ARC Review: Ironskin by Tina Connolly

Title: Ironskin (Ironskin, #1) 

Author: Tina Connolly 

Rating: 2.5 Stars 

Release Date: October 2nd, 2012

I’ll be the first to admit that I had expectations for this book - high expectations. Yet, the reason they weren’t met doesn’t lie with the fault of this book entirely. I feel as if many other readers will truly love Ironskin, and they should. It has a lot to love, but somehow, it wasn’t the right book for me. For one, Ironskin is a based quite loosely off of the story of Jane Eyre, a classic by Charlotte Bronte that happens to be one of my favorite novels ever. Thus, there was quite a bit of comparisons I couldn’t help but make with it and consequently, I found that Ironskin simply didn’t live up to the literary masterpiece that Jane Eyre was and frankly speaking, I don’t blame it. It is a near impossible task to challenge the work of an author such as Charlotte Bronte and while I admire Connolly for her creativity and attempts at distinguishing her gothic romance from that of Bronte’s, I think avid Jane Eyre fans will be disappointed.

First and foremost, I must give credit where credit is due. I loved the world-building ideas that Connolly created surrounding Ironskin, - a world where war with the fey had cursed many war victims, leaving them with no option but to wear an iron mask, covering their curses and preventing them from spreading to other victims. Furthermore, I admired the fact that Jane, our protagonist, was a survivor and remained strong despite her constant estrangement from society due to the iron mask that adorned her face. In addition, I even enjoyed how thoroughly Connolly immersed us into her world, bringing forth cultural sayings and superstitions surrounding the fey. Yet, for all these wonderful concepts, I was still quite unable to completely grasp many aspects of this universe and was left with many questions by the end of the novel. In fact, I am still unsure of exactly how the Great War between man and fey began, why the fey withdrew from it so mysteriously, and exactly what purpose it served to the story either than the obvious conclusion of needing a reason for Jane to become an Ironskin.

That being said, I did appreciate Connolly’s efforts to distinguish her story from Jane Eyre. Jane, the protagonist of Ironskin, is very similar to Jane Eyre herself, yet while Jane’s governess duties are not an extremely important part of the plot, they are here. Dorie, Jane’s charge, is a young girl whose mother was cursed by the fey and as a result, she possesses a few fey abilities herself. Thus, Jane must help the girl while simultaneously figuring out the enigma that is her employer, Mr. Rochart. Yet, while Jane is an acceptable character and the secondary characters in the house she resides are quite amusing, as well as Dorie herself, Mr. Rochart fails quite miserably to live up to the Mr. Rochester of Bronte’s novel. Not only is the romance between Jane and Edward Rochart vastly under-developed in my opinion, Rochart himself is portrayed as more of a confusing madman than Rochester ever was. Furthermore, I didn’t think that Rochart’s “big secret” was as much of a surprise as Rochester’s was and it most definitely did not have the desired effect on neither his character nor the plot itself. Thus, I found myself to be rather disappointed as the novel progressed and wondered both why Jane loved Rochart and how Rochart could love Jane when he spent so little time with her.

Leaving those qualms aside, I found some areas of this narration to be rather slow and didn’t particularly like the direction the novel took towards the end. In addition, I felt as if Jane had too many light-bulb moments that both seemed unrealistic and ruined the pacing of the story as it suddenly made events happen too fast. Furthermore, but the end of this story, I was unable to find a purpose to it. It is clear from the synopsis itself that beauty and appearance in a large factor to this tale and while I was enjoying the developing message of true beauty that I believed to be emerging, some of the events during the end of this story quickly tossed aside that theme and left the novel hanging, not only on a cliffhanger ending, but also in a state of confusion and I could not figure out the point the story had been trying to make in the least. It felt, ultimately, as if the parts emphasizing Jane’s strength in relying on her character opposed to her beauty to get ahead in life were simply crushed and the already unconvincing romance between Jane and Rochart lost me that much more, so I found that all to be extremely disappointing.

Nevertheless, there were still distinguishing aspects of Ironskin. I’ve already mentioned the originality of this tale, but I also enjoyed the comparisons between Jane’s life and that of society during that time, so while this novel didn’t have the political scheme I was hoping for from The Great War, it did have social politics mixed in, which nicely added to the culture of the setting. In addition, I thought the relationship between Jane and Dorie was extremely well written and developed and I particularly loved reading about Jane and her wealthy sister and how they compared their lives and hardships. It enabled the reader to see both sides of the multiple situations during their time period and was another convincing relationship.

Yet, for all its originality, Ironskin simply failed to live up to my expectations. I believe that other readers will immensely enjoy this gothic tale and most probably will not experience the difficulties I did, unless, of course, they are avid Jane Eyre fans, which is why I would still recommend this one. However, if you love Jane Eyre, you will be prone to comparing this story with the classic it has been built upon and, like me, will most likely have your hopes crushed. Thus, while Ironskin remains to be an intriguing novel on its own, it is, by no means, a novel for me.

Thank you to NetGalley and Tor/Forge Books for providing me with a copy of this book in exchange for a honest review.  

ARC Review: Crewel by Gennifer Albin

Title: Crewel (Crewel World, #1) 

Author: Gennifer Albin 

Rating: 2.5 Stars 

Release Date: October 16th, 2012

I think we’re all familiar with the saying, “It’s not you, it’s me!” and while I would love to claim that my disappointed feelings concerning this book stem from me, and not the book itself, I honestly don’t think I can. Yes, my unusually prolific knowledge on dystopian and science-fiction novels definitely played a role in my lack of amazement at the so-called creativity of this novel and that same understanding enabled me to predict the ending of this novel far before the half-way mark of this book was even reached, but overall, I really do think it’s the book as well, not just me. Yet, then again, with my reputation of being a black sheep, you could just say this book wasn’t for me, but who knows? Ultimately, the point is that Crewel was a disappointing read with a lot of potential which failed to live up to the immense amount of hype surrounding it.

Adelice lives in Arras, a world where unmarried women with weaving talents, known as Spinsters, can control time and matter. Ever since she was young, Adelice has discovered that she has this power as well, but she has struggled to keep it suppressed due to her parent's fear of Adelice becoming separated from her family and taken away to the lone towers where the Spinsters live their lives. On the day of testing, however, Adelice fails to fail and when The Guild, the totalitarian government which controls every aspect of their lives, comes to take her away, her parents force her to run away. Nevertheless, Adelice is soon caught and taken to become a Spinster where she causes as much trouble as she possibly can. Yet, as she will soon find out, there is more to The Guild than what meets the eye and her parents just may have been on to something when they begged her to run away…

Wow, a dystopian novel where women control time? Awesome! Original! Creative! Riiight? Wrong. I’ve heard all those three words used to described this novel, but in reality, Crewel is no different from any other dystopian book. We have our classic government which controls everything, from who you marry to what you study to what you eat and how many children you have. We all know that dystopian novels are about fixing the wrongs on Earth and restoring control, so really, this is nothing new. Furthermore, the whole idea of being able to kill people at mere whim isn’t anything new either! Lois Lowry did it in The Giver, Kurt Vonnegut did it in his short story “2 B R 0 2 B” and I’m sure countless other authors have done it in the past as well. While I’m not denying that Crewel does have an immense amount of originality in its conception – which we see only after the 50% mark of this novel has been passed – for the most part, this story just focuses on a dystopian government like any other. If anything, I found it to be formulaic and extremely typical, which was all rather disappointing.

Speaking of disappointments, I think the characters where what ruined this story for me. On the surface, Adelice is an amazing heroine – she’s a strong protagonist, she’s clever, she’s intelligent, and she sticks up for what she believes in. Yet, like any building, her foundation was off, which only made her overall character topple down as the story progressed. In Crewel, Adelice is credited for running away from The Guild on her own and for being a rebel – a role she quickly assumes without much reason. I think we were supposed to realize that the reason Adelice caused so much trouble was because her parents were killed, but this was hardly mentioned. It felt, to me at any rate, that she lacked true motivation for her actions and was falsely perceived as a rebel throughout the novel when she made it quite clear that she wouldn't have run away if it wasn't for her parents. Thus, the question for much of the novel which begs to be answered is why does Adelice do what she does and cause trouble for herself and for others as a Spinster when she doesn't even know why her parents hated The Guild? We never find out and while Adelice receives plenty of answers later, for the most part, her actions lack logical reasoning. 

In addition to Adelice though, the villains in this story were mediocre at best. If anything, they were predictable, unoriginal, and almost cartoon-like in their anger, misbehavior, and evil deeds. In general, they failed to impress me and didn’t add anything to this novel. Furthermore, they were vastly underdeveloped – much like the love interests in this story as well. Yes, that’s right, love interests, plural. We have, ladies and gentlemen, another love triangle on our hands! While this wasn’t as bad as some I’ve read previously, it was still extremely irritating. Still, I have to admit though that Jost was an extremely developed character and I loved him throughout the story, although I did think the “problem” between him and Adelice was way too easy to see coming. Erik, on the other hand, was as flat as paper and seemed to pine after Adelice for no reason, so that aspect of their romance irritated me. Overall though, the love triangle really could have been worse.

Crewel is one of those novels that had so much potential, but just fell flat. I really loved the manner in which Albin revealed to us that this novel was a dystopian and some of the cruelty she exposed and horrors of the The Guild and the life in Arras were beautifully written, as was the character of Adelice’s mentor. Yet, despite all those good qualities, it still remains that this novel was predictable, contained mostly underdeveloped characters, lacked originality, and had an extremely slow pacing to start with. I feel as if so much of the beginning could have just been cut out and if the second half of this was better edited, it would have been a much better story. Unfortunately, I’m not sure if I’m going to continue with this series. I really do think I can predict most of what will occur in Book Two already, so that definitely does not bode well. If you haven’t read a lot of dystopian or science fiction novels in the past, I think this will blow you away, but if you have, this might just wind up being another typical dystopian story for you. Ultimately though, Crewel joins my pile of extremely disappointing reads – after all the hype, I think I was just expecting more.

Thank you to NetGalley and MacMillan for providing me with a copy of this novel in exchange for a honest review!  

ARC Review: Origin by Jessica Khoury

Title: Origin 

Author: Jessica Khoury 

Rating: 2.5/5 Stars 

Release Date: September 4th, 2012

I feel as if my journey with Origin has been a tough one. For starters, it took me nearly a week to finish, which may not seem very long, but for me it is looong. Not only that, but I was completely baffled and utterly torn over what rating I should ultimately bestow upon it. You see, Origin had a lot to love, but it had, in equal parts if not more, aspects of it which I didn’t enjoy. Unfortunately, I feel as if the negative aspects of this novel trumped the positive ones and I am forced to admit that Origin simply did not live up to the hype and could definitely do with a large dose of character-development, romantic flavor, and all-round editing.

Pia has grown up in Little Cam, an isolated laboratory in the heart of the Amazon Jungle where she has been created to start a new race of immortal beings. Now a teenager, all Pia has ever wanted is to join the Immortis Team and help create a race of immortals so that she won’t be alone. On the night of her seventeenth birthday, however, when a hole appears in the fence separating her compound from the jungle, Pia’s curiosity, newly instilled by the arrival of a lively new scientist, is aroused and she ventures away from her home for the first time. In the jungle, Pia meets Eio, a native of the forest, and as her excursions to visit him increase, so do the mass of swirling questions in her mind about what lies in the world outside. It is then that Pia slowly begins to uncover the deadly secret behind the basis of Little Cam – one that could change her life forever.

I have to admit, I was extremely impressed by the amount of research that Jessica Khoury put into this novel. Not only are her descriptions of the Amazon beautiful, atmospheric, and filled with languid prose, she truly made you feel as if you were there yourself. I love the feeling of becoming immersed within a setting and the exotic – and original – setting of this story has only made me want to go there someday myself. Yet, more than simple research on the habitat where she has placed her characters, Khoury did an enormous amount of research behind the concepts in her novel as well. While immortality remains to be an age-old mystery than mankind has often lusted after, Khoury explains her take on it in a simple and realistic manner, using previous ideals of biology and genetics to make her complex ideas plausible. Yet, despite its authentic premises, the characters and pace of Origin failed to draw me in.

In all honesty, I think I truly appreciated and connected with one – maybe two – characters in this entire tale. I feel as if the entire cast of Origin was vastly underdeveloped and those who did have some development, such as Pia, were distant and difficult to connect with. While I appreciated the ideas behind the character of Pia – a living experiment who had never asked to become a test subject but was forced to live with the results of her experimentation – I was disappointed by the execution of her character. Pia has the potential to be such an interesting character and while some of her thoughts and conversations were very deep, for the most part she is indecisive – constantly going back and forth between Little Cam and Eio in the jungle – and for all the desperation of her situation, is difficult to sympathize with. Furthermore, beyond mere curiosity, beauty, and the intelligence that comes from being immortal, I found it tough to really find who Pia was beneath all the labels she carried. I think Khoury tried to half-heartedly develop her in the second half of this story, throwing in situations that showed us Pia’s moral status, her kindness, and humanity, but it didn’t help me connect with her in the least. Thus, while I liked that we were able to see some of the dangerous affects of immortality through Pia, I still don’t feel as if I truly know her – or even want to actually – which prevented me from really enjoying this tale.

Now, looking back, my connection with Pia was broken in the first few chapters of this novel itself when I found it difficult to believe that Pia, a teenager who has grown up as a scientist and been raised to ask questions, was never curious about the outside world until the arrival of Aunt Harriet, the new scientist who gifts Pia with a map and encourages her to think beyond the walls she has known all her life. If that wasn’t enough to make me jump on the Skeptical Boat, the very fact that Eio was proclaiming his undying loyalty and love to her after just a few scarce meetings, definitely was. Eio, in my opinion, is the least developed of all the characters and while he did have a few interesting conversations with Pia, for the most part his entire character didn’t serve much of a purpose beyond that of a friend. I didn’t care for the romance in this story in the least and Eio is such a weak character than beyond his kindness and naivety, he is easily forgettable. Other forgettable characters include the scientists of Little Cam. While I found them to be deliciously evil, there wasn’t much to them beyond their inherent badness, which I disliked. I wish that the small bout of corporate/scientific politics that was thrown into this tale had been better developed and built around the personalities of the scientists that Pia grew up with, but instead these characters were simply written off as being greedy, corrupt, and power-hungry, which was a mistake as I am sure there is much more to them than just that; yet, we were unfortunately unable to see this side of them.

Origin, while not being a tale I would recommend to others, is, by no means, a bad novel. In fact, many of my most trusted reviewers have given this story high ratings and I am glad that they were able to fall in love with this unique story in a way that I wasn’t. For me, more than the slow pacing and bouts of extreme animal cruelty that tainted the pages of this book, the characters were a deciding factor on my negative rating. I simply did not enjoy reading this and while I was pleasantly surprised by the plot twists at the end, by that time it was simply too late to make me appreciate a story in which I didn’t feel anything for the characters or the difficult situations they found themselves in. As far as debut novels go, Origin is teeming with possibility and promise, but it simply fell flat in my opinion. Yet, I am quite confident that this is a story I will be seeing on many favorites shelves before the year is up. Once again, I seem to be the exception, not the rule, of general hype.

Review: Unearthly by Cynthia Hand

Title: Unearthly (Unearthly, #1) 

Author: Cynthia Hand 

Rating: 2.5 Stars

I just want to let you all know that while I'm writing this, I am also building a fort. Yes, a fort to protect me from all the boulders and bombs that will most likely be thrown my way for highly disliking this novel. It doesn't matter that my fort is made of pillows or that it contains highly flammable books inside it - the point is, I have a fort. Thus, I hope you won't attack me since...well...I have a fort!

Part 1: In Which I "Get It"

I get it. I seriously do. I get why there is so much hype surrounding this novel. I get why you all love it. I really do. Unearthly released during a time when angel novels such as Hush, Hush, Hades, and Fallen were making waves - not all good - in the book community. Thus, in comparison with those novels, Unearthly is truly a masterpiece. But, in my opinion, it's a masterpiece in the same way that Twilight is a masterpiece when compared to Fifty Shades of Grey or Beautiful Disaster. It's much better than the norm, but it isn't that good at the same time.

More about that later - back to why I "get it." First and foremost, Unearthly provides a new and unique take on angel lore. Not only is it a story that doesn't feature a teenage girl falling in love with a fallen angel, it is also a story that doesn't feature insta-love or a true love triangle. Yippee! Clara, the protagonist of our story, is one-fourth of an angel herself. In Hand's novel, angels are given a divine purpose in life that they must fulfill. As they grow into teenagers, they begin to get glimpses or visions of their purpose and must accordingly go about completing them. Thus, when Clara is given a vision of saving a handsome teenage boy from a fire, she and her family take off from California to Wyoming where she meets Christian, the boy of her dreams (literally!).

Now, let me discuss the reasons why this novel really is quite good. First and foremost, I loved Clara's relationship with her mother, who is a half-angel. While I found it to be a little too perfect at some points, it was still nice to see her mother be such an active part of her life. Furthermore, I found that Clara's apprehensions about moving, her difficulty fitting into the social scheme at her new school, and her confusion over whether or not she is meant to get closer to Christian all handled quite realistically. In addition to Christian though, we have Tucker Avery - the annoying twin brother of Clara's best friend, Wendy. Tucker and Clara's relationship took a forefront in the second-half of the novel and I enjoyed how it was never rushed and it grew through conversation and the two spending time with each other.

So, really, there's a lot to love about this book: (1) Original/Unique/New take on angel lore (2) No Missing Parent Syndrome (3) Quite realistic emotions (4) One heart-warming romance that grows through conversation. So, you might ask, what went wrong?

Part 2: In Which I Don't Fall for the Hype

You see, despite having some excellent and interesting points, Unearthly was actually a massive disappointment. I believe that this is primarily due to the order in which I read my angel books --> (1) Hush, Hush (2) Daughter of Smoke and Bone (3) Angelfall (4) Shadows (5) Unearthly <-- Do you see a problem here? No? Well, let me tell you. I read this novel after reading Angelfall and Daughter of Smoke and Bone, two of the best angel novels written. Thus, I didn't have massively low expectations for my next angel novel. Combined with the glowing ratings and hype surrounding this story, I was really expecting something great. I feel as if whenever I go into a story expecting to hate it, I love it, and whenever I go into a novel expecting to love it, I usually hate it. I had a similar experience with this one.

While Unearthly had an original premises which I found fascinating, it was extremely boring for more than half the story. It was like any other contemporary romance with Clara attending high school, fainting when she saw Mr. I-am-SO-hot-Christian, and attempting to get closer to him because she felt a romantic spark between them. Yeah, nothing unique there, huh? I liked how Clara began to learn more about her angel abilities with her angel-blood friend, Angela, but either than that, everything about this story was so typical.

Speaking of Clara, her character simply grated on me. I think this might simply be an issue of personal preference, but Clara was perfect. As in, she is an angel therefore she is literally perfect. Clara was beautiful. Clara had gorgeous hair. Clara could do any sport effortlessly. Clara could charm any guy she wanted. Clara could speak any language she wanted. Clara could do this perfectly. Clara could do that perfectly. Clara was a freaking perfect angel! I get it - I know she's an angel - but it was so silly. Why did Clara need to be perfect? I love flawed characters and while Clara was flawed in the sense that she did rebel against the laws of her angelic society and she found some things hard, for the most part, I was just annoyed with her. Furthermore, I couldn’t connect with her in the least. Clara, you have a problem? Well, guess what? Us, humans? We always have problems, so suck it up! It seems harsh, but I was extremely irritated by this quality of hers. I think it became less problematic as the novel progressed, but it was glaringly obvious – and casted Clara into a petulant light actually – for the first half of the story.

Once the half-way mark of this novel was passed, it began to pick up a little. I liked how Clara refused to be one of those girls who chased after a guy and her developing relationship with Tucker was sweet. I loved Tucker Avery - he is everything you want a guy to be. In fact, I found him to be a little too perfect actually which annoyed me ever-so-slightly. If you liked Zeke from The Immortal Rules, you'll probably adore Tucker. Yet, while I hated Zeke, I did manage to like Tucker, despite his perfection. While I found his reaction to Clara's angel background and his acceptance of certain actions they were forced to take during their relationship very unrealistic and too convenient, it was still bearable. Yet, I was rolling my eyes the moment the word love popped into the picture. Yes, Clara and Tucker did like each other, but love? Puh-lease, give me a break! Furthermore, Clara still felt drawn to Christian which was simply irritating. I know she chose one of the guys, but it felt as if the plot still had love-triangle potential, which made me want to run away screaming.

While Tucker is a complete gentleman, Christian is a total jerk. Yes, I mean it, a JERK. While he did perform a rather inexcusable act on the night of prom, it was even worse before that night when he refused to be seen in Clara's presence around his friends. I hate guys like that and Christian, no matter how HOT he may have been, was no exception. Furthermore, I found the fact that Clara was so obsessed him to be rather startling and boring. I didn’t care about Christian. I didn’t understand how dating Christian was going to help her solve her purpose. I didn’t even understand why her mother was being such a stickler about her dating anyone but Christian. Somehow, I never felt the seriousness of this whole purpose. Yes, I got that it was Clara’s fate or destiny, but that actual sense of urgency that should have sent my heart rate up and made me sit on the edge of my seat with panic and worry? Uh…yeah, that was missing. Majorly.

While Unearthly began to wind down, we had an extra sub-plot of a fallen angel thrown in. Notice the key word: sub-plot. As in, not the main focus. In fact, it was so miniscule that I’m confused as to what role it even played in the plot of this story. In addition, the ending of this novel was nowhere near as shocking as other readers had extolled. It was not such a major plot twist and I, for one, was unimpressed by it. If anything, I’m annoyed with the ending of Unearthly. It leaves a lot of loose threads hanging, makes the reader question what exactly even happened during those last thirty-five pages of action, and wonder whether picking up the sequel is even worth it. Yes, that’s right. 35/435 Pages of this novel were action. What were the other 400 Pages devoted to? High School. Prom. Romance. Flying. Teen Angst. Jerks. Just your usual, run-of-the-mill, dramatic teenage novel.

In conclusion, while there is a lot to love about this book, its execution falls flat. Its characters are way too perfect, its romance is both convenient and not love even though it claims it is, the action its premises promises is miniscule, it throws in random sub-plots that only serve to make the reader confused and need to pick up the sequel in annoyance, and the few characters who are not perfect are simply annoying, irritating, or serve no purpose to the story. I like the idea of Unearthly and I like its writing and even the outline of its characters, but when you dig deeper and really analyze this novel, it’s nothing much but a standard Young Adult Paranormal Romance paraded around under a cover of hype, false originality, and very little true action to compensate for its flaws.

Now, the million dollar question is... will I read the sequel? I think… no. While it probably will be a quick read, much like Unearthly was for me, I don't think I'm up for another dose of this world. I simply don't care for the characters enough and while some readers claim the sequel is better, most lowered their ratings ever-so-slightly, which means I will probably wind up giving HallowedOne Star. I think I'd rather just avoid writing that snarky review, thank you very much. Would I recommend Unearthly? If you haven’t read Angelfall orDaughter of Smoke and Bone then yes, I would. For you, it’ll be a unique and utterly compelling read. I, however, was disappointed and extremely unimpressed by this one. With that, I am off to hide under my impenetrable fort - let the boulder-throwing begin!

Review: Cinder by Marissa Meyer

Title: Cinder 

Author: Marissa Meyer 

Rating: 2.5/5 Stars

In all honesty, the only reason this novel is receiving nearly three stars is because the second half of the story was fast-paced, amped up the action, and was genuinely interesting. I didn’t think you could possibly go wrong with a Cinderella re-telling, let alone one involving a futuristic setting and cyborgs; unfortunately however, it turns out I was wrong. Cinder is one of those novels which had a lot of potential, but simply failed to live up to the hype surrounding it. While I enjoyed its overarching story and admired the strong – and surprisingly realistic – characters Meyer brought to life, both the lack of world-building and predictable plot ruined this novel for me.  

Cinder, a cyborg, is the best mechanic in all of New Beijing. While her days are mostly spent doing various chores for her ungrateful stepmother and stepsisters, she still manages to be a mechanic. When handsome Prince Kai stops by, requesting her to fix his android, things slowly begin to change. For one, her kind stepsister Peony falls ill and is infected with a deadly and incurable disease. In her rage, her stepmother sends Cinder off to be a lab rat as she is a cyborg and is worthless to those around her. Meanwhile, Prince Kai’s father is dying from the same disease Peony has been infected with and as his death looms closer, so does the inevitable visit of the evil Queen Levana of the Lunars – people who possess magical glamour abilities and live on the moon. Levana has her own agenda and wishes to marry Kai to secure an alliance between the two planets and use her deadly abilities to take over. Yet, in the midst of all this, Cinder, who is being used to find a cure for the disease that plagues this nation, might just have more power, more importance, and more strength than she thinks. She, a lowly cyborg, may be the key to solving the plethora of problems surrounding them – if only she can understand how.

I know, I know, with a synopsis like that how could I not have liked this novel? I can sum that answer up in one word – predictability. I don’t think you have to be particularly intelligent to figure it out, but I was able to solve the mystery behind the plot of this novel less than 15% into it. In most cases, this slightly bothers me, but in the case of Cinder, I found this to be irritating to no extent. Marissa Meyer is a debut author, which is why I think her “subtle” hints at the huge plot twist/cliffhanger at the end were not-so-subtle, but I found Cinder herself to be remarkably stupid for not putting together the pieces before the last page of the story. If Cinder had somehow found out about this vital information/plot twist before the end of the novel, I think it would have made for a far more interesting and realistic plot. Unfortunately though, I find that Meyer was simply too focused on sticking strictly to the story arc of the fairy tale Cinderella herself and refused to take that creative leap of faith and change up the direction of her novel. I think readers who didn’t know the plot twist at the end would have enjoyed this novel far more than I would have since I found myself to be bored during many scenes and rolling my eyes at the obviousness of the whole situation during others – something which, I can assure you, you don’t want to find yourself doing while reading a book.

The predictable plot line aside, I also found the world-building to be strangely lacking. I love the world Meyer has created within Cinder and I thought it was not only creative, but original as well. Yet, I found that we were given practically no information at all about it! I believe that when an author is setting out to write a dystopian novel, regardless of whether or not they intend to change that into dystomance, they should first clearly outline the nuances of their futuristic world. While I understood that Cinder lived in the future, years after WWIV had taken place, and Earth was challenged by extra-terrestrial Lunars and humans suffered from an incurable disease, I knew nothing beyond that. Were the Lunars humans who had evolved to somehow channel magic? Or were they aliens? If so, were there other planets humans knew about? Even simple questions about Earth itself were left unanswered such as why the people had re-instated a monarchy rule instead of opting for a democracy which is a more popular form of government today or why, with such advanced technology, further improvements had not been made to somehow prevent the spread of this disease through some other method either than finding an impossible cure? While I hate information dumping, I still like to know my fair share of information about a dystopian setting, and I found myself to be very much disappointed by the unanswered questions Meyer left. In fact, I think many of the answers to these questions can be easily amounted to fairy tale necessities such as having a prince instead of a monarchy and only one conflicting extra-terrestrial challenge opposed to many. Nevertheless, I was unhappy by this development – or lack-of really – within the novel.

My qualms with this novel aside, there were aspects of it which I enjoyed believe it or not. For one, I loved Cinder. I thought her character was strong, courageous, brave, and reasonable. She had certain goals in mind and no one, not even the prince and her affection for him, came in the way of that which I admired. Furthermore, I enjoyed her interactions with Prince Kai. Although much of their dialogue was rather clichéd, I found their growing relationship to be nicely developed. In addition, Prince Kai himself is not your usual haughty monarchy. I liked his personality and his treatment of Cinder, despite her lowly status, was admirable. Yet, the best characters in this novel were the secondary characters themselves – Iko, an android; Peony, Cinder’s kind stepsister; and the doctor at the royal science lab. Not only did they play important roles in the development of Cinder and the novel itself, they were also exemplary, interesting, and fun characters to meet.

All in all, I guess you could say I liked Cinder. I found the pace to be quite comfortable, the characters to be enjoyable, and I loved Queen Levana as the villain as well. I also enjoyed the thorough employment of third person point of view, enabling us to see the political scheme in the palace as well as Cinder’s life. Yet, while I liked this book and can see why others will come to love it, I did not enjoy reading it. My experience was ruined by the predictability of the plot and the lack of world-building which I found to be disappointing, and I can say with perfect clarity that this novel does not live up to the hype. In fact, I doubt I will be picking up the sequel unless it is available in my library and I find myself with nothing else to read. I myself would not recommend this book, but as I seem to be in the minority with my rating, I’d tell you all to give it a try. Still, I’d caution you to go in with low expectations – if not, you might find yourself to be sorely disappointed and reduced to a pile of unhappy cinders like me. 

Review: The False Prince by Jennifer A. Nielson

Title: The False Prince 

Author: Jennifer A. Nielson 

Rating: 2.5/5 Stars 

In all honesty, The False Prince contains nothing within it to warranty such a low rating – its writing is easy to read, its pace is swift, and the plot is a page-turner. In fact, to many readers, The False Prince will no doubt be a breath of fresh air – something new, unique, and original in the genre of fantasy. However, to me (and I’m sure numerous other older readers), The False Prince is nothing but a disappointing rip-off of Megan Whalen Turner’s The Queen’s Thief Series.

                                                       

When Sage, gifted thief and orphan, finds himself saved from an unsuccessful bout of thievery by a nobleman, he does not expect to find himself in grave danger - but he is. Carthya, the kingdom in which Sage lives in, is in peril due to the sudden assassinations of its king, queen, and crown prince. Jaron, the youngest prince of the kingdom, perished four years ago in a pirate raid and his body has been missing ever since. Thus, to save the kingdom from certain corruption, Lord Conner plans to train three orphans with an uncanny similarity to Prince Jaron and use them to take over the throne of Carthya. Sage does not want to be king and he wants nothing to do with Lord Conners treasonous plans, but to not be chosen as the false prince is a sure ticket to death. 

When I first finished The False Prince I was unable to summon up much feeling or emotion for it at all. First and foremost, the plot was predictable - too predictable. It is evident even from the synopsis who the chosen prince will be and the supposedly devious tricks to make you doubt yourself and think otherwise failed to dupe me. Furthermore, there is a huge plot twist towards the end of the novel regarding Sage himself. Unfortunately, this was yet another secret I had figured out less than half-way through the story. I don’t think younger readers will be able to guess these turns as easily as I was, but it detracted from the overall reading experience for me.

Yet, I think I could have still forgiven The False Prince of its predictability if it had not been for the characters themselves. Sage, our protagonist, is almost exactly like Eugenides, the clever thief of Turner’s Queen’s Thief Series. Now, you’d think I’d be thrilled and excited to read a story with a slightly different plot line featuring a character I love, but that isn’t true. Sage, for all his trickery, thievery, and deceitfulness, is nothing like Gen. In many ways, I find it hard to describe Gen’s character which is part of why I love him so much. I also love him because he is a hero and he doesn’t even realize it himself. Turner manages to write Eugenides, who is an immensely complex character, in such a manner that she never tells us he is a hero – in fact, she portrays him as petulant, childish, and clever – yet we are able to glean through his actions, betrayed emotions, and heart that he is. Sage on the other hand, is simply a petulant, childish, and clever character. He lacks the true depth of emotion that Eugenides had, he lacks the older generation wit and sarcasm that Gen possessed, and most of all, we are made to believe Sage is a hero because the author tells us, thus utterly distinguishing himself from Eugenides.

While I appreciated Neilson’s efforts to write a character much like Gen himself yet differentiate him at the same time, Sage lacked the qualities that made Gen truly spectacular. Thus, since it was Sage’s narration we read throughout the novel, it was ultimately disappointing. Furthermore, Sage’s feelings and emotions towards not wanting to be a king were conveyed so blatantly that they lacked the poise in which Turner showed us how tortured Eugenides felt to be taking the role of king. In many ways, The False Prince is simply a less complex and flatter condensation of Turner’s first three novels rolled into one with a slightly different plot. In my opinion, a novel which derives itself so closely from another fails to do anything positive in my mind.

Nevertheless, I have to admit that The False Prince was a fast read. It was well paced, cleverly written, and is definitely a novel I am sure many other readers will enjoy. However, I am honestly inclined to tell you all to skip this one and read Megan Whalen Turner’s The Queen’s Thief  Series instead. If you’ve already read her books, chances are you won’t like this. If you haven’t, I’d suggest directly reading those – they are far more clever, sharp, witty, and deep than Neilson’s debut. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I am off to re-read my well-worn copy of Queen of Attolia. ;) 

Review: Masque of the Red Death by Bethany Griffin

Title: Masque of the Red Death 

Author: Bethany Griffin 

Rating: 2.5/5 Stars 

Masque of the Red Death is exactly that – a mask. From the outside, it looks beautiful. Its cover is gorgeous, its synopsis is unique, and even by reading a brief preview of this novel, the reader is immediately sucked into this atmospheric setting. However, when you look behind the mask, dig deeper, read further on, and discover the characters that hide behind this mask of beauty and originality, you are met with a formulaic plot, un-dynamic characters, a typical love triangle, and an overall lack of focus. In my opinion, Masque of the Red Death was a novel that had a lot of potential and is definitely a story I wouldn’t mind reading again, but only if it was written differently with a few major changes that could truly transform it into a unique work of dystopian fiction.

In the futuristic world where Araby lives, a dangerous disease plagues the nation and causes the population to dwindle every day. Araby has lost her own twin brother Finn to this deadly plague and she and her friend April immerse themselves in clubs, struggling to forget the danger that surrounds them. In the midst of this chaos, she meets the enigmatic Elliot, brother to April and nephew of Prince Prospero who controls the city and Will, a handsome young man who works at the Debauchery Club and struggles to take care of his younger siblings. The day Araby meets these two, she slowly begins to emerge from the numb stupor her life has been in and begins to realize the power she holds to change the world and save an immeasurable number of lives.

I hate to be a Debbie Downer, but I was unable to see what it was about this novel that captured everyone’s attention. I have yet to come across many reviewers who didn’t enjoy this novel, but I unfortunately fall into the minority. Although I loved the atmospheric setting, creative dystopian outlook, and allusions to Edgar Allen Poe’s own short story that were very much prevalent throughout this novel, it’s ultimate downfall lay in the characters themselves.

I tend to love broken characters and Araby was no exception – she lost her twin brother to the plague that her father had ironically found the solution to, she struggled with survivor’s guilt from day to day, and she even took a vow to never experience anything in life that he didn’t experience either. Now, although I found Araby’s vow to be extremely strange, I didn’t have any major qualms with her until she met Will and Elliot. It seems that men bring out the silliest, stupidest, and ultimately the worst traits in female protagonists. Araby kisses both Elliot and Will throughout the course of the novel and never feels any guilt for it. Her vow, which had been emphasized very greatly in the beginning of the novel, simply disappeared and seemed not to matter during this defining moment in her life.

Araby’s vow aside, I also found that she simply threw herself headfirst into participating in Elliot’s political scheme for no reason at all. As far as the reader knows, Elliot is a complete strange whom Araby has only heard about from her best friend April; yet, she trusts him blindly and even betrays her parents for his sake. Thus, not only was I greatly confused by these actions, I slowly winded up hating Araby. I was expecting to see some type of momentous character growth that occurs throughout the course of the novel and changes her outlook on life, and although Araby grew, it was because of the presence of Will and Elliot. In my opinion, this book would have been much stronger if Araby had faced her inner struggles and overcome them through her own sheer will. Instead, she ended up being like every other unoriginal female protagonist to grace young adult fiction over the past few years.

Speaking of unoriginality, there is – you guessed it – a love triangle in this novel. For me, I found the biggest flaw in this love triangle was the fact that the author was unable to inspire in me any feeling towards her two male protagonists. In fact, that was an underlying current throughout the novel. Stories that cannot inspire any type of emotional investment from me are automatically discarded from my shelves, and this was no exception. Furthermore, I found myself to be jarred by the true genre of this novel. It had steampunk elements, but not enough. It was a creative dystopian take, but that was overshadowed by lousy characterization. It was a unique re-take on Poe’s story, but at the same time it had its marked differences that led to my dislike of it.

All in all, Masque of the Red Death is one book I’d recommend skipping. It doesn’t seem to have any specific faults to it, but its plot has been done before, its characters offer nothing original, and its unique realm is simply not enough to carry this story forward. That being said, many readers have fallen in love with this novel, so I’d recommend giving it a try yourself. However, for me, Nevermore was a novel that truly managed to capture the essence of Poe’s writing and Masque of the Red Death simply failed to live up to Poe’s famous legacy.

Review: Dark Lover by J.R. Ward

Title: Dark Lover 


Author: J.R. Ward 


Rating: 2.5/5 Stars 


I think it's safe to say that J.R. Ward is one of the most well known names in the adult urban fantasy genre. Needless to say, I was excited and a little nervous to see what all the hype about her books were about - and whether I would even like them. Ultimately however, I think her Black Dagger Brotherhood Series is one that is read purely for entertainment and nothing else. So, although I enjoyed this introduction into her famous book series, I by no means loved it and have gained no inspiration to continue with them either.

When Darius, Wrath's close friend and warrior, is suddenly killed, Wrath is forced to honor his last wish: find his daughter and protect her. Wrath is the king of vampires and to Darius, whose daughter Beth is half-vampire half-human, he knows that only Wrath can help her through her transformation as a vampire. But Beth, ironically enough, has no idea of her true lineage. She has never even met her parents so when Wrath - tall, handsome, and oozing with sex appeal and danger - arrives at her front door, she is more than a little confused, frightened, and aroused. Thus, Beth suddenly finds herself involved with no one either than the leader of the Black Dagger Brotherhood - a decision that could change her life in ways she never foresaw.


If the title and cover of this book didn't already give it away, I'll just be upfront and say it: there is sex in this book. Lots of it. Too much of it actually in my opinion. I don't mind erotica in the least, but when used in a love story, I like to have my fair share of romantic build-up. Unfortunately for me, Wrath and Beth end up having sex minutes - literally minutes - after they meet. Furthermore, any type of emotional or non-physical relationship that took place between them only happened after multiple sensual scenes, so I felt deprived of what could have been a very good love story.


Furthermore, I felt strangely detached from all the characters. I think this was because this novel was told from multiple perspectives - about four or five to be exact. I don't mind different perspective changes, but it definitely made me, as the reader, feel less invested in the emotional story within this novel and I couldn't really bring myself to care all that much about the characters. In addition, Wrath was simply too un-sexy for me. I don't find body-builder-type people attractive and appearance aside, I didn't find Wrath's personality to be exactly nice either. His stubborn refusal to be with Beth seemed unwarranted and stemmed from absolutely nothing, only adding unnecessary drama into the story. If that wasn't enough, Wrath is a typical alpha-male. I liked the fact that Beth stood up to him on this issue, maintaining some degree of feminism, but I simply could not warm up to Wrath as the male protagonist.


That being said, I think the backstory of Beth's secret lineage was heart-warming and I absolutely lived Fritz, their gentle and caring butler. I also thought that the ideas Ward expressed were unique and original and I can see why she has such a huge fan-base. Yet, I refuse to continue her series. Having read the synopsis of her next few novels, I can say with confidence that each and every one of Ward's stories follows a formulaic writing style: "tortured" male vampire protagonist, a female protagonist who shouldn't be "the one" for the male but is, steamy sex scenes, and probably some unnecessary drama along with a fair share of danger and a touch of murder. I'm not saying this isn't an attractive package, but it's one I refuse to spend time on. The Black Dagger Brotherhood Series is one I can only see returning to when I'm in need of a light and entertaining read. In a publishing world where mind-blowing novels are constantly being written, it seems a shame to waste my time on a predictable series that has failed to leave me emotionally invested. Thus, my venture into this dark and hyped-up world is sadly (or thankfully) ending.

Review: My Life Next Door by Huntley Fitzpatrick

Title: My Life Next Door

Author: Huntley Fitzpatrick

Rating: 2.5/5 Stars

Everything about My Life Next Door screams “summer chick-flick”! From its flirty cover, to its sappy title, to its shockingly bright synopsis, you’d think you couldn’t go wrong with this book. I was expected a Sarah Dessen type novel and what I got instead is something I can only relate to authors who I happen to loathe like Stephanie Meyer or Becca Fitzpatrick, even though they’re not contemporary authors. I think what pains me the most is that I really liked the first half of this novel. It was slow, it was a little too happy, but it was nice. It had potential. Ultimately though, it just didn’t live up.

Samantha Reed seems to have everything – the perfect grade point average, a beautiful home, a rich and successful mother, a perfect figure, and gorgeous genes. Yet, what no one else seems to see is that her mother is hardly a mother – she vacuums obsessively and has been aloof, strict, and apart ever since Sam’s father abandoned their family before she was even born. Thus, Sam cannot help but gaze wistfully at her neighbors, the Garretts, who have eight children, seem to be broke, and yet have all the happiness in the world. When Jase, the third eldest Garrett child, introduces himself to Samantha, her dream of becoming part of their life comes true. Samantha couldn’t be happier – until that is, her senator mother makes a grave mistake that could destroy her newfound happiness and love.

I’m not going to lie – I was quite impressed by this story at first. Samantha was an interesting protagonist, one who was suffering underneath her perfect disguise, yet she never let that get in the way of her interactions with others. She constantly tried to be the perfect daughter, the perfect neighbor, the perfect best friend, the perfect girlfriend, and I think that is something everyone can relate to. Yet, Samantha paled in comparison to the Garretts. In some ways, this novel reminded me of Cheaper by the Dozen – two loving parents with a large family of children do their best to make it work. Furthermore, these kids, despite their vastly different personalities, all love one another and seem to mesh perfectly as siblings. Seeing Samantha fit into this equation was nothing short of entertaining and only increased my respect for her.

In addition to the Garretts though, another family that played a huge part in this novel was Sam’s best friend Nan and her brother Tim. Sam has grown up with these two since childhood and I loved how realistically their relationships were portrayed – well, in the first half of the novel. Usually, authors never give too much emphasis to the best friend, but Nan was given a lot of importance in this story, which I liked – especially because a friend’s problems, their life, and their struggles impact your life as well. Furthermore, Tim, Nan’s older brother, undergoes immense growth and change throughout this novel as well as being one hell of an intelligent, sassy, and funny guy – all qualities which instantaneously made him my favorite character. Although I loved Jase, the main love interest, Tim was simply so much more. Jase is kind, polite, and perfect to the point where he has no flaws. He is an attentive boyfriend, a doting son, an inspirting brother, and an adoring child in general. Sam’s relationship with Jase was cute, fun, and likeable. They had their awkward moments, their gradual growth, and their eventual path to love. I liked all of these things, but somewhere after the half-way point of this book, everything began to go downhill.

First and foremost, one of the main issues that can be seen even from the beginning of the novel is the fact that Sam’s mother hates Jase’s family. She thinks they’re too big and she despises that since her own unreliable husband came from a family just like theirs. So of course, when Sam becomes involved with Jase her mother doesn’t know about it and surprisingly enough neither does Sam’s best friend. Logically speaking, this should have been a big problem in the story. Jase should have been very upset by this, he should have seriously questioned Sam’s feelings for him, but he didn’t, because you know, Jase is just such a sweet and forgiving guy. Is this realistic? No, not even close. Strike #1

Although Problem #1 bothered me, I was able to let it go and trudge onwards with the story to Problem #2. This is a friendship problem with Nan – one which, in my opinion, was original, different, and really interesting. I wanted to see how this played out! I was curious, I was excited – uniqueness in YA Contemporary Fiction? It was unheard of! Yet, what winds up happening in this situation is that Nan refuses to speak to Sam and even after Sam finally gets the backbone and guts to force Nan to speak to her, they have a short conversation and end their friendship of twelve years just like that. I don’t know about you, but I wouldn’t walk away from my best friend of twelve years that easily. I let it go though, I kept thinking it would come up later, that it would be resolved eventually. Spoiler Alert: That eventual closure we’re waiting for? It doesn’t happen. Sam doesn’t even get to say her perspective of the issue in fact! She just listens to Nan, nods, walks away, and Nan is never mentioned ever again. Irritating? Yes. Unrealistic? Yes. Strike #2? Yes.

                                                   

If you haven’t already figured out so far, Samantha has some serious issues – not only in her life, but with her personality as well. Most importantly, she has no backbone. A Gryffindor she most certainly is not. She lacks the courage to tell her mom about her perfect boyfriend, she lacks the courage to salvage her friendship with Nan, but the last straw comes when she lacks the courage to do what is right. This is a spoiler-free review (for the most part), so all I can really say is that her mother does something bad – really bad – and it affects the Garretts, who are poor and struggling to make ends meet, in a really bad way. Samantha knows that her mother is responsible for this act that is causing the Garretts to suffer, but no one else knows about it, so what should she do? Well, first of all, she should tell her boyfriend. What she does do instead though, is tell herself that what she thinks isn’t true – denial. I’m not heartless, so I can accept denial, but not for eight days (or a week…something like that)! Plus, even after that eight days, when she finally accepts it’s true, she still doesn’t tell Jase! This entire situation plays out in such a ridiculous manner that it is not even funny. Sam’s mother is Senator Reed, running for re-election, so the truth can’t com out because of her campaign, but you know what? I don’t care. Everyone is raised with a moral sense of right from wrong and the decisions Sam and her mother make are wrong, irritating, and disappointing. Of course this situation all solves itself up very nicely, but I hated its entire presence in the novel. Not only does it take up the entire second half of the novel, it ruins it. Strike #3

Avid baseball fans (or not-baseball-fans like me) will know that after three strikes, you are out and boy, was this book out – out of my shelf, out of my life, out. What upsets me the most though, is that this book had a lot of potential. It had unique and original ideas, but its execution of them was disappointing and lacking. I think the author’s intention was for this novel to be an expose about how a girl who seems to have everything together really doesn’t. How she makes mistakes, loses friends and her life falls apart. Well, Sam’s life did fall apart, but that was because of stupid mistakes, idiotic decisions, and loss of a brain for eight days. I suppose some may argue that that is life, it is realistic, but if you read this book you’ll know that these situations and the way they were handled were not realistic. Furthermore, Sam’s sister was only in this novel for 2% of it which was a huge mistake. I kept thinking of how things would have been different if Sam’s sister was there and I think it would have been a stronger novel if her relationship with her sister was allowed to develop.

Gosh, that brings me to another problem! There was no development of relationships in this novel except between Sam and the Garretts and Tim with…well everyone because he’s just awesome like that. Even by the end of the novel, Sam’s mother felt like the same Crappy Mom of the Decade since she was being a selfish pig. Furthermore, I haven’t even mention Supreme Villain of All Time, Clay. Clay is a douche bag, an idiot, a guy with the wrong priorities and he also happens to be Senator Reed’s boyfriend. *cue gag* I don’t want to talk about him, I hate him, and all you need to know is that he sucks.

My Life Next Door is a novel with a lot of potential, a lot of hope, and a lot of disappointment. The first half of this book is sweet, caring, and fun but then it just becomes strike after strike after strike. After reading it, I can’t even say that I liked it. If anything, I feel as if I wasted a huge chunk of my time. Looking back, I don’t even feel that invested in Sam and Jase’s relationship since Jase was so perfect and Sam was so unworthy of him and any problems they had weren’t even dealt with in a realistic and proper manner. *sigh* I’m sorry to say that My Life Next Door goes right back on my shelf of disappointing debuts. Fitzpatrick had some great ideas in this one, but everything just fell flat in the end. Perhaps a more experienced author would have been better suited to write such a complex novel, but Fitzpatrick was simply unable to handle the plethora of scenarios in this one. That being said…I. Am. Out. 

Review: The Strange Power by L.J. Smith

Title: The Strange Power (Dark Visions #1) 

Author: L.J. Smith

Rating: 2.5/5 Stars

My introduction to L.J. Smith started with her Forbidden Game Series – a trilogy which immediately hooked me in and forced me to fall in love with it – so color me surprised to find another one of her trilogies, Dark Visions, to be strangely lacking in comparison. Perhaps it’s not fair for me to notice these egregiously obvious differences not only in the writing style, but in the character development as well, but I was disappointed.

Kaitlyn Fairchild has always been different from other girls around her, but it is her haunting eyes and prophetic drawings which cause her to become an outcast in society. When she is given the opportunity to learn more about her mysterious powers and finish out high school in California, she cannot resist. Kaitlyn and four other teens – Anna, Gabriel, Rob, and Lewis – all possess some type of psychic power and are submitted to daily tests to see the limitations and growth of their powers. However, not all is as it seems at the Institute and Kaitlyn and her new friends may unknowingly find themselves in grave peril.

For some reason, Dark Visions constantly reminded me of Kelly Armstrong’s The Darkest Powers Trilogy. In both, the first novel serves as a set up for the upcoming series as the protagonist meets other people who possess similar powers as her. However, where The Darkest Powers cast a strong heroine, interesting romance, and complicated friendships, Dark Visions failed to do that.

Kaitlyn is a likeable protagonist, but she lacks human flaws. Furthermore, her friendship with Anna, Lewis, and Rob seemed a little too easily made and failed to have any type of depth to it. Her romance with Rob originally comes across as being unrequited and silly for she thinks she is in love with him when she actually only has a crush on him, and the development of it was weak. In addition, I was disappointed to find that the horror I had come to associate with L.J. Smith from her Forbidden Game Trilogy was completely missing from this series! In basic terms, I was sorely disappointed.

Yet, this novel had one redeeming quality: Gabriel. In Gabriel I was able to find not only the ever-so-common tortured male protagonist, but I was also able to find depth. Gabriel’s past makes him a complicated character and his interactions with the other characters were interesting and different. In fact, throughout the novel, Gabriel was the only character who seemed to undergo any type of change. I had always loved how Smith made it a point to show how the experiences of her characters changed them, but I found that to be lacking in everyone except Gabriel in this book. I am definitely looking forward to learning more about him and uncovering his inner secrets.

Dark Visions was, by no means, a bad book. It was interesting; it had witty dialogue, and was a lot more humorous than The Forbidden Game. Furthermore, it contained an interesting plot-line that was extremely unique and which I find myself to be rather curious about. Yet, in a novel with a primarily character-driven plot, the cast of Dark Visions was sadly lacking. Nevertheless, I am eager to see how this unfolds in the sequels and can only hope that this series continues to improve. If nothing else, Dark Visions has taught me that L.J. Smith truly is human and even the best of writers can have disappointing stories.