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Yzabel / August 17, 2012

Review: Entangled

My rating: [rating=4]

Summary:

Two months after dying, seventeen-year-old witch Graylee Perez wakes up in her twin sister Charlene’s body.

Until Gray finds a way back inside her own body, she’s stuck being Charlene every twenty-hour hours. Her sister has left precise instructions on how Gray should dress and behave. Looking like a prep isn’t half as bad as hanging out with Charlene’s snotty friends and gropey boyfriend.

The “normals” of McKinley High might be quick to write her behavior off as post-traumatic stress, but warlock Raj McKenna is the only person who suspects Gray has returned from the dead.

Now Gray has to solve the mystery of her death and resurrection and disentangle herself from Charlene’s body before she disappears for good.

***Entangled is a young adult paranormal fantasy romance suitable for ages 15 and up.***

Review:

Although I had to spread the reading of this book over two days, it went fast and smoothly, and turned to be highly addictive. The first chapters may have been a little slow—what was needed, I suppose, to set the backdrop for Gray and Charlene’s ‘ordinary’ life, and thus contrast Gray’s sudden death against it. But past that point, I was hooked. Firstly because of the themes tackled throughout the story: revenge, deception, resentment, grief, death, how do people cope with it and to what lengths would they be ready to go if they had a chance to have a beloved one back… Secondly, while those themes are of the dark kind, the narrative itself doesn’t feel desperate nor gloomy, therefore making for a lighter reading moment no matter what. Last but not least, because I wanted to know how things would unfold, all that simply (already suspecting the kind of outcome the author would come up with didn’t detract from my reading pleasure: it’s the kind of predictable I appreciate).

The characters were both archetypal for that kind of novel (the popular bitchy sister, the nice and hard-working one, the boy with a bad reputation but a heart of gold, the sidekick ready to do everything for the one he has his eyes on…), yet at the same time convincing enough. They behaved with the kind of intensity in feelings and actions that tend to seem fitting for teenage characters, and there were often some darker, secret areas to their personalities. After all, when the girl intent on snagging her boyfriend back is also a witch, can things really go as normally as they would if she wasn’t? When she’s jealous of someone, and want to hamper that someone’s efforts, why stop at just feeling frustrated? And yet, some of those traits may also become understandable: I can understand how suddenly having her dead sister snatch her body one day out of two, putting a regular dent in her life, may feel extremely hard to bear for Charlene. (Alright, this said, she was still an absolute bitch who deserved to be slapped around with a trout full of long, pointy nails. Seriously. Borderline psychopathic much?)

I also liked that the story followed not only Gray, but Raj as well. He was by far my favourite character, being an actual good guy, respectful of others, even though he kept entertaining a facade that in the end hurt himself the most. (And Adrian. Why, Adrian, always full of smiles: I hope you do realize that you’re so creepy, man! And that I love it.)

What I was less satisfied with in “Entangled” was some unanswered questions. The reason to Gray’s death wasn’t so clear (not to mention that it was pretty stupid, to the point of little old me wondering if the ‘culprit’ didn’t act so dumb on purpose, knowing that of course it was just but an accident waiting to happen). And I admit I didn’t really understand what happened with Raj and his mother at the end—well, I *think* I understood, only that part went too fast for me to be certain I really did; more details about that (and the role of the Zippo lighter) would have been appreciated.

Nevertheless, I liked this book, and definitely want to read the next installment.

Yzabel / August 7, 2012

Review: Crushed

Crushed by K.C. Blake

My rating: 3 of 5 stars

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.