ARC Review: Armada - Ernest Cline

Armada
Ernest Cline
Series: N/A
Genre: Science Fiction, Young Adult
Rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars
Release Date: July 14, 2015
Publisher: Crown Publishing
Goodreads | Amazon | Book Depository

Thanks to Crown Publishing for the ARC I received at BookExpo America!

Clunky.

If I had to rate this novel in one word, it would be clunky.

The actual language is fine. Actually, it's the best part of the book. Cline manages to immerse the reader in the mind of a young Zack Lightman, a suburban high school senior who is also a colossal 1960s to 2000 era video games and Sci-Fi movies. Zack's voice is accessible, believable, and so are the voices of his peers and other minor characters.

Zack upon witnessing a real, physical Glaive Fighter spaceship from the video game, Armada:

"My first thought was: holy f*cking sh*."

"Followed immediately by: I can't believe this is finally happening."

I loved the premise of Zack. He has an exaggerated version of the escapist core that many people who read fiction have, and Cline lets this pour though his voice. Other characters as well use phrases from the teen lexicon, and all is well on this front.

Cline can get heavy with the technicalities or a particular section of video game mythology but it never feels forced and his variance and style keep the writing fresh.

The rest of the novel, however, falls apart, more or less.

Plot (or, in other words, incredibly convenient set of events.)

I've found a lot of praise for Cline's first novel, Ready Player One, especially for its complex, twisting set of plots that intertwine well at the end. Armada is not that. The plot is highly one-dimensional, and heavily focused on Zack. It is linear, and has one or two twists that actually make for a satisfying read, if you're not able to pick up on the foreshadowing, that is. One thing about the plot that kept me reading was Zack failing. At critical plot points, Zack did not live up to his Sci-Fi protagonist duty and I loved that, because though he's an incredible player, it shows the flaw in the premise of the novel that the characters struggle to address themselves.

However, there is way too much time spending homages to movies/games/etc that Cline obviously grew up with and desires to impart on the reader. While Zack is deciphering his dead father's work during the establishing part of the novel's beginning, I almost wanted to give up because there was so much throwback. A high amount of throwback is great, I love when it happens. But almost everything Zack experiences seems to have an equivalent and it's a bit daunting. And this, of course, would still be fine (what with google to clarify the finer details like the Polybus myth).

Since Cline is also trying to differentiate this work from the Sci-Fi before it and create something more "original," the reader is left almost entirely with Zack offhandedly mentioning x event, which reminds him of y movie. I know we're nerds and all, but not everyone remembers every scene from the original Total Recall. 

While the beginning takes it slow, once the novel picks up it flies through the action at a considerable pace. However, I found that by the end, it lost the rhythmic, decent pace and felt rushed to tie up strings and get through the climax.

Characters:

It's weird how much in common Zack and I have as nerds and yet at no point was I compelled to really like him beyond the way he speaks. He's an interesting character. He simply rubs me . . . and a good deal of people in the book . . . the wrong way. He can be grating and he often acts on impulse and unfortunately, feels boring. I did like his anger management issues and how much attention was given to how much he suffered because of his father's death, but at times Zack's actions were a bit over the top.

That, of course, does not make the book clunky. Especially with characters as awesome as Whoadie and Lex, with earlier characters like the Mikes, the novel is alive with fresh banter and great voices. And this, of course, does not make the book clunky.

What makes the characters clunky is Cline's inability to have diverse characters in a nuanced way. Let's roll it like this: there's not a single woman of color in the novel for 175 pages. Not. A. Single. One. Not until 175 pages are we introduced to Whoadie, a young black girl.

Actually, it's probably worse, considering Mike Cruz, a character only really relevant in the beginning for as long as it takes the plot to find Zack, there's only one person of color. At least, Mike Cruz might be a person of color.

This situation happens because all of the diversity in this book is crammed into the scene that begins about page 176 and continues for a chapter. A young black girl, a 20-something Chinese man are with Zack and two others on a ship relocating from the first base Zack is in. To be fair to Cline, after this page, it gets a little better, with the inclusion of a couple of more drops and, lo and behold, a female president! 

But, the fact that it took that long is statistically ridiculous.

Actually, why is Zack even a man? Or white? Cline missed one of the best opportunities to capitalize on the blatant misogyny the video-game world has lodged against women in the last couple of years while simultaneously distancing Armada from his last book and, oh, LITERALLY ALL of the Sci-Fi that he pays homage to but also mocks for being too cliche. Having a daring young, specifically masculine and white, character be your protag is cliche. 

Seriously. The last three years have been an incredible insight into the video game industry and the hatred of women in those industries. Companies like Ubisoft have come under attack for this, while a very rare few, like BioWare, were praised for consistently offering a lot of minority (queer, ethnic, etc) representation in their games, especially with the Dragon Age series. This would have been so perfect. Zack's counterpart would have, like so many women, had to defend his claim to nerd-dom in ridiculous ways. Unfortunately, we only have a few scenes where characters discuss the sexism or showcase it, and to be honest it is not enough.

And, I really don't think that Cline means to do this. It's just the fact that he's emulating the kinds of stories he grew up with, and those stories were stripped of strong women and often, people of color. The simple fact that he comes to include some diverse characters later on and the fact that the scene in question has a character calling out some sexism, combined with the earlier presentation of Zack's mother and the initial introduction of Lex, proves that Cline is not trying to conform to a white-centered, hetero-normative world-view. 

In fact, you can tell Cline's not purposefully doing this if you pay attention to the certain cultural markers he defines. For example defines the beginning of sci-fi with great men, and he defines it arbitrarily in the mid to late 1900s. Which is weird, because over a century before, Mary Shelly, a woman, popularized the the genre. It's later forms, even space cowboy dramas, paid homage to her work. It is clear he is working with the male-dominated narrative that pushed video games as he grew up and still does so. But even so, Star Trek existed, with exceptional representation for its time. 

You can also tell by the fact that he can create seriously awesome women. Honestly if I only had a novel about the life of Zack's mother, I would lose nothing because that lady is incredible, throwing in as much gusto to her "you shall not pass" as her mild-tough-love. 

But unfortunately, though Cline doesn't seem to mean to, it gets really grating. And it's not just the 175 page gap, either. 

Cline uses the terms women and female interchangeably, making reading this entire novel incredibly confusing. I hate when books do this. It's hard to review books that do this. Gender does not equal what you have in your pants. If you don't agree, read my review of None of the Above. Cline seems to be trying, but it is way too unnatural for him, and he fails to make it not clunky. Zack mentions hearing a female voice often . . . but suspiciously not using the term "male voice" as frequently. Are voices by default male? How?

For 175 pages, female (and/or women) characters do not exist unless it's convenient for Zack. First, Ellen, his girlfriend, who I don't even think has a line. Lex, the only other relatively important female character other than the protag's mother . . . exists insofar as Zack needs a love interest. Which sucks, because I actually ship them. I think they're a great couple and have a lot to offer each other. The only problem is that Lex's presence does not seem natural. It seems manufactured for Zack to have a love interest. And because of course Zack is straight, we couldn't pull from the wellspring of other established male characters. Even Zack's mom only had a place in the plot when Zack needed someone to give him a certain talk.

Cline irritates me because so much of his writing is really good, and so much of it falls short.

The amount of cliches and stereotypes this book breaks is astounding, but is only matched by the many cliches and stereotypes that it abuses. It's very clunky. In the end though, I did enjoy the adventure, so 3.5 stars it is!

- Marlon

Do you wish aliens would invade Earth and get it over with?

Let us know in the comments!

Review: One More Thing: Stories and other Stories - B.J. Novak

One More Thing: Stories and Other Stories
B. J. Novak
Series: N/A
Genre: Short Stories, Fiction, Humor
Rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars
Goodreads | Amazon | Book Depository

I have a cosmic-level aversion to short stories. For some reason, they have always felt wrong to me, sitting smugly in that vast region between poem and novel. They always seemed to be more about the message and less about the importance of that message (esp. to different characters).

This book didn't change my life, but it is one heck of a trip, and brings my aversion level down to Earth.

Most of Novak's pieces in this collection rely heavily on shock value, bizarre stretches of thought, or an endless list of What Ifs. It makes for a set of laughs for those receptive to that type of humor. Think of long, detailed Eddie Izzard sets, just with more twists and less French.

While most of the pieces seemed intended for laughs, some of the pieces held a striking depth to them. No One Goes to Heaven to See Dan Fogelberg discusses (in narrative) what would happen if a happy afterlife existed, and what would happen to a person who dies, desiring to see his grandmother, who turns out to be busy doing the things that she had loved in her life, of which he was just a small part of. Another example is Sophia, a love story about a sex robot and the person she falls in love with. Think about that premise and how incredibly awful that could be as a story. Instead, there are whole sections dealing with consciousness and conditioning in a powerful way. Novak sometimes also links his stories (for example, a red shirt shows up more than once) very subtlety, leading to the feeling that the texts are interconnected and part of something greater.

Unfortunately, Novak more often than not runs with an concept too structurally, without allowing the implications to really present themselves. A couple of examples of this, for me, are MONSTER: The Roller Coaster and Dark Matter. With Monster, the premise is a roller coaster that emulates one's journey through life. This story had caverns of potential, which Novak shows with an exchange between test subject 1 and the rest of the characters about suicide, ending in:

"Sorry but I never asked to be on a ride with you. I just showed up and you were here. Who says I have to like it. You like it and that's great. I didn't. So what? Can't you respect that?' 

None of them understood this attitude except 6, who understood but kept it to himself. 

'That doesn't make any sense,' said 6." (Novak, 113) 

Deep, respectful, and at the end, lighthearted. Novak excels at fragmented moments of sentimentality and philosophy. However, unlike Sophia, this is about as deep as the story gets. The dialogue preceding and following it are all expected lines when discussing the weirdness of life.


This is not to say Novak's ideas are flawed. They're captivating and often very engaging. The issue with this collection is the execution: Novak lacks the playfulness of language that his ideas deserve and allows the ideas to play themselves out in a linear, non-complex fashion. This takes place even in the longer stories, which, because of their simplicity, rely solely on devices (like shock value) to carry one through the text. The often straightforward language seems far more suited for dialogue-heavy stories or screenplays, which makes sense considering his work in The Office.

Finally, and of course I must point it out, the lack of much non heteronormative, non-white characters (outside of a couple one-liners) was a hindrance, and I almost stopped reading the book because of that alone. Of all the stories Novak could think of, none included significant non-white, non-straight characters? I find that suspicious or at the very least ignorant considering he doesn't live under a rock.

In all, this book is a pretty good read. Not an incredible read, but a pretty good one. Overall, many stories might fall flat, but the inventiveness and imagination and depth in the dozen or so gems are worth it.

Here's a couple of the stories I recommend:

The Rematch
No One Goes to Heaven to See Dan FogelbergThe Something by John Grisham
Sophia
The Comedy Central Roast of Nelson Mandela
The Ghost of Mark Twain
The Market was Down
Confucius at Home
A New Hitler
J.C. Audetat, Translator of Don Quixote

- Marlon

Short stories? Too long? Too Short?

Let us know in the comments!

Double Review: Vampires of Manhattan - Melissa de la Cruz

Vampires of Manhattan
Melissa de la Cruz
Series: Vampires of Manhattan #1
Genre: Paranormal, Fantasy, Young Adult / New Adult
Rating: 3.5 out of 5 Stars
Word Rating: A-
Goodreads | Amazon | Book Depository

I've been following Melisa de la Cruz a bit on and off and so while I've read some of her work, I'm still new. New, and hooked.

(Still, this might be a little more tame of a review than the awe-fest that infected We Live and Breathe Books last week.)

Disclaimer: Vampires of Manhattan is in many, many ways a sequel to the last Blue Bloods book, Gates of Paradise. The same characters appear: Oliver, Finn, Mimi, Edon (if you loved Jack and Sky, they're only in the last scenes, sorry!). If you haven't read any Blue Bloods books, you should at least wiki the summaries; the novel is thick with a mythology that de la Cruz doesn't spend too much time easing you into if you haven't read the past books and references that will fly over a new reader's head. She does do a terrific job, however, of creating (and in most cases re-introducing) a loveable, exciting cast.

This is the main reason Vampires of Manhattan acts as a wonderful re-introduction into the Blue Bloods world. Ten years after Lucifer's alleged death, the coven is thriving with its new Regent, Oliver - yes, OLIVER THE DESPERATELY WEAK AND ADORKABLE HUMAN I'M STILL NOT OVER THIS - who has become incredibly rich, hot, immortal, and ever so subtly a pompous, vaguely misogynistic bag of crap. He's an entirely new character (though some things pierce through the years now and then) and it's quite disconcerting. Thankfully, Cruz balances Oliver's ambitions with Finn, who has (at least, seemingly) not changed much.

Along with Oliver and Finn, there are two other sets of main characters, a young venator Ara teamed with Edom, and Mimi along with Kingsley. Mimi and Kingsly, though utterly predictable, are so hilarious in this novel. They hate each other one second and are having sex the next second. It is one hell of a ride (GET IT HAHA BECAUSE THEY LIVED IN HELL YEAHHHHH. Alright I'm lame I'll stop) and it contrasts the "picture perfect" image of Oliver and Finn that we're given in the beginning.

Totally unrelated is the super badass team of Edon and Ara.

As is obvious, the characters were what sold me. Everything just sprouts out of them, the humor, the wit, the imagery. Even, the plot, an intricate combination of past and present, with revelations and twists strewn in, was quite subtle and secondary. I could really tell the difference between this and the first Blue Bloods; Cruz focuses in on what's important to this particular novel - characters and characterization - and lets it drive everything else. It's neat.

- Marlon

Noor's Review of Vampires of Manhattan
Rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars
Word Rating: Enjoyable 

When I first picked up Vampires of Manhattan at BEA, I didn't realize it was the first book in a continuation of a previous series I had not read. I decided to just go for it and read it anyway and see what my experience would be like.

There was definitely a lot of the worldbuilding that I realized had been previously established and wasn't going to be elaborated on in this book and I wasn't sure how many of the characters were recurring and how many were new. However, even though I might not have gotten as many of the references out of the book as someone who read the previous series, I don't think that my reading of the book was negatively affected in that I don't think it was impossible to understand anything that was happening. It wasn't too difficult to pick up on what the background was and kindof just go with it and Melissa de la Cruz did a good job making this book a bridge between the two series'.

Ok, I really loved all the characters and the dynamic they had with each other and how everyone was fleshed out so well. Melissa de la Cruz did a good job making me invested in the fates of all the characters and also made me want to learn more about their backgrounds and lives. They all had their own distinct personalities and ways of speaking and really stood out. I really liked all the points of view that let us explore their lives.

One of the things that stood out to me the most was her writing style. Filled with descriptions and very elegant, this book read very fluidly. I enjoyed reading her writing and it pulled me along just as much as the plot did. The imagery was all very stark and the book had a very intense feel to it, which I really appreciated.

I liked the storyline of the book as well, even though it was fairly simple and straightforward, although I'm assuming that's because it's the first book in a sort of spin-off type series and things are going to get more intense from here.

Overall, I really liked the book, which took me a few pages to get invested in but once I was in, I was hooked.

- Noor

Have you ever read the sequel first?
Let us know in the comments!

Review: False Sight - Dan Krokos

False Sight
Dan Krokos
Series: False Memory, # 2
Genre: Young Adult, Science Fiction, Fantasy
Rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars
Word Rating: Clipping
Goodreads | Amazon | Book Depository

If you're like me, then Dan Krokos hooked you with False Memory, and he hooked you bad.

The end of False Memory left us with startling facts: the creators are clones, the Miranda that we thought was Alpha team's Miranda isn't Miranda (???), Olive's dead as nails - and the list goes on.

Krokos's mastery of suspension, action, and depth left me hungry for more (maybe I was just hungry because I read it all at once for four hours I don't know) and so I dived right into False Sight, expecting answers to my questions.

And I got them.

And I'm not entirely sure I like them.

What makes the first book so incredible is that the Sci-Fi element is coupled with the fact that Miranda is not a reliable narrator. This means that Krokos can only push the Sci-Fi element so far, leaving most of the twists and turns to hinge on Miranda's POV and her amnesia. It's an easy plot device as well as an interesting narration to comb through. The farthest the Sci-Fi is pushed is to a clone lab and hints at some kind of animalistic, probably genetically-engineered monsters. And this is great, because it keeps the reader grounded in the present day. The plot unfolds with twists that screw with Miranda's psyche, like the fact that she's a super weapon, rather than twisting with events.

In contrast, as you may be guessing, the second book is not like this. By this time, Miranda knows (generally) who she is, and Krokos takes this chance to pour out the entire mythology of his books in around 200 pages. It's kind of scary, and a little absurd.

Here's a rough overview:

Miranda and the Roses are blending in at a school until they learn more about the creators. Someone in their crew is killed when another one goes rogue. Miranda downloads the dead Rose's memory. They follow the rouge, and end up in another universe? Now the dead Rose is alive in her head??? Wait but let's get back to the alternate universe for a second, where did this come from -- oh wait, here's an apocalypse tale for you  and monsters and a mythical device called a Torch and the secrets of the entire universe of this trilogy in three pages okay bye. And then chaos ensues.

This is at once, kind of frigging incredible. At first, it seems like these events were simply bad choreography but we learn later on that Krokos isn't just a mad man. The events that twist and turn fit tightly together in the plot line and make sense on an overall scale. At the same time, however, it's very disruptive to the characters. For example, Miranda spends a lot of the book worrying about whether she will turn rogue like the other rogue, thinking that she cannot be trusted whatsoever. This is fine, but it also puts a stopper on the wounds and traumas from the last book, not allowing the characters to consider much of them. Character depth is limited to Peter being distant, Rhys being generally two-dimensional now, Miranda being confused and not trusting herself, etc. It seems like a cheap trick to allow for another book, simply to have resolutions of character. In addition, there are parts of the book that are completely unnecessary in an already insane plot. For example, when Miranda finally has the Torch at the end, she tries to use its power to travel between universes. For some reason this doesn't work, and Krokos has someone attack her from a portal, which she jumps into. This is unnecessary action and twisting when there has been non stop fighting for this object through three universes. Miranda just jumped out of a car for frigg's sake. 

Anyway, if you've gotten past my wall of text, then you might be put off by False Sight. But that was just a warning, albeit a long and detailed one. 

In its other aspects, especially the style of writing, Krokos is somehow more enticing than he is in the first novel. The phraseology is simply gorgeous at times. 

I love, love, love the fact that the dead Rose is inside Miranda because almost all of the character depth comes from this fact. It allows Miranda the kind of above-three-dimensional feeling she had in the first book because she speaks for this consciousness, talks and touches this consciousness inside her. It's simply a fascinating aspect of the book. 

As usual, Krokos never holds back in his action scenes, brilliantly describing precisely the proper way to kick someone with a chair and roll away standing. 

I won't go on. Main point is, if you were hooked by False Memory, you will most likely love False Sight, though you might question whether a slightly more linear plot line would have helped.

- Marlon

What's the limit to plot absurdity?
Let us know in the comments!

Review: False Memory - Dan Krokos

False Memory
Dan Krokos
Series: False Memory, # 1
Genre: Young Adult, Science Fiction, Fantasy
Rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars
Word Rating: Breakneck
Goodreads | Amazon | Book Depository

For those of you who follow my twitter, you may have gleaned that I received a copy of False Future from Disney Hyperion. At that moment, my reading list was burned, the lights were dimmed, and I gathered the rest of the False Memory books to thank Disney for this wonderful opportunity. Thanks!

Let's get to it.

False Memory, you may be told, is an action-oriented thriller with guns and secrets that twist and turn the plot into a brain-exploding drug. But this, like our protag Miranda would say, is only a "half-truth" (Krokos, 2 (mobi)).

False Memory begins with an exchange between a confused Miranda and a brusque, annoying mall cop. Miranda seems to have a mixture of Post-traumatic and a slew of other amnesias -- you know, the type that action readers are familiar with and psychologists are generally confused about. Though this beginning (I can't remember who I am!) has been used before as a kickstarter to the plot, Krokos lingers for a moment, sifting through the things that make Miranda uncomfortable, like the crowd pushing up against her, and simple facts, such as having four hundred dollars in her pocket.

This moment, though you might not realize it's depth until later on, pulls you in because Krokos writes so genuinely from Miranda's POV. The beginning felt confusing, hesitant, as if it were on the tip of something but you couldn't place just what and you hope your "fingers remember what [your] brain can't" (2). Such wonderful writing.

Of course, this would be worthless if the same sincere (but at the same time, unreliable, because of Miranda's amnesia) narration didn't carry through to the rawer, harsher parts of the book where Miranda is constantly in danger. Thankfully it does, which is why so much of this book feels like it is a thriller, Miranda is like a convalescent, she is coming out of some kind of sickness and the world is all too real to her, she is bombarded with having to run and the frustration of barely knowing why. In reality, much of the book only deals with Miranda's conflictions and her trying to figure out her place in the world, even when Peter, Dr. Tycast, Olive, and especially Noah, the forgotten love-interest, try giving her maps to where she might find herself: a weapon? A savoir?

But even during one the deeper moments, when Noah reveals something quite horrible to her, does she realize that "It's tiring to attempt understanding" the "empty anger" that she feels (Krokos, 49). Through the eyes of Miranda, the reader is limited to the experience of a lost and troubled teen with a startlingly violent past. These intimate moments are lost on her but for the ghosts of feelings, and in the same vein, Miranda's frustration carries up from the words. Krokos has this wonderful effect on his characters in that I want to care about them.

This is done because the characters are engaging, three-dimensional, and their interactions are realistic. The romance, for example, is entirely believable, brutally honest, and balanced. None of that insta-love, forever-and-always nonsense. Furthermore, the dialogue isn't cookie-cutter humor, the fight scenes aren't hilariously explosive, the plot has enough tension to make this a page-turner. There is hardly any exposition, even when explaining the grittier Sci-Fi side: the genetics and brain manipulation are all explained with ease, without need for massive info-dumps.

Gosh there's so much more. This book is just freaking fantastic and I would have to write way too much to get all the way there. In any case, the book's only failing is that the action is sometimes a bit heavy and the writing quite simple. But that's it.

A great start to a trilogy, I can't wait to start the second one!

- Marlon

Are action-oriented books a waste of time?
Let us know in the comments!

Blog Tour Review + TWO Giveaways: Pretending - Shanna Clayton

Pretending
Shanna Clayton
Series: N/A
Genre: New Adult, Romance
Rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars
Word Rating: B+
On Goodreads

About the book:

Four years.

That’s how long Wesley Kent has to live with the girl his dad shacked him up with, and then he can collect his inheritance and escape small town life. He gets through the prison sentence by pretending Dahlia Reynolds doesn’t exist. With three years down and one more to go, he doesn’t expect much to change. That is, until the girl that’s not supposed to exist sharpens into his reality, making it impossible to ignore her.

Three years.

That’s how long Dahlia Reynolds has been living with a total stranger. She’s convinced herself Wesley Kent is no more than illusion in the hallways. It’s easy to do, especially since that same illusion has never spoken more than two words to her. But one mistaken identity later, and she finds herself caught up in the mysterious world Wesley lives in. One by one, he begins knocking down the safe, comfortable walls she built, leaving her wondering what his motives are. Does he want to expose her—or free her?

Recommended for 17+ due to mature language and adult situations.

Review:

I received this copy of Pretending for an honest review.

Well the blurb certainly doesn't prepare you for the book itself, not really. Neither does the genre, nor the first few pages. Where to begin?

I loved loved loved the opening lines:

"Anyone who thinks living in a mansion is a dream come true has obviously never been alone at night. . . . First thing tomorrow I swear I'm buying a dog. A big ferocious one. With fangs." (Clayton, 1)

It isn't because it's a particularly spectacular opening in itself, though I do love the immediate break from the conventions of glamorous fairy tale life, it's because Doll's voice is so clear. And it doesn't stop being clear. This is my favorite part of the book, how Doll and Wes are expressed vividly and more or less realistically.

Furthermore, the narration for the characters isn't stale and overly general, much of it is quite specific to each character. It's often a problem for writers to define the ways characters narrate in a book with multiple viewpoints, but Clayton pulls it off magnificently. Here's an excerpt from Wes's viewpoint to compare:

"I am lying. Sort of. I hadn't been thinking of the library girl when Christine asked, but I've been thinking of her every second since she left my room."

Wesley is seriously self-aware, in a way that Doll doesn't even try to be. While Doll is too busy to stare at her inner working, Wesley has an iron hand on them. He analyses himself more than anyone outside his head, and often is quite mechanical in doing so. There are also very few passages where he isn't thinking of sex, and many of his little musings are about who has broken up with who, who is lonely (hint, Christine is lonely), and all the wonderful tidbits of everyone's romantic and sexual lives. What fun!

Apart from having distinct voices and mannerisms in the narration, both characters are genuinely interesting. I didn't think I'd start to care for them, and it's quite subtle too, so you might not even notice. I expected to just sit through a terrible chick flic and watch it run without really caring about who got involved with who.

And then one scene suddenly shifts from hate to love and ugh the feelings! It's so subtle!

"Why hasn't he gone back to ignoring me?" turns into "You smell really good." and her realizing they have the same address and ugh! (72)

This touches upon what I wrote above, that the blurb does not prepare you for the book. I meant it. Clayton sets up cliche situations and then derails the whole lot for a new story.

You've got a girl who is pretending the boy she's stuck with doesn't exist, or at the very least can't see her, a boy who is a notable jerk. Then the boy, typically as if you could hear a Nicholas Sparks novel whispering to you, notices the girl's beauty. The girl is opposed to this dearly, but moreso because she thinks she might like him. And then there's an ex? And best friends who I hate but are hilarious? Oh yeah, totally going to hate this book. Well, I thought so. And then I read the first lines and got dazzled by Doll's distinct voice.

Which, after a while, started to fade into the background as I was trying to work out who the characters where and how they knew each other and why I cared.

But before I had time to be terribly confused, the solid writing kicked in and the adventure sort of just exploded on the pages. At first I wondered who the hell were the Black Templars? And then treasure? Swords and secret groups and the reason he hates his dad! And everyone's betraying everyone and cheating on everyone and wow the scene where Dhalia's a maid, and he finally sees her? DAMN. And so, so much more that makes the book absolutely worth a read. It takes a bit of time to get there but it's quite incredible when it does and I don't want to spoil anything.

The reason this isn't more than four stars, though, is that the writing at times, especially in the first few chapters, can seem confusing. At times, I didn't fully understand Dhalia's narration and sometimes I got angry that Wes was too caught up in his sex life to get on with the plot. And later on, I had a hard time coming to terms with how far my imagination was being stretched. There needed to be a bit less subtlety and more foreshadowing in the beginning, to prepare me for the total plot shift that happens. Though these are big hits, they seem a lot more minor once you've reached the 3/4ths mark and settled into everything, even the shift, and so I still think this book is well worth the read.

And then there was a nice and tidy conclusion that left me feeling happy but not terribly affected.

- Marlon

Purchase links:

Amazon

About the author:

I’m not sure if my mother predestined me to become a romance author when she named me after her favorite Kathleen Woodiwiss book, but that’s what happened. Now I live and breathe all things books. When I’m not glued to my desk writing, I can be found eating too much chocolate, obsessing over Game of Thrones, and cyber stalking my favorite authors. Keep up with me on Facebook and Instagram. I love hearing from readers!

Author links:

Website | Facebook | Twitter | Goodreads

Giveaway:
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Release Day Review: Erasing: Shadows - K.D. Rose

Erasing: Shadows
K.D. Rose
Series: The Erasing Series #1
Genre: Fantasy, Paranormal
Rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars
Word Rating: Half n' Half
On Goodreads

About the book:

What if to save the ones you love, you had to unlock the key to a different reality?

Generations of mystery smash together when a seemingly traditional family must shatter their illusions of normality to confront themselves and their friends, leaving no possibility unexplored in order to rescue- well, who exactly? Watch the Ross family, the High Five Gang, and multiple generations dig into an innovative explosion of imagination where they must confront numerous realities, real-world danger, and worst of all—their own teenage hormones!

In a place where nothing is as it seems and shocks are around every corner, even the people you thought you knew may find themselves strangers in this moving and provocative reality-bender. With breathless pacing and psychological intrigue, Erasing: Shadows and the High Five Gang will keep you guessing until the very end.

Review:

This book was generally cool. It stays (mostly) true to the section above. A myriad of worlds have collided and this book does a decent job of sorting everything out. And yeah, there's plenty of teenage hormones to go around. It has its ups and downs and could definitely be four stars with a bit of polishing and a teensy bit of downsizing and paying a lot more attention to some kind of 'main' cast and their development throughout.

The best:

It's hard to consider the best of this book because I automatically think of the worst. And generally, Shadows is just all over the place in terms of good and bad. Some parts I'm so sucked into the universe(s) and the situations and especially the description (I'm always a sucker for poets who incorporate their styles in prose). But in other parts, I just find myself generally confused as to what the hell has happened.

With that said:

'Mira felt a tug as she watched the last ankle go, the left shoe still limp in her hand. A bloodcurdling scream rent the air.

It came from her.'

Is pretty good pacing and breaking. Nearly without fault, Rose executes a great balance between these two. Her paragraphs are easy to follow and most of them flow from one to the next with ease.

Her characters are also, generally, relateable (Mira is a stay-at-home parent with whistling quirks) and act as great mediums for the supernatural and awesome things that revolve around them (i.e., her baby disappearing).

The . . . uhm:

There's very little middle ground for this novel, not really. Everything is either top level or lost on me.

'He took in the smells and sound of the skateboard park. The scent of stale beer was overwhelming. It mostly came from the covered bags lying around. He was also getting hungry as the smell of hot dogs and pretzels worked their magic. In the background the skateboard wheels rolled over the concrete. He heard yelps as random spills tore at hands at knees and hands of the riders.' (21)

When zoning in on certain characters, in this case Michael, the author shows decent clarity and insight into her character's sensory perception, but not always so much on the thought side of their experience. Furthermore, its at these junctures where the author becomes slightly less clear in her work. The first couple of sentences are fluid, and the whole thing has great variation in syntax, but the third sentence . . . really? His stomach couldn't grumble or something to indicate his hunger? Could the fourth sentence not be rephrased? What the hell is a 'rider'? Skaters skateboard, Riders . . . well I only know of one by the name of Flynn and he's often tangled in thieving and smoldering. In addition, there are a shit ton of characters also in the scene and this novel basically revolves around a bunch of characters in different scenes conversing about those scenes and it can get weird when she zones in on more than one at a time, but generally we have one or two viewpoints on a situation.

Seriously, lots of shaky ground at times, back and forth between 'I really want to read this book' and 'why the hell do these characters only have names and descriptions why aren't they doing anything, should I care about them?'.

The not so good:

There is no character development. We have nearly a dozen characters running around, and they're all thrown at your face in the first few chapters. I forget who Trina is just about every time she isn't mentioned. There are just too many people here and so while I don't blame the author for not developing every single character, maybe just one or two main ones? Maybe one from the Ross family, one from High Five, etc? I liked Michael enough as he helped make the novel clear, but does he always have to seem so suspicious of everyone? I did not understand the tension between Michael and Stu and in the greater context of the astral planes and Mrs Ross's secrets, I couldn't bring myself to care. I would have liked a few characters just . . . to not be there, and in their places I would like more background on the High Five gang and more development on the characters. Seriously, they literally experience puberty multiple times and face death and different universes over and over again . . . that should put things into perspective. . . .

So generally, this novel was interesting and it's a quick afternoon read. If you need to kill time, then go ahead and pick it up. The worlds that are introduced are often fascinating and the mysteries unfold brilliantly beneath the pages. With a bit of polishing and development, this could definitely be a four star novel.

- Marlon

What's your favorite alternate universe? Narnia? Oz?

Let us know in the comments!