Talisman of EL (Review)

Title: Talisman of EL
Author(s): Alecia Stone
Edition: Hardcover, 364 pages
Publisher: Centrinian Publishing Ltd
Publication Date: May 20, 2012
Source: Received from DAC ARC Tour
Buy: Amazon, Barnes & Noble

The Summary

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WHAT IF YOUR WHOLE LIFE WAS A LIE?

One Planet.

Two Worlds.

Population: Human ... 7 billion.

Others ... unknown.

When 14-year-old Char­lie Blake wakes up sweat­ing and gasp­ing for air in the mid­dle of the night, he knows it is hap­pen­ing again. This time he wit­nesses a bru­tal mur­der. He's afraid to tell any­one. No one would believe him ... because it was a dream. Just like the one he had four years ago - the day before his dad died.

Char­lie doesn't know why this is hap­pen­ing. He would give any­thing to have an ordi­nary life. The prob­lem: he doesn't belong in the world he knows as home.
He belongs with the others.

(Goodreads)

My Opinion

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I got Talisman of EL through the Debut Author Challenge ARC Tour, which was really awesome!  When I read the synopsis for the book, I was really intrigued.  I liked that the protagonist, Charlie, was more than he knew, and I wanted to know who these "Others" were.  Unfortunately, the book didn't hold up to my expectations.

Most of the time when I get reading if I'm hooked into a character then I am golden.  And this is where the book fell short for me.  I couldn't connect with any of the characters.  Charlie, Alex, and Richmond were the three main kids with Derkein acting as the their stand in parental figure.  Each one never really acted the way I believe a person would.  Their decisions, conversations, and actions were always abrupt and often lacked explanation.  I didn't think the story flowed logically, creating discrepancies within the structure.

The plot of the book was really ambitious, combining elements of fantasy, mythology, and adventure.  Sometimes I couldn't tell what was going on, which is fine when there is later an explanation, but none was forthcoming.  The length of the book didn't help either; it was too long and too drawn out.

Talisman of EL just wasn't for me.  Many people have really loved it, so if you want to, go pick up a copy and check it out for yourself.  Just because I didn't like it, doesn't mean that you won't.  I may revisit the book once the nest one in the series comes out to see if it gets better.  I try never to abandon books completely, but try again a couple years later!

Extras

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Book Trailer

Final Rating

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Book Cover: 3/5
Book Title: 4/5
Plot: 8/10
Characters: 8/10
Writing: 7/10
Ending: 7/10
Overall: 37/50: C

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Incarnate (Review)

Title: Incarnate

Author(s): Jodi Meadows
Edition: ARC, 384 pages

Publisher: HarperCollins Children's Books

Publication Date: January 31, 2012

Source: Part of Book Tour

Buy: Amazon, Barnes & Noble

The Summary

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NEWSOUL 

Ana is new. For thousands of years in Range, a million souls have been reincarnated over and over, keeping their memories and experiences from previous lifetimes. When Ana was born, another soul vanished, and no one knows why. 

NOSOUL 

Even Ana’s own mother thinks she’s a nosoul, an omen of worse things to come, and has kept her away from society. To escape her seclusion and learn whether she’ll be reincarnated, Ana travels to the city of Heart, but its citizens are suspicious and afraid of what her presence means. When dragons and sylph attack the city, is Ana to blame? 

HEART 

Sam believes Ana’s new soul is good and worthwhile. When he stands up for her, their relationship blooms. But can he love someone who may live only once, and will Ana’s enemies—human and creature alike—let them be together? Ana needs to uncover the mistake that gave her someone else’s life, but will her quest threaten the peace of Heart and destroy the promise of reincarnation for all?

(Goodreads)

My Opinion
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Incarnate by Jodi Meadows has been one of the big talked about debut books of 2012, and I was really excited to be a part of the awesome book tour that Yara over at Once Upon a Twilight hosted.  It was exciting for two reasons: (1) I really wanted to read the book, (2) It is on my 2012 Debut Author Challenge.  Score!

I had mixed feelings about the book after reading it.  I really liked the premise, and I felt there were some interesting moral/ethical questions brought up with the introduction of this "newsoul" in this city filled by reincarnated people.  The plot was most likely my favorite part, even if the "action" was slow coming.  As the first book in a series, I often expect there to be more world development and less action, so that didn't bother me.

I really liked Ana as a protagonist.  The reader sees her grow into herself, and find a place within Heart, but at the same time, compared to the other residents, she is still a baby.  It's an interesting juxtaposition.  I also like Sam.  He isn't a really "swoon-worthy" male lead, but he is so sweet to Ana.  I think the other interesting thing that Meadows did was not keep the characters one sex.  In each incarnation they could switch from male to female, female to male, or stay the same.  It's interesting because the characters will often have memories and opinions based on that previous incarnation.  It's also interesting to think of gender this way because what really makes you, you?

But the thing that kept tripping me up was the writing style.  It was all at once archaic sounding but very simplistic.  I felt it had a lot of exposition and not much feeling.  It was stilted in places and never really flowed the way I wish it did.  It just didn't groove, and because of that I kept being jolted out of the story.

Overall, I think it was a solid debut.  It didn't blow me away, but I did enjoy it.  Because this is the first book in the planned series, I definitely want to see where Meadows ends up.  I think Incarnate had a ton of potential, and hopefully, in book two, it will shine a little more.

Final Rating

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Book Cover: 5/5

Book Title: 5/5

Plot: 8/10

Characters: 8/10

Writing: 6/10

Ending: 7/10

Overall: 39/50: C+

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Hush, Hush (Review)

Title: Hush, Hush 

Edition: Paperback,  400 pages

Author(s): Becca Fitzpatrick

Publisher: Simon and Schuster

Publication Date: October 13, 2009

Source: Barnes & Noble

Buy: Amazon, Barnes & Noble

  

  

  


The Summary

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For Nora Grey, romance was not part of the plan. She's never been particularly attracted to the boys at her school, no matter how much her best friend, Vee, pushes them at her...until Patch comes along.

With his easy smile and eyes that seem to see inside her, Nora is drawn to him against her better judgment, but after a series of terrifying encounters, Nora's not sure whom to trust. Patch seems to be everywhere she is, and to know more about her than her closest friends. She can't decide whether she should fall into his arms or run and hide. And when she tries to seek some answers, she finds herself near a truth that is far more unsettling than anything Patch makes her feel. 

For Nora is right in the middle of an ancient battle between the immortal and those that have fallen - and when it comes to choosing sides, the wrong choice will cost her life.

(Goodreads)

 My Opinion

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Hush, Hush is most likely a book I won't read over and over again.  That being said, I did enjoy the book.  It has an interesting premise, with the concept of Fallen Angels and how they are meant to get what they want (can't say too much or it'll spoil the book!).  Nora and Patch are interesting characters, but at times I would get frustrated with them both.

Nora's development is static for the most part, and she doesn't react the way most humans would to the things which happen to her.  This is an aspect that annoyed me while reading, just as it does when I'm watching a thriller.  Because, for all intensive purposes, that's what this book ends up being, which brings me to another problem I had.

The pace of the story is extremely slow.  At least I felt it was.  It wasn't until the last third of the book that the plot picked up.  Before that it was a drawn out "detective" runaround with Nora and her best friend Vee.  Each time I thought "Finally, she figures it out!" something would happen, and often times it wasn't surprising just aggravating.

I think I would have found this book much more engrossing if it had been told from Patch's point of view.  Patch, while not the protagonist, ends up being the more interesting of the two leads.  The conflict he goes through in the book is a much more compelling storyline than the drama Nora finds (sometimes fabricates) herself into.

However, the mythos that is involved within this book is what kept me going.  The premise of fallen angels, guardian angels, and a battle of Heavenly origin.  Being Catholic, I am always interested to see how people interpret such a big aspect of Christian dogma.  There are a lot of interesting takes on Angels and Fallen Angels, and I'm hoping that Crescendo, the second book in the series moves the plot along faster than in Hush, Hush as we have a base in which to establish ourselves. 

Final Rating

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Book Cover: 4/5

Book Title: 4/5

Plot: 7/10

Characters: 7/10

Writing: 7/10

Ending: 8/10 

Overall: 37/50: C

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Metamorphosis: Junior Year (Review)

Title: Metamorphosis: Junior Year

Edition: Hardcover, 128 pages

Author(s): Betsy Franco

Publisher: Candlewick Press

Publication Date: October 13, 2009

Source: Amazon.com

Buy: Amazon, Barnes & Noble

  

The Summary

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Life. Love. Death. Identity. 

Ovid’s got a lot on his mind, and he pours it all — as confessions, observations, narrative poems, and drawings — into the pages of a notebook. Inspired by his namesake, he wryly records his classmates’ dramas as modern-day Roman mythology. There’s Sophie and Caleb, the Psyche and Cupid of cyber-couples; poetic Paula, who pursues filmmaker Franny like Apollo chasing Daphne; and graphic novelist Duwayne, a Proserpina shuttling between divorced parents. Meanwhile, Ovid hides his own Olympian struggles: his meth addict sister Thena has run off, leaving him with a suffocating home life and a disturbing secret. In her striking YA debut, Betsy Franco introduces an expressive soul with a heartbreakingly authentic voice. Fantastical ink illustrations by her son Tom Franco enhance the intimate tone, delving deep into one intriguing teen’s imagination.

(Goodreads)

 My Opinion

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What drew me to this book wasn't a review from a fellow book blogger, or even word of mouth from a friend.  Nope, I bought this based on plain old book summary (the one listed above in fact).  I have an obsession with Greek/Roman mythology.  I've read The Odyssey 20 times, watched each movie made about the myths (super excited for The Eagle to be coming out!), and tried to read as many YA books based on the subject (some of my favorites: Psyche in a Dress by Francesca Lia Block, The Lightning Thief (Percy Jackson and the Olympians, Book 1) by Rick Riordan, The Eagle of the Ninth (The Roman Britain Trilogy) by Rosemary Sutcliff & Nobody's Princess (Princesses of Myth) by Esther M. Friesner).  So when I saw that Betsy Franco (mother of James Franco) used Ovid's Metamorphoses in a modern context I was excited!

Unfortunately, when I started to read I was disappointed.  Yes, the story is told in poetry, with a mix of prose to make it more tangible for modern teens, and the illusions  of each character is really good, there isn't enough.  Like when you get a bite of some great dessert, but that's all?  That's how this book was for me.  I wanted more: more character development, more explication, more coherence.  I think it would have been easy to accomplish with the format presented.

This is really upsetting because the writing is beautiful.  There are some really great lines: "But Thena beat every poetic bone out of their bodies.  They walled up that part of themselves, and it'd take a lightning bolt to crack them open again" (pg. 66).  But no matter how good the writing is, the plot is suffering.  All the reader has to wrap up a book with some pretty intense issues being explored, such as, cutting, anorexia, sexual abuse, meth addiction, is an epilogue that simply has a couple of lines about each character.

In addition, Franco has her other son, Tom, include his art to help illustrate the book.  The drawings are suppose to be as if Ovid (the protagonist, go figure) is drawing them.  I understand what Franco is trying to do, but I don't feel this really adds anything to the book.  The drawings are somewhat confusing to look at, which could have been really good as Ovid is confused and dealing with a lot of things, but they end up just detracting. 

I really wanted to love this book, but I didn't.  I like it, I don't regret buying it, but I just wish it was ten times thicker than it is.

 Final Rating

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Book Cover: 4.5/5

Book Title: 3/5

Plot: 6.5/10

Characters: 7/10

Writing: 8/10

Ending:6/10 

Overall: 35/50 - C

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