Review of Obsidian by Jennifer L. Armentrout

by: Sarah

 Author Website/Goodreads/Amazon

Release Date: May 8th, 2012

Publisher: Entangled Teen

Pages: 335 pages 

Series: 1 of 5

My Format: ebook

Rating: ★★☆☆☆ / 1.5 out of 5

Starting over sucks.

When we moved to West Virginia right before my senior year, I'd pretty much resigned myself to thick accents, dodgy internet access, and a whole lot of boring.... until I spotted my hot neighbor, with his looming height and eerie green eyes. Things were looking up.

And then he opened his mouth.

Daemon is infuriating. Arrogant. Stab-worthy. We do not get along. At all. But when a stranger attacks me and Daemon literally freezes time with a wave of his hand, well, something...unexpected happens. 

The hot alien living next door marks me.

You heard me. Alien. Turns out Daemon and his sister have a galaxy of enemies wanting to steal their abilities, and Daemon's touch has me lit up like the Vegas Strip. The only way I'm getting out of this alive is by sticking close to Daemon until my alien mojo fades. 

If I don't kill him first, that is.

--

I know I'm going to offend so many people with this review, and I'm sorry in advance, but I'm gonna have to lay it all out there anyway.

I laughed pretty much throughout the entirety of this book. And not in a haha this is a well-written funny book kind of way, but more in a I actually can't believe this is real kind of way. So in that sense, I enjoyed it. I thought it was hilarious. But that's probably kind of bad, because I don't think it's supposed to be. 

I'm all for the hot asshole romantic male lead. ALL FOR IT. But in this book it doesn't actually ever make any sense. Usually when the male lead in a romance is standoffish and rude toward the heroine, it's because of some unseen danger he is ultimately protecting her from. But let's just say, realistically, if this were to be the case, I feel like any (para)normal guy would simply make his case known and leave the heroine alone or more likely, for the sake of keeping the story interesting, keep her at an awkward arm's length until they are passionately thrown together by circumstance and raging hormones. 

That...kind of happened in this book. Only mix in a whole lot of filler characters and sub plots that lead nowhere and big shiny ice-cream tubs (literally) of hokey plot devices. Most noticeably, Katy's mother and her disappearing act. It was a little silly to me that she was included as a character, when her only job was to breeze into scenes and say something like "Oh, honey." and then go to sleep or work or something. And Daemon's attitude toward Katy was just ridiculous, let's be real. He constantly goes out of his way to be extremely mean to her. And not even your typical hot asshole in a YA romance mean, but like actually just really nasty. I get that he was "supposed to be that way" because, he's like, protecting her and in denial that he has the hots for her, in general. Yeah, I got it. But it was still portrayed in a cringe-worthy fashion. Every time I read the word "kitten" I threw up in my mouth a little bit. And Katy, well, she was alright. She was no Bella, that's for sure. But she wasn't really the best heroine ever, either. Outside of her interactions with Daemon she was fine, but otherwise I was side-eyeing her the entire time. The writing in this book was all over the place. It was very dialogue heavy, which I don't mind at all, but the dialogue was quite repetitive and I couldn't understand why most of it hadn't been scrapped in the editing process. The big inevitable make-out scene was nice. Who doesn't enjoy a good make-out scene? But unfortunately it was not enough to redeem the rest of the book for me.

 The good news? It seems as though I'm in the vast minority when it comes to this book. 

yikes

Its fanbase is growing by the day and I'm sure as the series continues it will only become bigger. Just please don't band together to throw things at me. That's my only request.  I do have plans to read the sequel at some point, I'm not even going to lie, this series has major guilty pleasure potential for me. IF the writing improves at least a little bit and Daemon stops being an exaggerated cliche and stars acting like a normal person alien.

ARCs I'd Sock the Pope for... Part Two

The other day, I posted about ARCs that I'm pretty much dying for. Well, I really can't limit it to just 5, so here's part two. Here's the intro from the other post:

Ignore the title. I like the Pope a lot.

So there are just a few things on my wishlist that I need, like NOW. I know a lot of other people have made posts on this, so I decided to join the frenzy and provide me Matt Lauer style commentary. (AKA- It sucks and is totally unnecessary and contrived.)

NONE of these are sequels, because I hate reading sequels. It feels like too much work.

5. The Raven Boys

 

Title: The Raven Boys (The Raven Cycle #1)
Author: Maggie Stiefvater
Release Date: September 18th, 2012
Publisher: Scholastic Press

“There are only two reasons a non-seer would see a spirit on St. Mark’s Eve,” Neeve said. “Either you’re his true love . . . or you killed him.”

It is freezing in the churchyard, even before the dead arrive.

Every year, Blue Sargent stands next to her clairvoyant mother as the soon-to-be dead walk past. Blue herself never sees them—not until this year, when a boy emerges from the dark and speaks directly to her.

His name is Gansey, and Blue soon discovers that he is a rich student at Aglionby, the local private school. Blue has a policy of staying away from Aglionby boys. Known as Raven Boys, they can only mean trouble.

But Blue is drawn to Gansey, in a way she can’t entirely explain. He has it all—family money, good looks, devoted friends—but he’s looking for much more than that. He is on a quest that has encompassed three other Raven Boys: Adam, the scholarship student who resents all the privilege around him; Ronan, the fierce soul who ranges from anger to despair; and Noah, the taciturn watcher of the four, who notices many things but says very little.

For as long as she can remember, Blue has been warned that she will cause her true love to die. She never thought this would be a problem. But now, as her life becomes caught up in the strange and sinister world of the Raven Boys, she’s not so sure anymore.

I wasn't a huge fan of Shiver by Maggie Steifvater, but I cannot deny that she writes so heart-achingly beautifully. In that vein, I'm very excited to see a new venture in fantasy.

4. Mystic City

 

Title: Mystic City (Mystic City #1)
Author: Theo Lawrence
Release Date: October 9th, 2012
Publisher: Random House Children's

For fans of Matched, The Hunger Games, X-Men, and Blade Runner comes a tale of a magical city divided. A political rebellion ignited. A love that was meant to last forever.

Aria Rose, youngest scion of one of Mystic City's two ruling rival families, finds herself betrothed to Thomas Foster, the son of her parents' sworn enemies. The union of the two will end the generations-long political feud—and unite all those living in the Aeries, the privileged upper reaches of the city, against the banished mystics who dwell below in the Depths. But Aria doesn't remember falling in love with Thomas; in fact, she wakes one day with huge gaps in her memory. And she can't conceive why her parents would have agreed to unite with the Fosters in the first place. Only when Aria meets Hunter, a gorgeous rebel mystic from the Depths, does she start to have glimmers of recollection—and to understand that he holds the key to unlocking her past. The choices she makes can save or doom the city—including herself.

I'll admit that this really doesn't sound all that exciting. However, I actually HAVE an e-arc of this (and I didn't even sock the Pope!) and I've read the first chapter and I'm quite excited. I'd love to get my grubby hands on a physical copy of this.

3. Renegade

Title: Renegade (Elysium-Chronicles #1)
Author: J.A. Souders
Release Date: November 13th, 2012
Publisher: Tor Teen

Since the age of three, sixteen-year-old Evelyn Winters has been trained to be Daughter of the People in the underwater utopia known as Elysium. Selected from hundreds of children for her ideal genes all her life she’s thought that everything was perfect; her world. Her people. The Law.

But when Gavin Hunter, a Surface Dweller, accidentally stumbles into their secluded little world, she’s forced to come to a startling realization: everything she knows is a lie. Her memories have been altered. Her mind and body aren’t under her own control. And the person she knows as Mother is a monster.

Together with Gavin she plans her escape, only to learn that her own mind is a ticking time bomb... and Mother has one last secret that will destroy them all.

I'm familiar with underwater utopias. (*cough* Bioshock *cough*). I'm also familiar with futuristic utopia literature. I'm participating on the blog tour for this, so I'm interested in seeing how this turns out.

2. Mind Games

Title: Mind Games (Mind Games #1)
Author: Kiersten White
Release Date: February 19th, 2013
Publisher: HarperTEEN

Fia was born with flawless instincts. Her first impulse, her gut feeling, is always exactly right. Her sister, Annie, is blind to the world around her—except when her mind is gripped by strange visions of the future.

Trapped in a school that uses girls with extraordinary powers as tools for corporate espionage, Annie and Fia are forced to choose over and over between using their abilities in twisted, unthinkable ways…or risking each other’s lives by refusing to obey.

In a stunning departure from her New York Times bestselling Paranormalcy trilogy, Kiersten White delivers a slick, edgy, heartstoppingly intense psychological thriller about two sisters determined to protect each other—no matter the cost.

Two words: Cov and er.

1. The Archived

Title: The Archived (The Archived #1)
Author: Victoria Schwab
Release Date: January 22nd, 2013
Publisher: Hyperion

Imagine a place where the dead rest on shelves like books.

Each body has a story to tell, a life seen in pictures that only Librarians can read. The dead are called Histories, and the vast realm in which they rest is the Archive.

Da first brought Mackenzie Bishop here four years ago, when she was twelve years old, frightened but determined to prove herself. Now Da is dead, and Mac has grown into what he once was, a ruthless Keeper, tasked with stopping often-violent Histories from waking up and getting out. Because of her job, she lies to the people she loves, and she knows fear for what it is: a useful tool for staying alive.

Being a Keeper isn't just dangerous—it's a constant reminder of those Mac has lost. Da's death was hard enough, but now her little brother is gone too. Mac starts to wonder about the boundary between living and dying, sleeping and waking. In the Archive, the dead must never be disturbed. And yet, someone is deliberately altering Histories, erasing essential chapters. Unless Mac can piece together what remains, the Archive itself might crumble and fall.

In this haunting, richly imagined novel, Victoria Schwab reveals the thin lines between past and present, love and pain, trust and deceit, unbearable loss and hard-won redemption.

If this author is as awesome at writing as she is on Twitter, then I think I won't have any trouble loving this book.

Review of Survive by Alex Morel

by: Sarah

 Author Website/Goodreads/Amazon

Release Date: August 2nd, 2012

Publisher: Razorbill

Pages: 272 pages 

Series: No

My Format: ebook

Rating: ★★★★☆ / 3.75 out of 5

Jane is on a plane on her way home to Montclair, New Jersey, from a mental hospital. She is about to kill herself. Just before she can swallow a lethal dose of pills, the plane hits turbulence and everything goes black. Jane wakes up amidst piles of wreckage and charred bodies on a snowy mountaintop. There is only one other survivor: a boy named Paul, who inspires Jane to want to fight for her life for the first time.

Jane and Paul scale icy slopes and huddle together for warmth at night, forging an intense emotional bond. But the wilderness is a vast and lethal force, and only one of them will survive.

I went into this book a bit cynically, thinking it was going to be a typical YA cautionary "appreciate life" tale. Not that there's anything wrong with those tales, but being that I'm not brimming with teen angst and adolescent insecurities like I used to be, I didn't think it would resonate as deeply with me as it I imagined it would with someone younger.  Boy was I wrong, she typed furiously through her tears. 

In any case, this story is a little different from most of the teen books centered around suicide that I've read. Most of them present you with a character you automatically feel very sorry for. They're fresh off an unimaginable tragedy or their depression is explained in such stark and emotional detail that your heart aches for them right from the get go. That wasn't the case (for me, at least) when it comes to our main character, Jane. At first she simply seems detached and bored with life and the reader doesn't exactly know why. It's obvious she's got some anxiety and supressed issues but I remember reading a line about her "miserable" life and thinking, what's so bad about your life, kid? Come on, now. Only to be rewarded with that very information pages later. Ahhh, I get it now. Clever writing. I loved the bitter irony of a girl who thought she had nothing to left to live for being thrown into a situation where she now has to fight not only for her life, but someone else's as well. 

This book is quite short, sad, and sweet. It managed to take me on a rollercoaster from somewhat indifference, to yearning, to hope, and to tears in the span of 272 pages. And in that way I felt like I sort of developed as a reader in the same way that Jane developed as a character. Corny, I know, but it was an emotional experience. As I've said countless times before, I'm a character girl. If you get me to care about your characters, you've got me. And this book really got me. Even as sparse as this book was, I felt for Jane and Paul as if their characters had been fleshed out for ages. Definitely worth the read. The only thing I'll warn any potential readers against is that fact that it is a short read (though this may be preferable to some) and the "hatchet meets lost" tagline surrounding this book. I get the effort to draw in readers that way, but I think if you go into this book thinking you're going to get something as complex as Lost or as gritty as Hatchet, you might be a bit disappointed. Survive is it's own story, I don't think it needs any half-hearted comparisons to make it stand out.