The Reading Obsession
Reviews of Fiction Books: Everything from Young Adult Romance to Crime Thrillers
Based on the title, I'm going to guess necrophilia in this book.Hey, this series isn't as bad as everyone thinks it is... When does it start being terrible, again?
Buddy read with Litchick and some other people. I'm terrified. Two Laurell K. Hamilton series. Two! I'll probably end up dead.Hey, this actually isn't that bad.I just jixed it, didn't I?
Find this review and more at http://www.thereadingobsession.blogspot.com.ARC received from Netgalley. This review is not biased in any way. There was no money, gifts, discounts, or favors exchanged for this review.The Sea of Tranquility gave me hope for New Adult books. Most of their plots are: Girl has terrible super-secret secret. Boy has terrible past. Boy is a misogynistic person. Boy meets girl. Magic insta-love, but they don't know it yet. Boy is still misogynistic, but gets super possessive. Random, confusing stuff happens. Boy gets more possessive and even more misogynistic.The end.Instead of the extremely annoying overused plot line, we get a girl named Nastya. Yes, she has a secret past, but in this book, it's actually written well. It's not the cliche' d past, either. It's something completely brilliant and wonderful.Basically, she's this girl who won't talk. To anyone. Because of reasons I won't explain because you need to read this book. She's been completely scarred because of said reasons I shan't explain. To cope, she decides to wear all black. Except for the possibly illegal amount of skin she's showing.However, her inner narration is completely brilliant. Screwed up, but brilliant. Nastya's sarcastic and mocking, just the way I like my protagonists.Josh Bennett's life is also completely screwed up. Cliche'd, but still amazingly written. Everyone around him dies- so many people, in fact, that no one comes near him. And he likes it that way.Until the inevitable meeting of Nastya.Alright, I didn't completely love him. And, for some strange reason, that makes me love the book even more.And this is a book where all the characters are developed, not just the main two.Guess what? There's no insta-love. Which automatically gives this two extra stars, not that it needs any. Their relationship starts out as a sort of friendship, but then ends up as something more. I'd call it something else, but I can't think straight right now because of this book.I can go on so much longer, but you get the gist of it. So, run off and go read it. In fact, I'll give you an incentive to do this: She wears both a black and a pink bra.
I didn't like the fact that Katy and Daemon married, but overall, I really liked it.
Is that the same guy from [b:Stealing Harper|17607319|Stealing Harper (Taking Chances, #2)|Molly McAdams|http://d202m5krfqbpi5.cloudfront.net/books/1364325603s/17607319.jpg|23694180]?
Seriously? Seriously? I'm not going to read this book because it seems like a cliched story that keeps repeating over and over again. It seems to be a pulled-to-published fanfiction, and I'll be thankful when the time comes when no one does this anymore.
Find this review and more at http://www.thereadingobsession.blogspot.com.ARC received from Netgalley. This review is not biased in any way. There was no money, gifts, discounts, or favors exchanged for this review.I'm still confused of why I'd read a book called Deeper. I know that the first time I saw it on Netgalley, I began laughing. Curiosity overcoming me, I clicked on it, and it turns out that it's about life guards. I don't know why, but I've always had this interest in them. I mean, you see them near all the pools, lakes, and oceans, but rarely do you ever actually speak with them. I expected this book to give me an inside look into the world of life guards. Ignoring that insanely overused cover type and the completely terrible title, I decided to request it. And I got accepted.On the first page, I realized something was wrong. But I've been wrong about these things before. So I kept reading. And I got progressively annoyed. Around halfway through, reviews popped up from Goodread friends giving it a one star. I should have stopped reading, but I have this annoying OCD thing where, if I'm halfway through with a book, I have to finish it.Yesterday, I talked about how The Sea of Tranquility gave me hope for New Adult. Deeper is the sort of book to rip that hope away.Rain's boyfriend died, and she decides to never love anyone again. This had so much potential of making the story amazing and intriguing, but it somehow makes it worse. And then you find out that he wasn't her boyfriend after all, just a guy who asked her on a date.I don't know what I was expecting; this is New Adult, after all.Anyways, she sees this guy across a bonfire, and she immediately forgets about him and goes on her merry way. This wouldn't be a New Adult if that happened. Instead of not having any feelings about him, she does the completely logical thing of falling in love with him.This guy starts kissing her, and then she leaves.This is the part where she could have continued with her life, and this story would have never been written.But it turns out, that the guy is Knight, her new co-worker. He gets annoyed because she's new, but it actually sounds like he's angry because she's a girl.Oh, and he also has some secret and tragic past, completely unlike the rest of New Adult books.Inexplicably, they start dating, even though they "hate" each other. Knight is still an annoying jerk, and Rain's an idiot.There was one time I admired Rain, because she stopped a rape attempt. Knight immediately becomes furious with her for putting her life at risk, and she basically apologizes. I'd be slightly okay if he was worried about her, but instead, Knight thinks, "How can she do this to me?" At that part, I stopped making fun of the book and began mentally strangling it, instead.This isn't even the worst part. There's a scene where there's a freaking pedophile in the pool with the kids. It's barely written as serious, but just like it's an everyday occurrence. Rain chases after the guy, and Knight thinks, again, "How can she do this to me?"How can she do this to him? What about the girls that are mentally scared? What about the fact that maybe Knight should actually respect someone who tries and help other people? He's a life guard; he should understand that there are more lives important than his.Along with this complete disaster, you also have no plot. Well, there's the "romance", but that literally is it. Maybe, maybe if there was another plot, I might have liked it the tiniest bit more.Character develop isn't even barely there in this story, apart from the fact that Rain and Knight fall in love.The names in this story were just awful. It didn't even have the excuse of being a gothic, like Between the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea, or having a crazy mother, like in Angelfall. This is the least horrid thing in this terrible piece of writing that doesn't even deserve to be called a novel.Will I be reading any more writings by this author? God, no. I read this thing, and I wanted to rip my eyes out. I'm not standing it again.
That is an awesome cover. You have to admit it. I need this book. Screwed up serial killers are awesome. And obsessive screwed up serial killers? Those are the best.And I just realized something. Fear turns into Horror, which turns into Terror. And of course I knew that before I posted it.Update: 6/11/13 Find this Monday Musing and more at http://www.thereadingobsession.blogspot.com I was planning to do a series review of the Horrorscape trilogy, but Terrorscape still wasn't out yet. So I'm going to do a series review later and a Musing today. Apparently, there are going to be, as Nenia puts it, "mindscrews galore" so these predictions will probably be so inaccurate that both you, Reader, and the author, Nenia Campbell, will laugh at me. And warning: Spoilers for the previous two books are everywhere in this review. They're like those Agents in the Matrix. Or the mosquitoes in Thailand. If you've read Fearscape, you remember about the toygers. If you're thinking, "What toygers?" then get out, Person Who Hasn't Read Fearscape. Anyways, I was thinking that Gavin might have killed the pets from the petstore before he met Val. One of the major signs of being a serial killer is killing small animals. Gavin is also probably going to set fire to Val's house or some place she really is interested in/ likes. Arsonists aren't always killers, but setting fires is one of the signs. This one is pretty obvious, but I think I should get at least one thing right. Val is going to live. However, in all the horror movies, the protagonist always dies in the end, right after defeating the villain. Is that going to happen here? There's a term in chess and some other games called Zugzwang. It's the point in the game where the player has to make a move, even though s/he doesn't want to. Every move after that weakens the player. I have a feeling this will happen to Val. When this happens to a player, there is a high likelihood that they will lose. However, I'm really hoping that Val won't die, if only for the sake of her killing Gavin. When I was looking at how far Nenia was in writing this (pg 27/550: "THREATS IN THE MAIL.") I also saw the shelves she shelved Terrorscape under: This will give it a pretty good idea of what might happen: Shelves: x-series-bk-3, gorgeous-covers, antihero, dark-like-my-soul, disturbing, erotica, gothic, hero-is-fucking-scary, heroine-is-flawed, heroine-is-too-stupid-to-live, heroine-is-trying-but, icky-things-going-on-here, incest, murder-most-foul, new-adult, psycho-killer-qu-est-ce-que-c-est, rape-n-violence, revenge, sex-as-blackmail-revenge-leverage, wtf The first two are pretty obvious: it's the third book in a series and it has an awesome cover. The next shelf seems pretty easy to think of what will happen. The "dark-like-my-soul" hints that this will be bloody and gory and scary. Pretty much everything I love. The "disturbing" shelf: It's about a serial killer obsessed with a girl. Of course it'll be disturbing. Erotica shelf: Wait, what? What? I didn't see that the first time I read the shelf names. Erotica? But the first book was categorized as Young Adult (unless I read it wrong). Anyways, erotica= sex scene between Gavin and Val. No. I have no idea how its going to happen. I've never read any gothic books that I know of. So I don't know what's going to happen. Next shelf: Hero is (censored here) scary. No, really? Never would have guessed. It's not like he's a psychopath or anything. Oh wait... The heroine shelves: Val has problems, probably even more PTSD. Or maybe she will get over it and kick Gavin's butt. However, she'll probably not be able to do it, because of the third heroine shelf. About the second ( the one in the middle), I don't want Val to be an idiot! I want her to stop trusting anyone and lock herself in her house.Shelf: Icky things going on here. Icky how? Like blood spattering on the floor and being impossible to clean up? Or the (censored) kind? And why is incest on here? This is going to be a completely screwed up book( in the good way). Shelf: murder-most foul. There will be killing! Nenia commented somewhere that Val is going to give him a motive to go all serial killer on people. I'm expecting Nenia to get the actual definition of a serial correct: a person that kills three or more people in an extended period of time, and he will have a cooling off period in between. If Nenia sticks to the serial killer definition, this book will last over the course of several months. A New Adult book not focused on romance. That'll be a first. I'm skipping over the psycho-killer shelf. I already talked about killing. Same with the next two shelves. But revenge? On whom? Val or Gavin? Maybe Val will try and kill Gavin. And Gavin will try and kill Val (and all her friends). Finally, the last shelf: the wtf shelf. It probably sums up the entire book. Roses. Gavin has an obsession with red roses. He burns one every night. Maybe Val will get another bouquet of roses and a creepy poem. Maybe it'll be like Alice in Wonderland, with the roses being painted. Except for the paint will be blood. Talking about Gavin, I hope there's going to be more of his point of view. I love reading mentally deranged people's point of vies. ( It reminds me of me!) And um... I can't think of anything else right now. I'm probably going to be lying in bed thinking of random things and wishing I didn't turn off my computer. Last note: There had better be ARCs. I refuse to wait until September 30, 2013. And here's the actual review!Spoilers for the series abound, because, seriously, you can't review this series without spoilers.Do you know that feeling when you read an amazing book, and you're like, "I must get the other one or else I'll die."? But at the same time, you're terrified that the next book won't be as good? That's basically how I felt when I finished Fearscape, the first book in this trilogy. However, being the serial-killer-obsessed person I am, I went and bought the next book. And it was even better. Around that time, I thought all the books had come out, so I went to try and buy the next one. But noooooo, people had to be mean and not release it yet.Then I realized Nenia always updated her status on how far in a book she had written, and I went and stalked that for a while. All this time, I was getting more and more excited for the conclusion that had to be epic. It turns out that Nenia finished writing and editing it a few months earlier and released it, and that meant I could buy it.There's a quote from Terrorscape, book three of the trilogy, that accurately describes the entire series:“Once upon a time, there was a naïve and innocent girl who thought she could tame the beast and live happily ever after. But the beast did not want to be tamed, for he was a beast and beasts care not for such things, and the girl died along with her dreams.From childhood's grave sprang a young woman, jaded before her years, who knew that beasts could wear the skins of men, and that evil could exist in sunlight, as well as darkness." The Horrorscape Trilogy is about a girl who starts out very sweet, innocent, and ordinary, but meets a guy. He acts like all the other YA novel love interests, so she doesn't see anything wrong. Slowly, she realizes that the boyfriends of books shouldn't be real in life. The ones that are real are dangerous. This begins a game of cat and mouse, where Val is the rodent.In the first book, Val is full of life and hope. In the second, she becomes scared and terrified. This is a true reaction to what would happen if a psychopath became obsessed with you. In the third, she's still scared, but she fights back.Gavin also experiences character development, but it is not for the better. Instead, he hones his ability to kill and generally becomes more terrifying.Unlike so many of the YA novels, this series is written in third person. Sometimes, third person will take away the terror of suspenseful books, but this one doesn't.Nenia has this gift of being an amazing writer. Her descriptions are so detailed, and yet not boring as to take away from the overall impact. The downside to this is that a lot of her descriptions sound like the places I'm often at, and I'm scared whenever I think of them.There is so much suspense in these three novels that it made me freak out whenever I heard a noise. And since people have terrible timing, they'd walk in right at the terrifying part.In Terrorscape, there's a mention of a Vivaldi ringtone. When I read, I play music on my computer. Guess what just happened to play when I started that page? I swear, I started screaming. Meanwhile, my dog just sits there confused.And guess what? There's something called research in this book. Why do I know this? Because occasionally, I'll look up strange things, say for example, "serial killers" or "stalkers".The first book is when Val is still fourteen. What annoys fourteen-year-olds? Parents. And yes, there are parents here. They're actually a major part, unlike so many other books.As the series progresses, the parts of Val's parents shrink, just like what happens when a teen grow up. However, they're still an active role in the story.There's something I dubbed "nenianism". Whenever you read a book by Nenia Campbell, there's going to be references to a cat. It's just something I noticed.Endings of series and books are very difficult to write. However, Nenia makes it seem effortless.This trilogy is phenomenal. It's utterly brilliant and ingenious. I will read anything Nenia writes now. And she'd better write more. Or else I'll bring Gavin back to life and set him on her.
All that hype, and this is what I got. I like it, but I also got bored and annoyed at multiple parts. Especially when Violet keeps describing River's "panther hips".Read this review and more at http://www.thereadingobsession.blogspot.comThis book was like Alisa Bait. Pretty cover? Check. Interesting premise? Check. So much hype? Check. Good quotes? Check. Rejection from Netgalley so I had to wait until the release date, heightening anticipation? Check.Too bad it completely screwed up.I was wary of reading this book after Khanh's review. She had good taste; I shouldn't touch that book. She didn't like the Fever series; never mind. And then I decided to be an idiot and pick the book up. But how can you blame me? Look at that cover!There is a good thing about this book, though. The writing is beautiful. It doesn't actually do anything, but it well crafted. The old house seems to be a living part of the story, but other than that, there was nothing.There was so much potential in this novel. I mean, it'd easily be gothic, mysterious, haunting, beautiful, and terrifying. If it didn't take over half the book to get to the plot. I'm fine with slow paced books- sometimes they end up amazing- but the plot was just so unimaginative and forgetful.I said that the house was creatively imagined. But that was the only thing in this world that was well-described. Other than that, the town and the people were described minimally..The worst part about Between the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea were the characters. River's clearly a psychopath; he gets off on people's fear, Violet's just idiotic, and her brother is a sexist pig. It'd be alright if there was this magical thing called character development, but no. The characters just stay the exact same throughout the entire book.This was used twice, but it really got me annoyed. River's hips are described as "panther hips". First, no one notices hips. Second, say you have some hip fetish, why would you describe them as some animal?And the insta- love! It's like, you have a glimpse of a guy and all of a sudden, you and him are insanely and unoriginally in love. And you ignore the fact that he's clearly a psychopath!There are no parents here. But at least there's a sort of legit reason for them being gone. But how are their children supposed to pay for everything?Slut Shaming is everywhere here. Violet's friend constantly is spoken about like the only thing that makes her who she is, is only her breasts.There were so many opportunities for this book to be spectacular, but it failed at almost every turn. I will read the next book though, because I want to see if it'll get better. It probably won't, but one can hope.
I've read it this month, but I can't seem to remember anything other than the fact that I liked it.
