August 2012 - Page 2 of 2

Yzabel / August 7, 2012

Review: Crushed

Summary:

The Noah sisters rule Titan High with their beauty, brains, and magical powers. Each year they play a secret game: Crushed. The girls pick their targets carefully and blow enchanted dust into the boy’s faces, charming them, but this year Kristen makes a grave mistake. She chooses the wrong boy and almost dies that same day. Coincidence? Maybe. But something isn’t quite right about Zach Bevian. He doesn’t behave like a boy who’s been Crushed. He goes from hot to cold, from looking at her with contempt to asking her out on a date. She doesn’t know what to think. Does he hate her or is he truly falling for her? Is he trying to kill her, or is he trying to save her?

Review:

(Book provided through ARR #27 in the We ♥ YA Books! group, in exchange for an honest review.)

Although I didn’t find this book exceptional, it made me spend a good time. Its good sides managed to balance the peeves I had with it.

The characters were fun and pleasant to read about. While they appear as cookie-cutter high school caricatures at first (the bitchy twin-nice twin pair, the perfect popular girl, the tall, dark and scary guy with a bad reputation…), they all proved to be deeper and more complex people by the end of the novel, each with his or her motives to act the way they did. They had their strengths and weaknesses, and both of those played a role in how the story evolved. The relationship between Zach and Morgan was pretty touching, the ‘bad boy’ act being pretty much a way of keeping people at bay and protecting what was dearest to him. And I liked how Kristen managed to grow up emotionally and mentally, her experience allowing her to understand what she should do and not do.

The Crushed game itself (complete with rules stated at the beginning of the book) was intriguing, and has the potential to raise a lot of questions in the reader’s mind. As in, ‘would I be happy to have a boy obey my every whim like that’, ‘would I do it if I could’, ‘how would I react if I knew I had been under such a spell’… While those may seem evident to a mature audience, I think their answers aren’t so obvious no matter what, especially for younger readers. And I’m always up for anything that challenges people’s opinions and makes them reflect, whether they’re teens, young adults or older.

I found the plot to be not overly complex, but with enough twists and turns to keep me wanting to know who did what and who was influencing who in the end. There’s clearly a game of power and influence here, one that makes use of emotions and beliefs in order to deceive, and that’s why the relationships between the main characters were made all the more important: if it had only rested on paranormal means, it wouldn’t have been as interesting.

A few things prevented me from giving this novel a higher mark, though. First, I would really have wanted to read more about the Crushed game itself—to see more of the girls toying with people, perhaps, more of Kristen and Zack trying to fool each other, before falling in love. From the summary, I expected more in that regard. The first half of the story also had lengths, especially towards the middle. I also wondered about Kristen’s reaction during her ‘cold war’ with her sister (shouldn’t she have put up more of a fight, as the perfectionist and overachiever that she was, and not just give up like that on her reputation?). Finally, there were a couple of occurrences when I felt something was missing, and I had to read again to make sure it wasn’t my mind playing tricks on me (I’m thinking more particularly about a chapter that ends with one of the sisters telling the other “your aura is black”, which didn’t seem to bode well… but then, the next chapter, they’re sitting and talking together as if nothing had ever happened?)

That said, it’s a story that has a serious potential of appealing to younger audiences. I think age also affected my views on it: it’s the kind of book I’d have loved when I was a teenager, but am just feeling a little more detached from, now that I’m older. My actual grade would be more a 3.5 than 3/5.

Yzabel / August 6, 2012

Review: Vengeance of the Wolf

Vengeance of the Wolf by Solitaire Parke

My rating: [rating=3]

Summary:

Detective John Yardley and FBI agent Frank Williams are on a quest. They are determined to stop a manipulative, unknown mass murderer, whose targets seem to be specific politicians in a bizarre and maniacal killing spree…one that draws them into a world of dreams and nightmares beyond their wildest imaginations. Awaiting them are unbelievable terrors, chilling twists and turns, and a scope of destruction that they would never have believed possible.

Review:

(Book provided through Read It & Reap in the Shut Up & Read group, in exchange for an honest review.)

3.5/5 stars. I might have given it a 4, only it was frustrating in some aspects.

I was drawn to this book by the concept of dreams and nightmares, which is something that usually catches my interest, and I indeed found the method of killing quite interesting as well as thrilling. Troubling as this may be, seeing the killer in action, the way he picked at his victims and toyed with them, the way he thought, was just as interesting. The chilling feeling I got out of those scenes was reinforced by the descriptions, which were detailed enough to allow me to easily picture places and dreamscape. The ‘bad guy’ is clearly pretty deranged here; there was something almost touching to the reason behind his killing spree—a tiny spark that could’ve died quickly, that might even have seemed laughable to many people, yet blossomed instead into something terrifying, served by means beyond normal human scope. (The nursery rhymes quoted at the beginning of each chapter made me feel this even more strongly: they’re definitely reminiscent of something child-like, with an added creepy edge.)

All the characters had their part to play in the plot, with more or less spotlight, of course. Although it took me some time to get a real liking to Yardley and Williams, they are interesting personae, with spunk and potential, along with willpower and resiliency (how many people would’ve gone on trying to put an end to such an eluding case?). There were a few moments when I was confused at whose point of view I was following (in instances where “IT” and “the man” appeared); otherwise, the dates, places and POVs were clear and evident.

Overall, I had a good time reading this story, and wanted to know how it went from beginning to end (the epilogue was chilly, by the way—it screams for a catastrophe in the making, really). However, I remained frustrated at some things that I wished would have been more elaborated on. For instance, Celeste and her family (there’s something mysterious here, and I was hoping to learn more); the exact mechanism of the killer’s abilities; or Anthony’s motives and involvement, that were partly explained only, in my opinion. I think I’d have enjoyed the novel more if those loose ends had been tied. Last but not least, I managed to guess who the killer was fairly early; once I had it in my head, my hypothesis kept on being validated regularly. I’d have wanted that mystery to last longer.

Yzabel / August 4, 2012

Review: Sweet Blood Of Mine

Sweet Blood of Mine by John Corwin

My rating: [rating=4]

Summary:

From Mega Nerd to Super Stud.

Justin Case and women do not mix. Man boobs, a love of Kings and Castles, and being tight with the “nerd” crowd certainly don’t win him any points either. After rescuing Katie, his crush, it turns out she might not be the girl he thought she was, while Elyssa, the school’s Goth Girl, turns out to be more. Can high school get any more confusing?

Determined to improve himself, he joins a gym and meets a sexy girl that just oozes a “come hither, Justin” vibe. Until she attacks him in the parking lot, and Justin realizes she’s no ordinary girl but a being with supernatural speed and strength. After a narrow escape and an excruciating migraine headache, he wakes up with supernatural abilities all his own: speed, strength, and the ability to seduce every woman he sees.

While that might sound like the perfect combo for any hormonal teen, Justin is a hopeless romantic who wants his first time to be special. Is that too much to ask for? But he doesn’t know what he is or how to stop his carnal urges. One thing is clear: If he doesn’t find answers there are other more sinister supernaturals who would like nothing better than to make him their eternal plaything and do far worse than kill him.

Review:

I admit it took me some time to wrap my mind around the idea of a protagonist called ‘Justin Case’… yes, yes, I know, it’s a pun, I’m just not too fond of puns on characters’ names. Anyway, I managed to get over it after a while, and since I had never read anything by John Corwin before, I had no strong bias towards this book, which is always a good thing. Besides, the plot summary seemed interesting, and I always like to see male perspectives in such stories.

There were moments I smiled and chuckled, because the author’s packed his story with references to various ‘geeky’ elements—and I’m a glutton for cameos of all sorts. (I’m positive I even saw a Wheel of Time reference in there, about one of the very things that made me roll my eyes at the original books.) This all fits pretty well with the ‘nerd hero’ theme, and I appreciated that John Corwin made him think and react along such lines, because I feel it’s precisely the kind of comparisons and thoughts that’d come to Justin’s mind. And although there were moments, too, when Justin veered a little too much on self-pitying (I guess it’s no wonder, given what a train wreck his life has become), fortunately he regularly catches himself up and decides to act and keep his head high (and his sense of humour going) no matter what.

I enjoyed a lot of the characters, even secondary ones. The boys from the Goth gang, who even when things got tight in their group still stuck with Justin and didn’t just stop talking to him (which is something that could’ve happened in ‘high school politics’, from what I’ve already witnessed in real life). Elyssa, who was able to hold out her hand to someone who’s been trampled on, and to do it again in spite of the odds, and let’s not forget that she’s quite badass. Stacey, too, with her quirks and manners, not so much the evil character she could become, and pretty touching in her own ways. Well, alright, I didn’t care much for the average pupils at school (Katie and her friends were annoying), but this is probably on purpose—this is not where Justin’s true friends are meant to be.

I also liked the Overworld developed here. At the end of this first installment, we are far from knowing everything about it, but enough already has been revealed for readers to realize that there is strong support underneath to carry the plot. Vampires, for instance, aren’t just here looking cool, they have their own society, with their own politics and dissenssions. Same goes for sorcerers, and, I’m sure, other supernatural factions.

However, there are a couple of things I liked less in the book were, first, that the story seemed to drag a little around the middle—the hardest part in every book, in my opinion. It picked up again in the last third, and the end was great, but that middle part wasn’t so fun to read. The second thing was some aspects of the ‘nerd community’, and the corruption going on with football at school. It seemed to me like there was too much of a collection of clichés (fat geeks, rejected at school, you can’t be popular if you play LARPs, etc), and the teachers’ and administration’s attitude towards Justin and his friends was bordering on unbelievable (at least, the way it was shown made it appear so; I don’t doubt that such biases do exist in many places, though).

Other than that, I really enjoyed “Sweet Blood of Mine”, and will likely pick up the next novel in line.

Yzabel / August 2, 2012

Review: Dreams Of Darkness

Dreams of Darkness by Barry James

My rating: [rating=2]

Summary:

Jordan Hanson was having a bad day. His girlfriend was acting distant, his cat had run off, his car was leaking oil, there was something screwy with the electrical system in his new house, and to top it all off he got caught in a storm. By the end of the day, though, Jordan would have given anything to get his old life back. Or any life at all, for that matter. Even an undead existence in which he was not about to be used as a tool to end the world would have been better than nothing….

Review:

I had a hard time deciding on what to write in this review. I’ve been editing my stars from 3 to 2, from 2 to 3… I really have no idea. It’s not a bad book. It contains a lot of things that I liked, yet at the same time, it still didn’t cut it for me in the end. I would’ve given it a 2.5/5, but for want of such flexibility in the marks here, I will leave it at 2. Although what “didn’t cut it for me” is way more subjective than through any fault of the novel itself, I feel it also plays a part in one’s enjoyment of a book, and as such, I can’t really leave it out of my review.

There’s quite an amount of pros in favour of “Dreams of Darkness”. The author created a believable mythos for his world, one that is detailed and well-explained, and that flows together believably. The descriptions are very vivid, making it extremely easy to picture what’s happening; same goes for the action scenes. In fact, I’m positive this novel would make a great movie or mini-TV series. It is quite a ‘visual’ story—and a graphic one, too, in its depiction of the horrors that are the demons, their actions, and the people that command them! (This is not a negative point, by the way. I thought it was clear from the start that there would be gory aspects to it, and they didn’t shock me; on the contrary, given the themes tackled in it, they were logical and expected.) The story deals with interesting questions, namely Jordan’s humanity (can he remain sane and human enough, in spite of what he is?), whether one’s nature will necessarily determine one’s destiny, or the influence of power on one’s psyche. Also, the plot is complex, yet not confusing, and the characters appropriate to its development.

So why did I write that the book didn’t do it for me in the end? That’s the tricky part: I still have no precise idea why. I think it had to do with the writing, that I felt was a little ‘dry’, but not in terms of description of details—it was more a feeling than anything else. My rational mind was satisfied, but not my emotional one, if I may say so. I couldn’t really root for the characters, for instance, as if there was a very thin, invisible wall between them and me. It took me too much time to finish this book, too, when I actually had plenty of time to do so; I kept on putting it down, thinking it wasn’t for me; the parts between the action scenes dragged a little, too (the background information regularly given by some of the characters sometimes felt too much like info-dumping, which didn’t help). However, at the same time, I kept going back to it, because, let’s be honest, I still wanted to know how the story would go on. The last quarter or so of the book got me in for good; unfortunately, this came too late in my reading.