Yzabel / February 25, 2016

Review: Try Not To Breathe

Try Not to BreatheTry Not to Breathe by Holly Seddon

My rating: [rating=2]

Blurb:

Some secrets never die. They’re just locked away.

Alex Dale is lost. Destructive habits have cost her a marriage and a journalism career. All she has left is her routine: a morning run until her body aches, then a few hours of forgettable work before the past grabs hold and drags her down. Every day is treading water, every night is drowning. Until Alex discovers Amy Stevenson. Amy Stevenson, who was just another girl from a nearby town until the day she was found unconscious after a merciless assault. Amy Stevenson, who has been in a coma for fifteen years, forgotten by the world. Amy Stevenson, who, unbeknownst to her doctors, remains locked inside her body, conscious but paralyzed, reliving the past.
 
Soon Alex’s routine includes visiting hours at the hospital, then interviews with the original suspects in the attack. But what starts as a reporter’s story becomes a personal obsession. How do you solve a crime when the only witness lived but cannot tell the tale? Unable to tear herself away from her attempt to uncover the unspeakable truth, Alex realizes she’s not just chasing a story—she’s seeking salvation.

Review:

[I received a copy of this book through NetGalley, in exchange for an honest review.]

An OK read, though I wouldn’t go further than that. I could guess easily enough who the culprit was (there are plenty of hints if you pay attention), and while chasing those was fun, in retrospect, there weren’t many really “suspenseful” moments—everything was well-packed by the end.

Told through the point of view of three characters mostly, the story deals with the mystery surrounding the coma in which Amy Stevenson has spent the past 15 years of her life, after having been assaulted and left for dead. She’s still here, in her head, her mind still active, but very sluggishly, as if one year was perhaps only one day for her, and she’s first convinced she’s just sick, or hungover. Her only visitors are Jacob, who cannot let go, and Alex, a journalist struggling with alcoholism and the health problems that will follow (ironically enough, Alex used to be a successful health columnist). As Alex gets intrigued by Amy’s fate, feeling close to her both geographically and in age, she starts digging into past events, trying to figure out if there’s still a way to bring justice to the victim here, or if all trails have now gone forever cold.

I’d say the premises are definitely interesting, but the way the story unfolded was a bit… boring. Partly because of the style, that regularly was more about telling than showing (especially in the beginning), partly because, as previously mentioned, I thought there wasn’t enough tension, not enough at stake—I didn’t feel the sense of urgency and danger I like to find in mystery and triller novels, that foreboding, impending certainty that “something” is going to happen to the main character before the end. I also think I expected something different when it came to Amy’s involvment: different ways of communicating, maybe, instead of Alex sitting next to her bed and talking? Or something closer to Amy slowly waking up, or desperately trying to let the world know what she knew, and failing due to her body not responding?

The characters in general weren’t as fleshed out nor as interesting as I had hoped; in fact, they were more often annoying than anything else. Alex’s drinking problem, how she screwed up her career and marriage, weren’t such a “dark” background as a somewhat idiotic one (that is, her reactions, her way of going about a lot of things didn’t make me think she was a clever person). Jacob’s wobbly relationship with Fiona felt mainly like something that could’ve been dealt with in five minutes if the characters had been remotely willing to communicate—that was a no-brainer for me, I don’t even see why Jacob had to lie at first. (And let’s be honest, while Fiona’s reactions can be viewed as understandable, considering that she had had a bad experience in the past, the way she immediately jumped to conclusions and put on the drama queen act weren’t exactly encouraging for Jacob to start spilling the beans, making her appear like a harpy, and making me wonder if such a partner would be worth the trouble. But then, I guess I’m just not one to deal with high-maintenance people anyway.)

Conclusion: Interesting theme, but that would have worked better with more tension, and perhaps a different involvment of the comatose character. 2.5 stars.

Yzabel / July 11, 2013

Review: DiSemblance

DiSemblanceDiSemblance by Shanae Branham

My rating: [rating=2]

Summary:

Jason Tanner’s life has always been different from the ordinary citizen’s. It started when he was an infant and his parents were only teenagers. A computer science prodigy, Lloyd attended MIT but left a pariah in the eyes of the school’s dean—but a computer physics genius in the eyes of his primary investor. Then his theories and ideas created a holographic machine and their world shrunk as contact with the outside world became less and less frequent. A computer prodigy now himself, Jason is about to learn that the world never waits for you if you have the ability to change it: it will come for you.

Detective Bruce Durante has been handed the case of the Comfort Killer, a serial killer so named because he appears to abduct terminally ill patients before returning their corpses to their families in refrigerated coffins. When he picks up the trail, it leads straight to the home of Lloyd Tanner.

Jason has been living life through the world of Lloyd’s invention and wishing he could carry on a relationship with Boston, the beautiful girl next door. When his father is murdered and framed as the Comfort Killer, he is brought back to reality in a hurry. He is forced to destroy all of the planted evidence—and finds he is being targeted as the killer’s new fall guy. But the secrets of his father’s invention run deep and Jason, his brother Isaac,Boston, the Comfort Killer, and Detective Durante hurtle towards one another on a deadly collision course that leaves everyone’s life hanging in the balance.

Review:

(Book provided by the author through ARR #110 in the We ♥ YA Books! group, in exchange for an honest review.)

I’m having a hard time writing this review, because I’d like to rate the book a little higher, but am not sure I should. In all fairness, I’d give the idea and story a solid 4 stars, but I wasn’t too thrilled about the writing itself.

“DiSemblance” is a story that you need to pay attention to. Don’t read it in a packed train, or juggling several things at once. It contains a lot of little details that are easy to miss if you’re not focused, and that are the very ones which help you puzzle everything back together. The author definitely did a good job at blurring the boundaries here, and more than once you’ll find yourself frowing at some plot point, reading back and wondering if there was a mistake… and no, there wasn’t, everything’s working according to plan. There’s a point after which things become clear, and in hindsight what happened in the first part of the book suddenly makes total sense; and yet, even then, you keep on wondering what’s true and what isn’t, what’s part of reality and what’s make-believe. In that, I’ll recommend this book if you like being bounced back from clue to clue without knowing clearly whether you’ve read those the right way or not. It’s got quite an exciting quality.

Unfortunately, I had a harder time with the style and pacing. There’s a lot of short chapters and sentences that give a jumbled feeling to the text as a whole, as well as what I’d deem “telling” about the characters and their actions rather than really showing them, which I found distracting (and as I said right above, this isn’t the kind of story where you can allow to let yourself be distracted). Also, connecting with the characters proved difficult. They’re interesting in their own ways, but with things moving so fast, I felt like we were only grazing at the surface, and as a result, I didn’t empathize with Bruce, Lisa, Jason or Boston as much as I would’ve liked to. Part of this might be related to how limits between reality and virtual world(s) keep shifting—we never know if we’re dealing with the real person or not—but I’m not sure it’s the only, nor the main reason.

In terms of plot, the ideas explored within this novel, as well as how the author manages to carry us from beginning to end, are great. But I think it would benefit from more editing, to make it easier to focus on the story.

Yzabel / November 20, 2012

Review: Darkly Dreaming Dexter

Darkly Dreaming Dexter (Dexter, #1)Darkly Dreaming Dexter by Jeff Lindsay

My rating: [rating=2]

Summary:

Meet Dexter Morgan, a polite wolf in sheep’s clothing. He’s handsome and charming, but something in his past has made him abide by a different set of rules. He’s a serial killer whose one golden rule makes him immensely likeable: he only kills bad people. And his job as a blood splatter expert for the Miami police department puts him in the perfect position to identify his victims. But when a series of brutal murders bearing a striking similarity to his own style start turning up, Dexter is caught between being flattered and being frightened-of himself or some other fiend.

Review:

I really liked the TV series (especially the first two seasons), and so I wanted to read the book that spawned it. And I must say it’s one of those rare cases when I actually liked the TV adaptation more than the original.

I’m not even sure I’d have liked the book more if I had never watched the Showtime series first. While the idea behind it–a serial killer working for the police force, and focusing his killing urges on murderers only, on people who sort of ‘deserve to die’–appealed to me, if only out of curiosity, I found the execution and writing quite poor. Dexter’s tone as he tells his story isn’t so witty as condescending, and too often I felt that the events were told rather than shown.

I had a hard time with the portrayal of Deborah, Angel, Doakes and other characters: too often they just seemed to be here to add people to the story, but things wouldn’t have been much different hadn’t they been there. I thought they deserved to be given more room, and more credit: mostly the Miami police is described as a bunch of idiots absolutely unable to do anything, which is rather hard to believe.

The events, too, unfold in a bizarre way, and Dexter’s dreams looked too much like an easy way to get to the ending. There didn’t seem to be any real police work involved, and too many chance encounters/conveniently placed hints packaged in dreams. I expected more from this book in that regard, more investigation on the part of the characters, and not what felt like a series of deus ex machina.

Once again, I admit that having watched the TV series first probably influenced me a lot; but the flaws I perceived in this novel would’ve stood out for me anyway. It’s an easy read, perfect to keep you busy for a few hours, without having to think much; however, if you really want to enjoy such a story, my honest opinion is that you watch the show instead. The characters in it are better developed, and the various steps of the investigation much more believable (and present!).