ARC Review of Cracked by Eliza Crewe (GIVEAWAY!)

Title: Cracked (Soul Eaters #1)
Author: Eliza Crewe
Review by: Sarah
Release Date: November 5th, 2013
Publisher: Strange Chemistry
Pages: 326

 

Ever since my mom was murdered, I’ve been completely alone. I live in the shadows, because there’s no one like me. I have no choice because I have to fight the Hunger, the Hunger that drives me to hunt people and eat their souls. And I have to fight it if I want to stay out of the darkness.
 Who am I?
I’m Meda Melange.What am I?I don’t know—but I’m not human.And now, I finally have the chance to find out.
In this first book of the gripping Soul Eater trilogy, find out who Meda is and which side she will come down on in a thrilling tale of the war between good and evil.

So Meda knows she is a monster. Never bothered to find out the specifics, exactly. But she's too busy eating people's souls, anyway. She needs them to survive. For the sake of her late mother, she tries to limit herself to only the Bad Guys, a la Dexter. When the book opens, we meet our wouldn't-be heroine, Meda, who is currently plotting some nefarious deeds while locked away in a mental institution. Awesome. Meda's voice is the perfect mix of sarcasm and sass, with just a touch of hidden depths, making the reader laugh with her, cringe at her, and sympathize with her all in the span of a few pages.

Fast forward, and Meda is now thrown into is a world of Templars and demons. The Templars are a special brand of humans that devote their lives to ridding the world of demons. Meda involuntarily ends up tagging along with a young group of Crusaders-in-training after they mistakenly think they've saved poor, innocent Meda from a nasty death by demons. In reality, Meda herself is part demon (oops) though she didn't know until now. She plays up the damsel in distress act, careful not to inform her new companions of her true identity, but if they find out, she can just eat them, anyway. No skin off Meda's back. Or is it? What she's really after is finding out the truth about her parentage and her existence, only to come upon a lot more than she bargained for.

Meda's characterization was probably one of my favorite things about the book, it's not everyday you see such unabashed anti-heroism in a main female character in young adult literature. I've been craving this kind of character to pop up more in YA novels, so I was very excited when I saw this book was giving me just that.  I loved that she was decidedly unaffected by the boy-hero character and went back and forth between plotting his untimely death on multiple occasions. Even though she struggles with coming to care for the people she tentatively calls her "friends", she's a looking out for number one kind of girl, and I loved that. That being said, it was fascinating to see Meda's progression throughout the book and I think it will be even more interesting to see how her character progresses throughout the rest of this series as she battles between the light and dark inside of her.

Another thing I particularly enjoyed was getting to know this world the author has set up for us. I haven't been this excited about a new fantastical/paranormal world in quite some time. Though a bit complicated, the world of Cracked is easy to follow and understand and I can't wait to learn more about it as the series continues. Not to mention our colorful cast of characters, especially a certain someone, a hot someone (hey, Meda's words, not mine!) in particular I suspect when haven't seen the last of.

This book was fast paced, action packed, and fun as much as it is heartwrenching. I always hate to be That Guy that says, "it's like blank meets blank!" So I'll try to be a little less cheesy and say I think fans of shows like Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Supernatural and books like Vampire Academy would eat this up! Especially my voracious readers out there who aren't ready to come off their Halloween high just yet. You'll be excited to get your hands on this book and I'm sure it won't disappoint!

3 and a half coffee cups!

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Review of Bloodlines by Richelle Mead

by: Sarah
Release Date: August 23rd, 2011
Publisher: Razorbill
Pages: 421 pages
Series: Bloodlines #1
Rating: ★★☆☆☆/ 2 out of 5

Blood doesn't lie...
Sydney is an alchemist, one of a group of humans who dabble in magic and serve to bridge the worlds of human and vampires. They protect vampire secrets - and human lives. When Sydney is torn from her bed in the middle of the night, at first she thinks she's still being punished for her complicated alliance with dhampir Rose Hathaway. But what unfolds is far worse. Jill Dragomir - the sister of Moroi Queen Lissa Dragomir - is in mortal danger, and the Moroi must send her into hiding. To avoid a civil war, Sydney is called upon to act as Jill's guardian and protector, posing as her roommate in the last place anyone would think to look for vampire royalty - a human boarding school in Palm Springs, California. But instead of finding safety at Amberwood Prep, Sydney discovers the drama is only just beginning...

Oh, Richelle Mead.



My feelings


They are mixed.


I know when you see 2 stars you immediately think oh they hated it, but in this case I literally do mean "It was okay". Not particularly good, just okay. 

I'm not super familiar with the Vampire Academy series (I only read one of the books) so I appreciated that this book takes time to recap and explain some shit that went down in that series, though it wasn't very cleverly threaded in. I could see how people know the VA series would find it really annoying having all this stuff retold. 

The writing in this book was...odd. It felt very amateurish. There was a lot of repetitive description. I think someone said something "dryly" a million times. There was also a lot of rapid time progression. I mean like literally there would be 5 word sentences that glossed over events that should have been fully fleshed out paragraphs. Also, not to mention this sort of nonsense:

“Okay,” I said, standing up. “Let’s go.”
In the car, Adrian turned to me.

I'm glad Sydney and Adrian were able to teleport from the middle of one scene to the next. 

There were several other incidents of this sort of writing which is just really fanfictiony and strange. A lot of the storytelling just felt kind of flat, there were some really great scenes scattered throughout but overall it was just so...meh.

Now, character-wise...I think this might be bad but, I liked Sydney? I mean, she's a very flawed character and I'm pretty sure she made all the mistakes but I don't know what it was about her...she had some good moments (and some dumb as hell ones) and I just felt her I'm sorry if this is an egregious offense but I felt her.  I think she has the potential to grow and develop into a really amazing character. I'm holding out for this. 

Adrian was...honestly I don't even know if I can put my feelings for him into words. He pissed me off a lot and most of his lines were just straight up dumb (but I did love some of the Sydney/Adrian banter) and his victimy bullshit wore on my patience like no other but I don't know you guys I just don't know the scene between he and Sydney when they're being all dynamic duo in the tattoo parlor it was just cute okay please leave me alone. And of course I liked that there's no romance-romance between them (not yet, anyway). That's always refreshing in YA.

This book has frazzled me. There was so much about it I found bland and shallow but the story itself was interesting and entertaining to me. I really like this world! It's one of the more interesting takes on vampires in YA I've come across. Although I don't come across a lot of vampire stories at all so maybe you shouldn't take my word for it.

EDIT: If you loved Bloodlines and I just offended your whole life, please forgive me! And take comfort in that in the time between writing this review and posting it I have read The Golden Lily and enjoyed that one much more. Will post my review  for that soon. 

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Review also on goodreads

Review of Team Human by Justine Larbalestier and Sarah Rees Brennan

by: Sarah
Author Website/Goodreads/Amazon
Release Date: July 3rd, 2012
Publisher: HarperTeen
Pages: 352 pages
Rating: ★★★☆☆/ 3 out of 5

Just because Mel lives in New Whitby, a city founded by vampires, doesn’t mean she knows any of the blood-drinking undead personally. They stay in their part of town; she says in hers. Until the day a vampire shows up at her high school. Worse yet, her best friend, Cathy, seems to be falling in love with him. It’s up to Mel to save Cathy from a mistake she might regret for all eternity!
On top of trying to help Cathy (whether she wants it or not), Mel is investigating a mysterious disappearance for another friend and discovering the attractions of a certain vampire wannabe. Combine all this with a cranky vampire cop, a number of unlikely romantic entanglements, and the occasional zombie, and soon Mel is hip-deep in an adventure that is equal parts hilarious and touching.

Pretty simple set up here. Girl meets moody vampire. Moody vampire realizes girl is very very very very special. They want to be together 5ever. She must become a vampire immediately because of reasons. Except, in this story, the main character is not the very very very very special girl, but her fiercely protective best friend who is not buying any stockholm syndrome today.

 This is one of those books that as you close it makes you glance up wistfully at the sky and nod slightly to yourself. That is, if you like it. If you don't like it, it will probably just make you roll your eyes a lot. I liked it but I can see how this book could be really annoying to some people. Our main character, Mel, isn't exactly super likeable most of the time. But in my case that's what I sort of liked about her. She's a seventeen year old girl with some good opinions and some cringe-worthy ones, but her character did grow throughout the book and I'm sure she will continue to grow in that alternate universe where all book characters still go about their lives.

 I liked that this book takes place in a world a la True Blood where everyone knows that vampires are real and the trials and tribulations of coexisting etc etc. I find that a lot more interesting and entertaining than the whole vampires are real but no one knows and when someone finds out they are shocked -SHOCKED- even though we are surrounded by vampires in all types of media. I also liked the unique take on how people become vampires and what can happen if a "transition" goes awry.

 High Point: Kit was adorable. It's the usually the male love interest I'm narrowing my eyes at in YA books but in this case I was doing all my eye-narrowing at Mel the whole time so Kit got off easy. It was a cute book with a good message about acceptance and thinking for yourself hidden in there somewhere. Not a must-read, but still enjoyable.

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Review also on: goodreads