Oh God, I can't believe I actually own this!
L.J
Smith has long been a Paranormal YA author and I thought I should give
her a try. I could've read her vampire diaries series but I hated the
show too much to even try to read the book, so that's how I picked
up Dark Visions. The premise wasn't interesting but the cover was.
Stupid me, fooled by the pretty cover. What's really disappointing is that Dark visions had potential. It
could've been an amazing book with the crazy Mr. Zetes and greedy for
fame Joyce. I actually found the whole thing pretty creepy, especially
what Mr.Z did to Sasha and Petre. But then there were all these glitches
that kept annoying me and I couldn't ignore them either.
In
the beginning we come to know that Gabriel accidentally killed Iris and
the police were after him. A dead girl was found and they just automatically assumed that the kid present killed her. Even if he did kill the girl how could the
police prove this? There were no bruises or blood. She was just dead.
Child killing cases are pretty serious business. Lots of stuff is done
to prove that the kid actually killed the person and even then lots of
things are done to protect the child from going to jail/ mental
hospital. The author's lack of research and lack of general knowledge is pretty disappointing.
Kaitlyn has to be one of the most annoying characters I've ever had the bad luck to read. She is completely bland/flat/no personality. She's the most characterless character I've ever read about. She doesn't feel any regret or self loathing when I think it's appropriate that she should. She claims to hate all guys because of a bad experience with one, but then immediately (less than 12 hours) falls in love after arriving at the institute.
And what's the deal with Gabriel? I have a feeling that he's suppose to be the cool, desirable bad boy but he's projected as a vulnerable, hypocritical little person with serious mental issues.
The prose was horrible. The author needs to take creative writing classes. The same words are used over and over again. Kait thought, Kait felt etc. The author has FIXED a set of words for for each character. For example whenever she mentions Anna there's always the phrase 'Anna's serenity' Whenever she mentions Rob there's also the phrase 'Rob's honest face. His warm, golden glow'. By the time the book finally ended I was imagining Rob as a freaking light bulb. ( see left. My opinion of Rob)
I don't recommend this book to anyone though if you're a fan of Fallen
or Hush Hush Hush you might as well read it. It got two stars from me
because it had potential. It could've been better.
I have serious issues with this genre and I wonder why I keep torturing myself reading dystopian books in the vain attempt that I might actually enjoy them. The world building in all dystopian books is the same. A carefully controlled society, a huge amount of regional disparity and there's also some ridiculousness unique to each dystopian book. But after seeing the
amazing ratings Wither was getting I decided to give it a try, though for me it turned out to be a complete waste of time.
Despite the
obvious problem of the super bad world building the main characters
weren't likeable either. First let's talk about the world.
The
world in Wither is so jumbled up. All the continents are dead except
North America? Now this makes no sense to me. There are three
generations of humans. One's perfect while the second and third die in
their twenties. OKAY, I'll try to ignore how ridiculous this sounds. No, seriously reread that! It's absolutely absurd. But
if things are really that bad why are people just going on with their
lives. Why isn't there any panic and chaos? Sure some terrorism was
mentioned (like the lab blowing up) but all this is in the background. The wealthy people just go on to live in their pretty estates, attending festivals and wedding and parties. That is just so unrealistic.
The
main character, Rhine was also really flat. We know NOTHING about her except
that she wants to escape from Linden's mansion. Gabriel and Linden, the two major male characters also got the same reaction from me. I did not like them, I did not hate them. They were just
there.
However I'll give the author credit for creating two awesome,
believable and relate-able characters Jenna and Cecily. There were times
when I was annoyed at Jenna's melancholy but she proved to be a
completely selfless person. Same goes for Cecily. At the beginning I
hated her and her childish ways but as the story went on I really came to
love her and in the end actually felt sorry for the foolish little girl that had been lost.
Another problem I had was the lack of
action in the story. It just went on and on about how they were living
in the mansion. The dress ups , makeovers , the parties. It was just so boring.
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According to the author this book is suppose to be inspired by tsarist Russia, and that was one of the main reasons why I read it. However except for the misuse of a few Russian words I found absolutely NOTHING in the story that said tsarist Russia. But I did find an amazing book which I absolutely love.
The prose flowed smoothly, no odd, short sentences which YA authors of today love to write. The plot was awesome. Even though it was of one of the usual types i.e ordinary girl turns extraordinary type, I found myself enjoying it. Maybe it was because Alina was a character people can relate to. She was a good character though not exceptionally strong or brave.
There's also Mal, who is equally likeable (alright, maybe a lot more likeable). I loved how their romance blossomed from childhood friendship into beautiful love. Usually in book the girl meets the new guy while the childhood friend remains forgotten behind. So the romance was a pleasant change.
(picture by bookaholic, deviantart)
Another thing that I admire about Shadow and Bone was The Darkling. He is ,after Voldemort,my favourite villain. He actually has motivation for the evil things he does other than "Muahaha, look at me! I'm Evil!"
I loved the surprising way in which the Darkling's identity was revealed. I often guess the plot twist after getting into the story but here the plot twist was MIND BLOWING!
Lots of reviewers gave this book pretty
bad ratings because of the misuse of Russian words. I can understand
their annoyance. It's clear that the author did not carry out any
research. Even the editor and the publishers simply published this book
without checking if Russian culture had been correctly portrayed. But my
knowledge of Russia is very limited and I learned about the misuse of
words problem after finishing the book so it didn't really affect my
enjoyment of the whole story. All in all a great book the book. :D
Ship
Breaker is one THE BEST dystopian I've ever read. While The Hunger
Games was good it wasn't great and it was far from realistic. Ship
Breaker on the other hand shows an imaginable future. With the hiking
oil prices, global warming and economic crisis I can actually imagine a
future like this.
The world in Ship Breaker is dark, bleak and
dull. The divide between the poor and the rich is tremendous. And our
hero Nailer's lived a pretty tough life but he's managed to find himself
some truly loyal friends like Sedna and Pima. The characters are all
amazingly developed and the author has taken great care to show that the
world is selfish, greedy and completely lacking in humanity. Nailer was just like the rest of the people in shipbreaker's world and the author emphasizes how it is his near death experience that makes him different.Nita is
an equally likable character, though she is a rich, spoiled brat I like
how she quickly adapts herself to the poverty stricken world she's thrown in.
The story is fast paced and action
packed, there isn't a boring moment. The plot's great and the writing is
amazing with vivid descriptions. I love how there is absolutely no info dumping. We haven't been told anything, from the very first chapter we get to SEE how Nailer lives.
This book is recommended for everyone. Even if your not a dystopian lover I'm sure you'll find Ship Breaker an enjoyable read. However there is only a hint of romance in the story and if your a fan of romance novels you may not find Ship Breaker that fun. But still it's an amazing book. (less)
