendation and the buddy read! I received a copy of this book for review from Netgalley. ...more |
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1
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Jul 09, 2013
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Jul 10, 2013
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Jun 10, 2013
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ebook
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| 1483976920
| 9781483976921
| 1483976920
| 3.76
| 105
| Apr 24, 2013
| Apr 27, 2013
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None
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not set
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not set
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Jun 07, 2013
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Paperback
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| 0765317974
| 9780765317971
| 0765317974
| 4.06
| 2,013
| Feb 2009
| Feb 03, 2009
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it was amazing
| "We must not let the other family have such power over the future. We must make those children ours.” "We must not let the other family have such power over the future. We must make those children ours.”This book is epic in every sense of the word. I am pleased that upon a second reading, it was just as good as I had remembered. It's got: Terrifyingly intelligent, yet spectacularly dorky and awkward 15-year old main characters An awesome, complex relationship between twin siblings Terrifyingly dangerous familial relationships where your beloved cousin might be plotting to kill you and eat your siblings A battle between An interesting spin on demonic mythology A series of tests, in the form of trials and temptations And the cherry on the cupcake...refreshingly little romance Sometimes a book just clicks. This book was just what I needed to refresh my mind in between the terrible books that seem to enjoy bombarding itself at me. The Summary: Eliot Post and his sister, Fiona, would be fifteen tomorrow and nothing interesting had ever happened to them.Eliot and Fiona are the most socially stunted 15-year old twins in the entire world. And it's all thanks to their grandmother. They are orphans, parents mysteriously dead, oh, somewhere, somehow. The only family they've got now is a terrifying grandmother who is more military commander than cuddly old cookie-baking grandma. It was Grandmother always. It was never Audrey or Gram, or any other pet name like they used with Cecilia. Not that it was forbidden, but Grandmother was the only thing they ever thought to call her. It was the only title that carried the authority her presence demanded.And a cookie-baking great-grandma who seriously can't cook anything for shit. They've been home-schooled their entire lives. Their lives are dominated by rules, ranging from NO LISTENING TO MUSIC to NO READING BOOKS DEALING WITH MAGIC. Seriously, their grandmother has a fucking list of rules for them. They've been forced to work hard their entire lives, there's no easy ride for them. From cleaning the apartment unit when they were young, to working their asses off doing menial labor in a horrible pizza shop, Eliot and Fiona's life can only be described as miserable. They can't even have candy. Even a half-eaten piece of chocolate, found in the trash, is considered a special treat. They wear homemade clothes (ugly ones). They never, ever go out. They have no friends but each other. He and Fiona might as well have been corked inside a bottle, sailing nowhere on a tiny balsa-wood ship.But all is not as it seems. Eliot and Fiona...surprisingly...caught someone's attention. Someone who recognizes their potential, through the altogether normal appearance. Yes, the boy’s eyes, the slender but strong bridge of the girl’s nose, the high cheekbones and arching brows on both. How could she have missed it? Whoever had camouflaged them had done a masterful job: they had transformed divine into dull.And with that, the dam bursts. No shit, they're not who they seem. Neither is their grandmother. They have a newfound extended family they know nothing about. A family that's all sort of magical, but not altogether friendly. Eliot and Fiona might get killed just for being born. Unless they pass The Test. “Let the record show,” Aunt Lucia declared, “that we shall test the children’s potentials with three heroic trials. This will illuminate their characters and determine their lineage. It will prove their possible worth to remain alive.”But that's not the only family they have to be concerned about. As bad as these relatives seem...there's the other side of the family...a side that may be even worse. Meanwhile she had to prepare for the gathering of the Board. There were weapons to sharpen and armor to mend. Eliot and Fiona will fight for their lives. They will face tests, temptations. Crocodiles and chocolates. Yes, you read that correctly. They will face attempts at seduction, they will discover powers they never knew they had. Challenges abound. They will learn that there is so much more to them and their families than they ever knew. Will they conquer their challenges? Will they fall? Will they succumb to the light? Ok, the slightly shadowy...or will they fall to the darkness? Above all else...they have to trust each other. They have to stick together. She gently pushed them away. Tears were in her old eyes. “Be brave,” she whispered. “Do no let them separate you. You are stronger together.”Together, they are strong. May the best side win. The Families: Eliot stared into the darkness and wondered about his father’s side of the family. Why was no one talking about them? Uncle Henry, Aunt Lucia, and possibly Grandmother had murdered. Could the other family be somehow … worse?This book takes a number of mythologies and gave it an exceedingly interesting spin. There are demonic creatures from Christian mythology and other legends who come to life...and who become other characters here. It is half the fun guessing who the characters are. From the "dark" side, we have characters like the seductress Seeliah, the deadly beauty with a secret soft side, a fighter and a queen in her own rights. On the "good" side, we have characters like the beautiful, deadly Lucia. The charming and conniving Henry Mimes. Good and bad are all relative here, no pun intended, because good or bad, each side is out for their own best interest, and no game is too dirty to play. With families like these...who needs enemies? Familial love: I absolutely love the portrayal of complex family relationships in this book. It is a battlefield, but above all else, there is loyalty. One may want to kill one's sister at times...but blood ties stand above all. It is a rather "Mafia"-like relationship. You wouldn't ever want to turn your back on a relative...but when it counts, you know they've got your back. Sibling Love: Fiona might have tried to drive him crazy, dreamed up the worst insults in the world to throw at him, but she’d never in a million years have snitched on him....Slash hate. I absolutely love Eliot and Fiona's relationships. They have only ever had each other. They have never had friends. They don't always get along...in fact, they hardly ever get along...but they're fiercely loyal to each other because of that fact. When you have lived your entire life a step up from abject misery, forbidden to have friends, forbidden to go to school, to be with your peers...you feel closest to the one who knows what you're going through. They have an...interesting relationship. There is a considerable and constant amount of rivalry with each other, academically. There's seriously NOTHING else they can do to keep themselves entertained but to fight with each other. They compete by playing word games...seeing who can best insult each other using the most obscure words. Hey, we all have to get our fun somewhere. As much as they claim to hate each other, Eliot and Fiona know they can rely on each other. Fiona is fiercely protective of her brother. An image of Eliot, beaten and bloodied, flashed through her imagination—and her only thought was to protect him.Eliot, in turn, knows to be there for his sister when she needs him most, even if she seemingly doesn't want him there. They have an unspoken YOU ARE SO GROSS I HATE YOU DON'T EVER TOUCH ME pact. A pact that is broken when they need each other most. She grabbed Eliot’s hand.I absolutely adore a good sibling relationship, and they don't come any better than this book, but that's not to say the twins themselves aren't excellent characters, alone. Fiona: She wanted to be Fiona Post … whatever that was … shy and awkward … scared … but herself.The older twin, the wiser, more cynical twin. The warrior to her brother's poetic soul. Fiona is awkward, unsure of herself, wishing, like most teenaged girls often do, that she could be stronger, more confident, more beautiful. Fiona would have given anything to be as confident. Every time she had to talk to strangers, her heart pounded so hard she could barely hear her own mouse voice as it tried to squeak out something clever.Throughout the book, we see her bloom. From a shy, stammering girl afraid of everything to a warrior goddess who stands up to challenges, who is capable of killing when she needs to, who finds strength to stand up against the most powerful of temptations. What I love about Fiona is that she is not perfect. That she is bitchy on occasion, but she has a tremendous amount of loyalty and love for her brother and her family. That is a main character I can stand behind. Eliot: “I’m here,” he whispered. “I’ll always be here for you.”The gentle, soft poet. The musician who doesn't know what he's capable of. He is more compassionate than Fiona, weaker than Fiona, but at the same time, stubborn and strong in his own way. He, too, grows from a spineless boy who's all-too-conscious of being smaller, weaker than his twin, into someone who finds strength and power in a skill he never knew he had. This is one of my all-time favorite book. It is a long book, but I assure you, it's so worth the time investment. ...more |
Notes are private!
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1
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Jul 24, 2014
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Jul 31, 2014
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Jun 03, 2013
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Paperback
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| 4.15
| 104,924
| Nov 21, 2013
| Nov 21, 2013
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really liked it
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*no spoilers* Was that you, Pooky Bear?There are a lot of themes of good vs. bad, the nature of evil, the length of which man will go to su *no spoilers* Was that you, Pooky Bear?There are a lot of themes of good vs. bad, the nature of evil, the length of which man will go to survive. As far as I'm concerned, the only message in this book that mattered is: you do NOT fuck with my sister, because I will hunt you down and I will make you pay. I understand it, and I admire Penryn for it. I have a baby sister, I love her. We are the same age apart as Penryn and Paige. [image] ...aaaand some years after. [image] It hasn't always been smooth sailing, but I will do everything I can to make damn sure she has a happy life. Nobody hurts my baby sister. A good sibling vengeance story will get me every time. I loved it in the Fever series, and I love it in this book. I really enjoyed this book...with some reservations. This is one of the situations where I find myself to be the odd man out. I think every single one of my friend loved the first book in this series, whereas I enjoyed the originality of the first book, but was largely indifferent to it. However, I'm happy to find that I liked this book a lot more than the first. Don't get me wrong, there was absolutely nothing I disliked about this book. Penryn is a strong female character, with a tremendous sense of morality and loyalty to her family and friends that I admire, and the romance was well done in that it developed over time and was not the focus of the book. I had some problems with the plot, particularly towards the second half of the book, but overall, I think my reaction to the book is just one of chemistry. That's right, chemistry. It happens with people, and apparently, it happens with books and the characters within. In life, you meet a lot of people. Some, you like, for no fucking reason. Some, you hate on the spot, despite the fact that they are perfectly pleasant, perfectly nice, completely inoffensive whatsoever, and yet, try as you might...there's just something lacking that prevents you from completely liking, from completely enjoying that person's company. For me, the Angelfall series is a perfect example of chemistry gone wrong. This book has pretty much everything I could ever want, action, a light romance, awesome characters, horror, death, blood. SO MUCH BLOOD. And yet...like, not love. What can I say? It's just chemistry. I'm starting to sound like I don't like this book. That's not true! I liked it a lot. I just find myself largely indifferent to the characters; that is a matter purely of personal taste, and not a reflection on the book itself. I truly did enjoy this book. Summary: I didn't remember much from the first book. I didn't need to. This book summarizes the ending of the previous book well enough so that I didn't have any trouble being reimmersed into the World After. We are back in the Silicon Valley and it it a fucking (glorious) mess. This is what I loved. This is what I wanted. This is what I didn't get much of from the first book. People are scared, hungry, in hiding. They're forming into groups, gangs, because you can't survive alone, not in a world like this. Penryn, broken Paige, and their schizophrenic mother have just escaped the aerie, and are with the Resistance, planning to slowly retake their world from the destructive Angels. Penryn has no idea where Raffe is. All she gets is flashes of his thoughts and dreams, projected by the sword he has left her. Raffe is so tantalizingly close, yet so far away. It's a tough life made tougher when Paide, Penryn's broken sister gets kidnapped. Penryn will do anything to get her back. The Plot & Setting: A lot better this time around. Things just made more sense, and there is more of what I wanted to see. Call me morbid, but I love reading about a broken world. It's what drew me into post-apocalyptic fiction, and dystopian fiction. It's what hooked me in The Walking Dead, and I felt that this book delivered that scenario so much more than the previous one. We get to see more of the remnants of society as they cower in fear and try to raise a meager resistance. We get to see people imprisoned, starving, willing to go to the extent of cannibalism because they are so desperate for sustence. It is a gripping setting and scenario, it's not overly detailed on a grander scale, since Penryn only knows what she sees, so it is fine with me. This book moves fast. There is too much action at times, for me, because I'm the sort of person who needs a moment of quiet and introspection amidst all the chaos. I still HATE the concept of the Aerie. The thought of angels getting into frat boy parties and swigging champagne and chilling with gorgeous "daughters of men," was absurd to me in the previous book, and it remains completely stupid to me in this book. I liked the fact that this book did not feel the need to force Penryn and Raffe together unnecessarily. It shows that Penryn is independent, it shows that she is capable of survival without Raffe, however foolhardy her actions are, at times. And it makes the eventual reappeance of Raffe so much better, when it finally happens. It felt like taking a deep breath after holding it in for so long. I look up to say something but he puts his finger to my lips and whispers, “Don’t talk. You’ll just spoil my fantasy of rescuing an innocent damsel in distress as soon as you open your mouth.”^____________^ The Characters: I liked most of them. I really enjoyed Penryn's character, she is strong, she means well, but she is imperfect, and so very human. Penryn makes foolish decisions, she makes mistakes, and she realizes those mistakes. I liked that about her. Penryn knows all too well that no matter how good your intentions, no matter how bravely you try to act, no matter how much of a hero you try to me, shit can always go wrong. I feel sick.I liked the other characters in the book, and how well they were portrayed. They don't appear for too long, but the twins, Dum and Dee greatly reminded me of Poison Study's Ari and and Janco, the "Power Twins." Dum and Dee are strong, tough guys, who often act exaggeratedly silly, and they inject just the right amount of humor into a serious book. I find myself altogether fascinated and horrified by Paige and Penryn's intrepid, unstoppable, and completely insane mother. She is truly bulletproof, and I can only shake my head, aghast, at her actions throughout the story. The Romance: Penryn is not altogether strong, she has her moments of weakness. She aches, thinking about Raffe but there are better things to think about. Priorities, Penryn has them! Penryn allows herself a few moments of wanting him and missing him, but really, it's the end of the world, and she ain't got no time for romance when her SISTER's missing. I’m dying to know what he felt during our kiss.I felt the romance was very well done; it was light, it was believable, and I love the fact that Ms. Ee has the courage to not force Penryn and Raffe together unbelievably and unnecessarily. Altogether, a really good book, with likeable characters, in an interesting setting. You want your kick-ass heroine, you got your kick-ass heroine. ...more |
Notes are private!
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1
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Nov 19, 2013
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Nov 20, 2013
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May 29, 2013
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Paperback
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| 1626810613
| 9781626810617
| 1626810613
| 3.61
| 2,229
| May 16, 2013
| Jun 04, 2013
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None
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Notes are private!
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1
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Jun 13, 2013
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Aug 17, 2013
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May 11, 2013
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ebook
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| 0983157200
| 9780983157205
| 0983157200
| 4.09
| 106,956
| Oct 18, 2011
| Oct 18, 2011
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liked it
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I might have rated this book higher had I read this before Richelle Mead's Vampire Academy series. As it stands, the characters and the plot all feels
I might have rated this book higher had I read this before Richelle Mead's Vampire Academy series. As it stands, the characters and the plot all feels like a very watered down version of VA. I couldn't help comparing one character to the next, and they all felt lacking. The premise is slightly different, but the boarding school setting, the reviled and necessary half-bloods, the evil daimons/strigoi, all felt rehashed, and not in a good way. Alex is Rose, without the spunk, with more slut-shaming (does she really need to repeatedly call her nemesis Lea a skank? Is it necessary to mention that Lea is probably promiscuous?). Her actions are more impulsive than rational. While Rose is literally, kick-ass, Alex is relatively weak, and her wins versus the daimons seemed more coincidental than from purely skill. Like Rose, Alex has been on the run for awhile, but it feels like she lacks the common sense to survive on her own. While Rose is spunky and impulsive, she has the good sense to keep it under control when it matters most, whereas Alex just feels the need to be contrary just for the sake of pissing people off, even when she is endangering her whole future. When your options are entering in a lifelong sentence of mindless servitude or being a more or less respected Sentinel, any person with common sense would try to behave and not get into further trouble. Not Alex. She is smart-mouthed and just a jerk in general, even admitting it herself. There is the love interest, Aiden, a watered-down version of Dimitri. Caleb, the lesser version of Christian. The almighty Seth is the only one of whom I can't find a clear-cut double in Vampire Academy, but he's not altogether likeable yet. It seems as if all of Alex's companions and closer friends are male. I'm really smelling a Mary Sue here, but I'll continue on with the series to see if that's the case. I do like the incorporation of mythology. Whereas in some other series I've read like Mythos Academy, the living gods and goddesses do not get involved in the characters of their creation, whereas here they actually do take a part in monitoring their descendants. I enjoy the bits of lore, and I hope that will be fleshed out in the books to come. ...more |
Notes are private!
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1
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May 06, 2013
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May 12, 2013
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May 06, 2013
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Paperback
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| 0385743114
| 9780385743112
| 0385743114
| 3.76
| 4,900
| May 14, 2013
| May 14, 2013
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really liked it
|
Without a doubt, this is one of the most creative spins in YA paranormal that I've read lately. But then again, I've been smacked in the face with a g
Without a doubt, this is one of the most creative spins in YA paranormal that I've read lately. But then again, I've been smacked in the face with a glut of angels, fairies, vampires, and werewolves, so anything well-written outside of those oh-so-familiar territory is bound to be a Big Effing Deal. So this was what a nightmare looked like by the light of day. The setting is also one not typically seen in YA; turn-of-the-century (1899) Paris. Our main heroine, the 17-year old Ingrid, her 15-year old sister, Gabriella, and their mother are newly arrived to a crumbling, decaying abbey that is to be their new home, while their mother indulges in her much longed-for hobby of opening her own art gallery. Ingrid's twin brother Grayson was charged with helping with the location of such a place, and has spent awhile in Paris. There's just one problem...he's disappeared. Ingrid and Gabby spends the rest of the book hunting down their lost brother, while encountering all sorts of mysterious creatures and events on their relentless quest. The setting is beautifully described, and the writing well-done. I felt all the action scenes were superbly described, and the mystery surrounding everything unfolded in a rational manner, in a way that never bored me, even if the plot and the mythology surrounding the book is something new. And it is something new. When reading a book about werewolves, vampires, or fairies, the reader automatically assumes and expects them to behave a certain way because the legend and mythology surrounding these creatures are so well-known to us. We expect vampires to drink blood, we expect Mab and Titania, Oberon and the Wild Hunt in a story with fae. But here we are introduced to gargoyles, and new sects and terminology that requires new explanations: Dusters, the Alliance, the Dispossessed, the Angelic Order, hellhounds, the Underneath. That's a lot of mythology, a lot of terminology, but it never gets confusing because the author does such an excellent job of incorporating every element to us, in a way that the reader never feels patronized or that they're being not-so-subtly informed. It is never outright told, but everything is eventually explained in a gradual manner, so that the reader does not feel like wringing their wrist or ripping out their hair because they don't know what the bloody hell is going on. The gargoyle mythology is well-developed and so interesting, I love learning about them, that they're bound to protect a household where a statue exists. I can't overemphasize the fact that I was never confused or lost. In so many stories, the built-up setting is sometimes contradictory, sometimes confusing, and the action scenes just leave me completely lost. I was always engrossed in the story while reading this book. The setting is well-done, beautifully described, but never overshadows the story. This Paris has a very Gothic feel, with decaying buildings, ancient abbeys, underground tunnels, and dirty Parisian streets. It never feels overdone, and enhances the overall feel of the mystery. The characters were well-written, and out of the main cast, there was only one who rubbed me the wrong way. Ingrid is an excellent heroine, she is devoted to her brother, headstrong but not stupid, intelligent and unafraid. I found her sister Gabby to be more grating and multidimensional. Gabby, unlike Ingrid, is fiery and very often makes stupid decisions, but that could be explained by her age, although I found it pushes the borders of credibility that she is given so much freedom at her age and at this time. Gabby is hypocritical and contradictory at times, she doesn't blink at the thought of visiting a waiter she met once for information at his room, but hesitates when it comes to trusting people who have saved her life repeatedly. She constantly flaunts the borders of propriety, like dressing up like a bordello girl to visit a waiter at his home for information... Her sister’s eyebrows would have leaped clear off her forehead had she seen the dress Gabby had changed into: an evening gown of profane red satin with a black lace overlay and a plunging, black lace–trimmed neckline that accentuated her rather voluptuous décolletage. The gown wasn’t appropriate for a girl just shy of sixteen to wear in midafternoon. But then again, a visit to Henri’s flat wasn’t appropriate, either. ...then acts like a prude when it comes to visiting a known Alliance member when he invites her to step into his bedroom for conversation. She is flighty, contradictory, and endangers herself more than once. Nevertheless, Gabby is overall a believable character, despite of---or maybe because of her flaws. Gabby knew the truth of it. She was pampered. She was most definitely privileged. But if there was one thing she was not, it was a damsel in need of rescuing. Gabby's love interest is the dislikeable character of whom I speak. Nolan is a jerk, overbearing, patronizing, and uninteresting. I can't see the attraction. He is also considerably older than her 15 years. Nolan tugged Gabby against him and smothered her protest with a kiss. His lips moved tentatively over her mouth, hers stunned and graceless, her hands clenched into fists against his chest. Um, a 15 year old girl? Pedophile much? I also had a small problem with Grayson, Ingrid's brother. I can't help but feel that Ingrid is more than he deserves. She is the best sister, ever (spoken by me, who is the worst sister ever), She is absolutely persistent on finding Grayson. Their connection is so strong, she loves him so absolutely, and from what we know of Grayson, it doesn't feel like he is worthy of such devotion. The story is told in omniscient view, which I love. We get to see things from Luc, Ingrid, Gabby, and Grayson's point of view. While the rest of the cast doesn't know what happened to Grayson, we do. The reader knows what Grayson is experiencing, even if it doesn't make much sense at first without the explanation, but we know what Grayson is feeling and experiencing. While Ingrid is worrying herself sick and endangering herself to find out what happened to her beloved brother, Grayson never gives her a single thought. There is a love triangle within the story, but it is not an overwhelming one. The romance, if any exists, is mainly between Luc and Ingrid. If I haven't written much about them, it is not because they're uninteresting in any way, but their characters are complex and the story unique, and I feel these the main characters should be discovered by the reading of the book and not through a review. ...more |
Notes are private!
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1
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May 15, 2013
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May 18, 2013
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May 02, 2013
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Hardcover
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| 0385738935
| 9780385738934
| 0385738935
| 3.72
| 592,256
| Dec 08, 2009
| Dec 08, 2009
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did not like it
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None
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Notes are private!
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1
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not set
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not set
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Apr 27, 2013
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Hardcover
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| 144477851X
| 9781444778519
| 144477851X
| 4.11
| 192,681
| May 21, 2011
| May 23, 2013
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liked it
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It's an interesting twist to the angel genre. Angelfall isn't the best book about angels that I've read, but it has restored my faith (har har) in the
It's an interesting twist to the angel genre. Angelfall isn't the best book about angels that I've read, but it has restored my faith (har har) in the genre. The first half of the book probably garners a 4-4.5 stars, the second half a 2, so my rating is an average. In some ways, it's frustrating, because I enjoyed the first part of the book so much, the ending, as action-packed as it was, felt out of place and contrived. I've got to give props to this book for: 1. Creativity. Evil, destructive angels out to destroy the earth? Sign me up. Wait a minute, shouldn't they be called demons then? What's the difference between evil angels and demons anyway? I'll let the author have her prerogative on that one. 2. Kick-ass heroine. Penryn ranks up there on my list of favorite YA heroine with Julie Kagawa's Alison Sekemoto. Both heroines can and do take care of themselves and their loved ones. Both can literally kick some serious ass, Alison through her experience living on her own, Penryn through her self-defense classes, and a lifetime of dealing with a paranoid schizophrenic mom has left her a little more prepped than most when expecting the unexpected. Did I cheer when she kicked Boden's ass? You bet I did. 3. Raphael. An angel who's neither an asshole nor a stalker? Get out of here. And with an actual angel name? (Patch? *cough cough*, Patch Adams, more like). Yes, please. I can't help but think that the book could have had so much more potential had it gone off a different direction. I really did not enjoy the second half nor the ending at all. I wish they had stuck to the plot of rescuing Paige, but without the whole angels-keeping-a-harem-in-a-club and human centipede children part. The book totally lost me when it devolved into horror-movie-cum-science-fiction. ...more |
Notes are private!
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1
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Apr 27, 2013
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Apr 27, 2013
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Apr 27, 2013
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Paperback
| ||||||||||||||
| 0312656289
| 9780312656287
| 0312656289
| 3.87
| 18,868
| Aug 21, 2012
| Aug 21, 2012
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did not like it
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None
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Notes are private!
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1
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not set
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not set
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Apr 23, 2013
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Hardcover
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| 0312656262
| 9780312656263
| 0312656262
| 3.67
| 69,632
| Jan 08, 2010
| Aug 31, 2010
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did not like it
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None
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Notes are private!
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1
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not set
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not set
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Apr 23, 2013
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Hardcover
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| 1595143394
| 9781595143396
| 1595143394
| 3.81
| 7,548
| Nov 14, 2011
| Nov 14, 2011
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really liked it
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None
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Notes are private!
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1
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not set
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not set
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Apr 23, 2013
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Hardcover
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