I like the world of the Lords of the Underworld a lot, but this novella is just......how could angels be so boring...although the God's shinning and rI like the world of the Lords of the Underworld a lot, but this novella is just......how could angels be so boring...although the God's shinning and righteous army is hardly any fun, but still. LOL...more
(1) The final battle is the only thing that saves this book from being a one star disaster.
(2) Though the final battle is decent, still the ending is rather on the piss poor side.
(3) To my outrage, nothing...nothing about the angel's society, how said society works, whether there are female angels or not and why they are invading Earth NOW is ever explained.
(4) Mark my words, those angels in this book are just a bunch of self-righteous bullies with wings and fearsome power. Plus they are just so fucking stupid, (view spoiler)[Their former leader Gabriel was killed under suspicious consequence! None of them knows why they are invading Earth now! Still no one is asking question! (hide spoiler)] To be frank, for a race of ageless angelic warriors, these angels have no deeper thoughts, no deeper motivation nor insight beneath their handsome appearance. No nothing.
(5) Young Penryn, why must you go from a survivor with her common sense intact to a love-sick little girl? Now you aren't must better than Bella Swan.
(6) And of course Young Penryn has to be Too Stupid To Live when facing an evil angel who has every reason to want harming her.
(7) Yes, I keep calling the heroine 'Young Penryn' because since she is an Asian character, then that's exactly how her name is pronounced. Deal with it.
(8) Young Penryn's mother and younger sister are the only characters whom I care about. The rest of them, I don't care if they live or die. Strangely enough, in this book I know more about Belial (one of the arch villains), his backstory and his reason more than I know about anyone else's.
(9) Young Penryn *finally* shows some awareness on responsibility and teamwork by the end of this book, but all has came too little, too late for me.
(10) I cannot forgive Young Penryn for molesting Raffe *in his sleep*. Listen up, folks: I don't want a guy to touch me in my sleep, therefore I won't forgive a girl for molesting a guy when he is out cold.
(11) Of course, Young Penryn's mother, despite her coolness, is never dignified by being given a name in the story (or at least I don't remember ever learning her name). Plus her seemingly psychic ability is never explained.
(12) In book 2, Young Penryn's mother is blaming Young Penryn for not keeping Paige safe and condemning her for being 'demon's bride', but in this book she shows concern over Young Penryn's safety, out of the blue? And we are all expected to accept her change because 'she is crazy and unpredictable'?
(13) Mother. Fucking. Romance. Angst. Happens. When. Young Penryn. And. Rafee. Are. On. The. Run. And. The. World. Is. Falling. Apart. Around. Them.
(14) After suffering an angel's invasion and the entire world turned into a war zone, Young Penryn still has the time and strength to go angst about not being able to be with Raffe? I had thought after seeing all the suffering, she would have been cool with accepting both she and Raffe have their own different responsibilities and have to do the necessaries!
(15) God, you fucking asshole! How can you throw your own angels to Hell and let them suffer just because those angels got married with humans?! (view spoiler)[ But does God really ever exist in this fictional world? (hide spoiler)] Again, it is unexplained!
(16) I am more than willing to admit Susan Ee has creative, nontraditional ideas for her story, but damn..........she sucks so much at excising these ideas and doing some planning for her books.
(17) Due to the lack of planning, explanation and world building in this series, now I think it's reasonable to believe Susan Ee had never thought about how her story should go after finishing Angelfall.
(18) To be honest, I manged to read to the end after I stopped caring about logic and explanation of many things (e.g. how the final battle is prepared and the twin's many outlandish actions and decisions).
(19) Last but not least, to put insult to injuries, (view spoiler)[Raffe gets his wing fixed and Paige is miraculously cured out of the blue (hide spoiler)], here Susan Ee is just down right insulting her readers.
The Final Words: I am not going to read any more book by Susan Ee, blacklisted.
PS: Ferdy's review listed out all the things which I found off-putting/stupid/ridiculous in this book....more
Note: I read the Chinese translation of this book, won't bother to read the English version.
(1) World After is an improvement over Angelfall, which in my opinion is grossly overrated and not at all well written.
(2) There is a sense of direction in this second book (which is solely lacking in book 1) and the story telling does improve, that's it.
(3) Penryn isn't your typical useless Mary Sue YA heroine. She gets things done, she makes decisions to save her family, she doesn't whine about the hardship she faces. Last but not least she now shows more concern for her fellow humans. But I still can't forgive her for not able to look her little sister in the eyes or at least hug her because the latter is 'monstrous' to look at now.
(4) On the other hand, Penryn's little sister Paige, alongside Penryn's mother, earns her place as my favorite character in this book.
(5) Most of the story isn't interesting (Penryn goes here and there, Raffe shows up once in a while...can we just move on?)...until the ending part, the ending is the only reason why I gave this book 3 stars instead of 2.
(6) The world building and the mythology is still piss poor in this second book. Barely anything about the angels, demons and God is ever mentioned or explained. Plus the Arch Angel Raphael=Wrath of God? Where did Susan Ee get this piece of information from!?
(7) Still, I like the setting of angels=God's merciless army who don't give a shit about humans' lives. It's at the very least a refreshing idea in the realm of Yong Adult novels.
(8)I will say it again here: it's a stupid and pathetic idea for all angel to get a vote to elect the new angelic leader *to lead the God's army *. Since when has Heaven been ran by democracy? That's just freaking pathetic....more
The 'game of wit' aspect of the story does remind me a bit of Death Note but I like the new characters setting and new plot lines! The angels are so rThe 'game of wit' aspect of the story does remind me a bit of Death Note but I like the new characters setting and new plot lines! The angels are so refreshing and cute! (the bad guy even said: "Angels are all weirdos." Hahaha!) I very much looking forward for the next volume!...more
If you had read the first three books of the Hush, Hush series, you will know the author, Becca Fitzpatrick, has nothing new to offer; she did nothingIf you had read the first three books of the Hush, Hush series, you will know the author, Becca Fitzpatrick, has nothing new to offer; she did nothing to redeem her creation, she made no attempt to make anything in her story better.
In short, it's one hell of an uninspiring, boring, dull book, stuffed with bad YA romance, Mary Sue heroine, cardboard cutout sexy bad boy love interest, villains who are as badly written as the good guys, charmless and toneless *utterly boring* writing, and nonexistent tension and suspense. In fact this book is just so dull, its characters so utterly stupid and unrealistic (but they think they're all so smart and complicated!) to a point I find it difficult to write a proper review about it.
In other news, this final book demonstrates Ms. Fitzpatrick knows not a damn thing about world building, about writing battle scenes, writing characters with personalities and depth. Plus it also demonstrates she cannot handle writing anything with a slightly more complicated angles than a simple cliched love triangle and stupid teenage dramas, that's it.
One more thing, I find it really stupid for the male lead (an angel who has been around for unmemorable time) to act like a horny teenager all the time. It's also stupid for fallen angels to travel from one place to another by *driving in cars*.
And it's super stupid for the heroine, Nora Grey to care more about whether her boyfriend is cheating on her or not than about a war which is going on around her and her people. *sighs*...more
This book is an improvement over its prequel, and that's why I'm giving it 3.8 stars. Ms. Garcia doesn't disappoint when the writing of spooky scenes This book is an improvement over its prequel, and that's why I'm giving it 3.8 stars. Ms. Garcia doesn't disappoint when the writing of spooky scenes and suspense is concerned. I also find those characters in her book growing on me as well. Although I have to complain: why would only five teenagers and four adults have been tasked to deal with a very powerful and dangerous demon and his minors trying to open the Gate of Hell? Why shouldn't more manpower to be added to handle such a huge crisis?
Still, I can't wait to read the sequel. Too bad it looks like Ms. Garcia has taken years and still hasn't finished the third book!!!!! T__T...more
I once thought if nothing else, the cover of A Temptation of Angels is very pretty, but then I read this review and learnt how unoriginal it really isI once thought if nothing else, the cover of A Temptation of Angels is very pretty, but then I read this review and learnt how unoriginal it really is.
*sighs*
Note: It's more like a summary of my thoughts about this novel than an actual review:
Warning: F-words here and there, don't like don't read.
(1)The heroine is a useless dead-weight. She needs the guys to save her all the time, she can't do anything but somehow still manages to save the day, she is beautiful but doesn't know it. In short, she's a big fat fucking Mary Sue. She is also Too Stupid To Live, refusing to listen to warnings and choosing to be stubborn when it can cost her and her friends their lives.
(2) Four novels into her career as a professional author, Michelle Zink shows barely any sign of improvement in writing skill, world building, research and characters' development.
(3) All of the characters are cardboard cutouts.
(4) Zink can't write any descent combat scene to save her life.
(5) The love triangle is fucking ridiculous: (view spoiler)[the heroine falls for a dude who had ordered her own parents and many other innocent families to be killed. (hide spoiler)]
(6) The story supposedly takes place in the Victorian London, but Zink did an absolutely shit job to describe this 'Victorian London'. In fact she didn't even bother to throw in much historical details to make her story a bit more believable.
(7) The writing is slightly better than Twilight, but it still doesn't say much.
(8) The story as a whole is one hell of an unconvincing make-believe.
(9) Lots and lots of Fuck-ery, for example: (view spoiler)[The MC talks her friends into entrusting their lives and the safety of the entire world to a known traitor and murderer. (hide spoiler)]
(10) The mythology is a total mess.
(11) The good guys, the villains, the world, the mythology, the tone, the atmosphere, the action scenes are all painfully flat, bland and underdeveloped.
(12) Last but not least, the heroine reacts quite coolly when an old man who had selflessly helped her, is found murdered by the bad guys.
It's a 'I had read better written, more exciting fanfics about angels than this book' 1.5 stars.
Be warned that NOTHING HAPPENS within the first 200+ pIt's a 'I had read better written, more exciting fanfics about angels than this book' 1.5 stars.
Be warned that NOTHING HAPPENS within the first 200+ pages of this novel, the story is filled by the daily affairs of the heroine and her friends from the freaking high school.
[image]
(A special thank to Jun Bisque, a dear friend of mine who made this jpg.)
Also, you have to be warned against the dull writing, the cardboard cutout characters, cheesy romance, I'm a special innocent snowflake Mary Sue heroine, I'm evil but I've never done anything scary in the book villains and the mind-numbingly boring highschool melodramas. We also got a 100+ years old immortal drooling all over a 16 years old girl as well. Last but not least, the heroine is rather useless, she needs her love interest, a.k.a the mysterious, brooding new boy in school who really is a 100+ years old immortal to save her life repeatedly.
Bitch, please.
Not to mention said heroine is all too ready to forsake her life, happiness and future after her love interest left her behind in order to save her life.
Shit, I'd been getting that all-too-familiar Twilight vibe while I read the book.=___=
I don't hate this book, I even like the parts when the authors make fun of Twilight and disco-ball pseudo vampires, the characters aren't hateful neither; but I'm both annoyed and disappointed by this novel and its authors....more
1.5 stars, in the middle of the book I almost thought I was too harsh on Wings of the Wicked, but the ending is too much of a WTF-ery for any more sta1.5 stars, in the middle of the book I almost thought I was too harsh on Wings of the Wicked, but the ending is too much of a WTF-ery for any more star to be allowed.
Plus I died a little when I saw at the back of the Chinese version of this book, they insisted that "Ellie is unlike those YA damsels in distress who pitifully wait for the male leads to save them", are you kidding me!? Ellie always needs Will or other male characters to save her or lift her out of danger! Stop painting her as a strong heroine for Hell's sake! ...more
I haven't read the book, still waiting for the library to get it. But I had heard about what happens in the end.
To tell the truth, Clare's Pre-review:
I haven't read the book, still waiting for the library to get it. But I had heard about what happens in the end.
To tell the truth, Clare's lousy finale for her own series shocks me. For goodness's sake! It's just unbecoming! (view spoiler)[Letting your main character have the bests of both worlds is just greedy and pathetic. At least Clary didn't have both Jace and Simon in the end, you know! (hide spoiler)]
@24/08/2014
Okay, I'm finished reading the whole book, and I give it 1.5 stars, Clockwork Princess could have been a good story if only this book isn't so drowned in eye-rolling plot convenience, if only 1/3 of the book's pages had been trimmed and edited away, if only the "heroine" isn't so much of a damsels-in-distress (even after three books it still doesn't change!), if only the "good guys" aren't so hopelessly dumb and useless (the villain is a shade smarter, but not by far), if only the "plot twists" aren't so forced, if only the love triangle and the ending isn't so damn shitty.
And I lost count on how many time I rolled my eyes at all those Lord Tennyson and Edgar Allan Poe etc quotes. The Allan Poe quote is especially silly and unforgivable!
Clare, please stop the names-dropping already, just because one of the villains turns into a worm doesn't mean you should quote Edgar Allan Poe's The Conqueror Worm! It's totally out of context.
Furthermore, if I needed to choose one word to describe this book, this word would be "cheap".
Cheap plot convenience, cheap emotional manipulation, cheap romance, cheap plot twists. Trust me, it really isn't a decent book.
Review to come, I guess, and you can always read my reading progresses below instead.
And here's how I felt when reading this book.
[image]
I'm not able to locate the original source of this meme photo, sorry.
edited@26/04/2015
There're many things I want to address when it comes to Clockwork Princess (CP2), I will write them down one by one and it's going to take time, please be patient with me.
Research failure
Simply put, CP2 fails at being a historical paranormal novel/alternative history fantasy novel. I'm by no mean a history expert, but Clare's faults are just too obvious it's difficult to overlook them all:
(i) Jem dropping random Mandarin sentences whenever he could gives me a headache, and Clare ignores the fact that in the time of TID, Shanghaieses spoke Wu language instead of Mandarin really does show how much Clare cares about research and accuracy. And goodness, Clare didn't even bother to get her Mandarin correct, here's an example:
At around page 57, Jem spoke in Mandarin to Tessa, and I see that what Jem had said in Mandarin is "I hope you will marry me tomorrow", not "I would marry you tomorrow if I could" like Clare claims!
First, what's the point of Jem speaking Mandarin to Tessa when she barely knew what he was talking about, especially when Jem was close to death at this point? I mean, would a British talk to his or her loved ones in French/Japanese/Spanish when he or she is going to die? No? Who would do this kind of thing when they're dying? Secondly, what's the point of throwing Mandarin around when Clare didn't even bother to translate them correctly into English?
Furthermore, I want to point how Jem's Mandarin dialogues make him sound like a guy from modern China instead of someone from the time of Qing Dynasty, aka the Victorian era. I mean, both the Chinese writing and speaking language had changed A REALLY GREAT DEAL from the Qing Dynasty to the present time. And I have a feeling that the person who was responsible for 'teaching' Clare Chinese knows not a single thing about how Chinese people were supposed to talk back in the Qing Dynasty.
(ii) Cecily was perfectly okay with the fact that her brother was lusting after/in love with his best friend's fiancee? She didn't, for even a second, think it's scandalous and immoral? I very much want to know what kind of Victorian education this girl had in the past.
(iii) Does Clare know how things were like in the 1880s American society? Pity tells, how could Tessa, a girl from a struggling family with her brother being the only breadwinner, managed to read so many books in the past, to the point that she can recognize the status of Greek/Roman figures such as Caesar, Herodotus, Thucydides, Aristotle, Ovid, Homer, Virgil and Sophocles, without missing-fire once? Is that so common for the Americans at that time to know all those Greek/Roman figures? Shouldn't Tessa be put to work to support her family instead of reading?
Edited@10/09/2015:
The romance
The whole love triangle thing is annoying and Clare can't fool no one when the question of 'who Tessa was going to pick?' is cornered; and just don't get me started with how Tessa and Will (view spoiler)[had sex right after Tessa learnt Jem was dead. (hide spoiler)]
Plus, it's a damn lazy way to handle your love triangle by (view spoiler)[binding one boy to the deathbed, keeping him out of sight for forever and letting the other boy go rescuing the girl. (hide spoiler)] Damn lazy.
I could have said more, but at this point I just can't bring myself to spend even a tiny drop of effort on any of Clare's creations, so goodbye....more
I have been wondering forever why everyone else seems to love this series so much. For god's sake, Clara is a Mary Sue and she's too airheaPre-review:
I have been wondering forever why everyone else seems to love this series so much. For god's sake, Clara is a Mary Sue and she's too airhead not to be annoying; the love triangle is ridiculous, the bad guys are laughing stocks at best, and there's nothing new or angelic about those holier-than-thou angel-bloods (half-angels).
A friend of mine stated that most people who gave four or five stars rates/reviews to this book because: (1) they had just suffered the horror of Hush, Hush, Halo or Fallen; (2) the supposedly 'good' writing (okay, I admit it really is better than Fallen, etc) tricked them into overlooking all the flaws: the cliches, the lack of action, the annoying love triangle and the Mary Sue main character. And goodness, the writing isn't that good nor interesting to me anyway.
Edited@13/01/2016
I am half way through the book now, and I found something really hateful and ugly in the story:
For the second time in this series, the author tells me a certain young girl's one true and sacred purpose in life is to get herself knocked up and give birth to a....you guessed it! a male infant!
Holy mother fucker. The first time shits like this happen is when the author reveals (view spoiler)[Clara's mother's one true and sacred purpose in life is to get herself knocked up and give birth to Clara. (hide spoiler)] I can't even.
Secondly, another young woman predictably turns out to be a villain because....you just know that having tattoos on her skin, dressing in revealing outfits and having an open attitude toward guys usually signals that she is a bad female.
Actual review starts here
I almost wanted to give Boundless two stars, but after taking the slut shaming, the Mary Sue heroine, the extremely poorly done mythology, the plot holes, the insufferable conservative messages and the anticlimactic ending into consideration, I decided nothing more than 1 star should be given.
Let's do a breakdown here:
(1) the Mary Sue heroine: she is beautiful, she is good at everything she does, she hasn't even gotten ill in her life, she has two hot boys drooling over hear, her father is (view spoiler)[Arch Angel Micheal, for crying out loud (hide spoiler)], she has power which hardly anyone else can wield, even her mother told her how special she is.
I want to throw up.
(2) the paper-thinned mythology: we are just supposed to accept that God and angels and demons exist, and the whole Christian mythology about heaven and hell is true. The God/angels are good and the demons are just bad and evil. We should just swallow it all down, no question asked. Hardly anything gets an explanation.
In this book, Hell/underworld is mentioned, but once again we learn barely anything about it and the description of angels/demons/Hell is mind-breakingly flat and unimaginative and down right boringgggggg.
(3) the holier-and-better-than-thou-lowly-humans-angels/half angels: Not only the angels and their offspring are beautiful, smart and good at everything they do, and they can't even get sick! Plus each of them has a special, God-given holy 'purpose' they need to fulfill.
What are those holy purposes? Ending world hunger? Bringing peace to the world? Protecting humans? Nap. From what I can see their purposes directed them to hook up (God obviously loves match-making a lot) and have babies together, or to be a good citizen to their community.
Yes...very holy, special and important purposes indeed. Not to mention female half-angels' purpose in life are to hook up with guys so they can make babies together!
(4) The slut shaming: As mentioned above, wearing revealing clothes makes you a bad female.
(5) The Love Triangle: Oh yes the love triangle......and this time Love Interest No. 2 Tucker is out of the picture for most time.
(6) The lack of explanation: Why would the arch villain (view spoiler)[wants Angela's baby so much and go into such length to catch him? (hide spoiler)] It isn't even explained!
(7) The insufferable conservatism: 3 books go by, and I can't remember seeing one black angel or an Asian one (Okay, I could happen to overlook them, because the main crew is...white?). Not only this, I can't remember seeing an angel/half-angel who is anything less than middle classed. None of them do grass-root job for a living, no one lives in a poor community. I mean, screw all the 'staying with the poor and the weak' dogmas!
(8) ...and the heroine just let her 16 years old brother live by himself? I mean, they are now without parents! Their mother (view spoiler)[had just freaking died! (hide spoiler)] But Clara the heroine just up and goes to college and let her troubled and sad younger brother live by himself and drop out of school!?
I don't think this is an awful book, it is only an awfully forgettable and unimaginative YA paranormal book about a Super Special Mary Sue, A Bad Love Triangle, A Bunch Of Very Special White Middle Class PeopleAngels and Villains Who Hardly Do Anything Scary.
Pre-review: I'm curious. Will Rebecca Lim finally reveals the true identity of Mercy as...Jesus Christ himself or Sophia (the female side of God)?
It'sPre-review: I'm curious. Will Rebecca Lim finally reveals the true identity of Mercy as...Jesus Christ himself or Sophia (the female side of God)?
It's just a wild guess. ^_^
Actual review here:
Sweet Lord! I'm pissed, I'm so pissed. What had happened to this angel series that shows an amount of potential? This finale of Mercy series is just mind-blowingly underwhelming and silly.
The story of Mercy plays out like this: Mercy is an exiled angel who is doomed to inhabit the bodies of different female mortals throughout millenniums, but she has no memory of her past before the exile, nor does she know the reason why she has to endure this 'punishment'; she only knows there're the mysterious Eight (the eight most powerful angels) searching for her and her mysterious lover is also looking for her. In the middle of it, Mercy is now attracted to a mortal young man, Ryan, whose younger sister she had helped rescued.
The first book is satisfying enough, it's refreshing to see an angel YA novel coming up with a new angle (the part about Mercy living through countless of previous lives inhabiting different female bodies); whilst the third book answers the reasons for Mercy's 'punishment' and reveals the true intentions of the angels and the demons. I enjoy these books quite well.
But in Fury, this fourth and final book of the series, things fall apart. Here're the reason why:
(1) the love interest, Ryan, is useless and annoying. Ryan, you are of no use in this struggle between angels and demons, just go home already!
(2) the romance between Mercy and Ryan: I don't even want to talk about it. Oh, the horror.
(3) the angel and demon myths: the myths are paper-thinned in this book. Something is wrong.
(4) the anti climactic ending: God, it's the mother of all anti climactic endings. Trust me on this one!
Muse, the third book of Mercy series isn't as silly and bad as some other badly written angel series, like: Hush, Hush and Fallen. The author has someMuse, the third book of Mercy series isn't as silly and bad as some other badly written angel series, like: Hush, Hush and Fallen. The author has some refreshing ideas up her sleeves and the book is a quick, easy read. As long as you don't think too deeply into the details, then you'll be alright.
Plus, the cover really is pretty.
Although I'm disappointed of the revealing of Luc's true identity---the answer to this mystery is so damn obvious! And for how many times we must remind authors that Devil, Lucifer and Satan aren't the same guy!???
Still, I like how the author explains why Luc needs Mercy so badly, the idea is nice enough.
What I do enjoy, is Mercy experiencing human's life as a 19 years old devastatingly beautiful, troubled supermodel, but still...what happened to said supermodel and the other humans at the end? I want to know what had happened to them so badly! But the author seems wanting to leave all the answers for the next book.=__= ...more
Before I pen the actual review, I want to express my feeling toward Cassandra Clare's Clockwork Prince, it can be summarized with the two photos below... [image] Link: http://vampirekiki.deviantart.com/art...
Edited@14/01/2014: Have anyone taken a good look at the cover of Clockwork Prince?
Supposedly it's Jem on the cover (though this model looks nothing like Jem, for crying out loud) but then one day I noticed on this cover, Jem is holding a dragon-head cane.
Now we have a problem. It's time for Chinese History 101: In the imperial China, only the Emperor and the members of the royal family could wear clothes with dragons on them, or possessed personal items with dragon ornaments on them. If a commoner was found wearing/possessing dragon ornaments, the punishment for such offence was death.
So tell me, how come a cane with a dragon head on it can come into Jem's possession?
Here's the link to something I wrote concerning the topic of Cassandra Clare and plagiarism.
Note: I posted this photo up here before I can lay my hands on this book because I know I'll need it once I start reading... [image]
Now, the actual review starts here:
I really, really didn't expect it, but after finishing Clockwork Prince (CP), I found Cassandra Clare actually hit the rock bottom with this second book of The Infernal Devices series. If you thought Clockwork Angel is bad, wait till you read CP! Why would I say that? Here're a few points:
(1) The horrible love Triangle
Don't get me wrong, I like reading about people falling in love, I can even tolerate love triangles when they're well written. But I hate whatever romance Cassandra Clare has to offer with a passion. At first I couldn't quite pinpoint why her romances make my stomach turn so much. But after reading so many woody, uninspiring 'romantic' Will/Tessa and Jem/Tessa scenes throughout CP, I began to realize why Clare's love triangle pisses me off so much...
It's because I can't sense any passion in Clare's writing. It's like she was merely writing a very formalized version of what people should do/think/feel when they're in love. There's no heart, no passion, no real feeling beyond her 'romances'!>_<
Whenever I read a good, heartfelt romance, I would cheer the couple on and feel happy when they finally get together, but I never do that with any of Clare's couples.
Plus, we are supposed to believe Jem and Will were all head over heels for Tessa, but what's so adorable about her? I don't get it. If Tessa was kind and brave, then isn't Sophie just the same!? So why would Will and Jem never notice her as a love interest? Why?
Well, the romance might actually have worked out well if only Tessa is a likable character, but sadly she never is; for her creator Clare has always mistaken bitchiness, stupidity and selfishness with bravery and independence when it comes to her female characters. *sighs*
(2)Clare's failed attempt to make Will sympathetic
Will, he was a major jackass in Clockwork Angel, but starting from Chapter One of Clockwork Prince, Clare intended to let us see the 'different' side of Will's character by throwing off hints that he had feeling for Tessa, throwing off hints that there's a reason for him to be so much of an asshole to everyone, blah blah blah.
But dose Clare's attempt to make Will sympathetic work? My answer to that is a big fat NO.
(view spoiler)[ Let me get down to Will's curse. Supposedly when Will was 12 years old, he accidentally released a demon, the demon cursed him that every person who looks at him with love will die, unless he removes himself from their presence. This is the condition of the curse. And at the same night he was 'cursed', Will's sister died painfully, causing Will to believe her death was the curse at work, so he escaped from his family without looking back.
First there're many holes in this story, for example why would Will's father, an ex-Shadowhunter be allowed to keep a trapped demon? Why would the man be foolish enough to keep said demon under the same roof with his own wife and children? Was the father really that stupid? But what I want to discuss is how idiotically Will had reacted to his 'curse'.
After he was 'cursed', Will never mentioned it with any of the adults, not his parents, not Henry and Charlotte, no one.
What the hell? Did the demon ever forbid Will to mention his curse to anyone? No? Then why wouldn't he tell the Shadowhunters about his curse? Weren't the Shadowhunters experts of dealing with curses and demons!? Even when the Shadowhunters couldn't handle it, wouldn't there be Silent Brothers around to do the job? Why would Will be such an idiot!?
Plus, I don't even want to mention how unlikely it is for the demon to cast a fake curse on Will which couldn't even work out! Wouldn't it be easier for the demon to tear Will and his sister from limb to limb, then wait for their parents to come back if the demon really wants revenge for his imprisonment!?
This one is for all the Will-defenders out there: Please look me in the eyes and explain to me why should I feel any sympathy for someone who said the following line to someone else:
"Lord, you're Irish," said Will, "Can you make things that don't have potatoes in them?"
Will said that to the new cook once he realized she was Irish. What a total racist dickhead he is. He makes me sick.
my GR friend Andre joked about "Will was cursed to a life of assholeness" and I can't agree more with him. The whole thing about Will and his curse is just pathetic. It's just a bucket of nonsense in my eyes.
Tessa: She's not as hateful as she was in CA, but my goodness she's dull and uninteresting. Can't see what Jem and Will see in her.
Will: He's an ass. He's an ass who reads through someone else's letters without permission, who had humiliated a girl in the past by reading her diary entries aloud to a whole roomful of guests. Will is a horrible person. The reason why he's parabatai with Jem only highlighted how hateful and selfish he is--My goodness Will didn't even tell Jem the real reason why he agreed to be parabatai with him all along! WHO NEED ENEMY WHEN THEY HAVE *FRIEND* LIKE THIS!? Plus, the reason why he wants to break his curse is because he doesn't want to hurt Tessa's feeling. Oh, great. So Will doesn't care if he hurt Jem, Henry and Charrlotte's feeling throughout five long years, but he cares about himself hurting Tessa's feeling!? I can't believe how selfish this guy can be and how little he had thought of his best friend and the two adults who had bothered to raise him up! That's hateful!
Jem: He's still the nice guy and there's nothing more about him. But how could a half Chinese-half British with bright sliver hair mixed person goes unnoticed in the Victorian London? And he also suffers no race discrimination? It makes no sense.
Jessamine: She's only there to be the total bitch so Tessa could look good. Full Stop.
Sophie: I don't know why she has her own storyline in this book. She serves no real purpose other than to be one of the Lightwood brothers' love interest. And even that romance with said Lightwood brother could have been done off-screen.
Charlotte and Henry: They barely show any maturity and leadership in the book. I hate to say that but Charlotte's behaviors show that she has yet to prove herself a capable leader! I like Charlotte, but still...
Nate: A cardboard cutout. I have nothing to say about him.
(4) The Shadowhunters' idiocy
I had talked about Henry and Charlotte's lack of leadership, but the Shadowhunters as a whole continue to act like they are a bunch of idiots. They are even more lousy than they were in Clockwork Angel. For example, in the mask ball scene, Tessa and Will simply started making out when they should have been busy trying to escape from the villains! That's damn stupid!
Worse still, they(mostly Will) seemed to think the bad guys were as stupid as they were! Again for example, (view spoiler)[ Tessa Changed into Jessamine in order to meet Nate in a mask ball, but after her leaving the ball under suspicious condition, the Shadowhunters still thought Nate would fall for the same trick again?!? (hide spoiler)] Shit, the Shadowhunters still thought it's a good idea for Tessa to play the same trick again? They really thought the bad guys were THAT stupid?
Not to mention the mask ball scene doesn't make any sense at all. (view spoiler)[Why would the bad guy meet the spy who he had planted in the enemy camp in a ball, where everyone can see them!? Plus why would the bad Shadowhunter think it's a good idea to host a ball with Downworlders doing illegal activities within his own mansion!? That's just damn stupid! (hide spoiler)]
(5) Where's the villain!?
(view spoiler)[The arch villain, Mortmain has been nowhere in sight throughout the entire book, leaving only Nate--who isn't all that bright nor frightening, in his place. My goodness, I had never, never read a second book in which the arch villain is absent.(hide spoiler)] So what's the point of Clockwork Prince's very existence? Seriously, I think Clare is wasting my time here.
(6) The boredom, oh the boredom!
There're some 500 pages in CP, but at least 1/3 of them could have been cut off for good. Mostly I want to complain about the screen time which is wasted on the romances. The Will/Tessa and Jem/Tessa scenes are equally woody, boring and pointless. Plus, I don't know why Sophie gets her own storyline when said storyline serves no purpose other than throwing one more romance into a story.
(7) The supposed 'Victorian' background
I am not an expert of history, but I cannot help but noticing hardly any of the character in TDI act like they are people from the Victorian era.
I have problem suppressing my disbelief when Will, Jem, Henry and Charlotte all went "OH I LOVE YOU! I LOVE YOU! I LOVE YOU!!" on us. My goodness, I know that during the Victorian era, even husband and wife wouldn't express their feeling so freely.
Plus I want to point out at 1870s, Chinese people were very subtle when it comes to expressing romantic love, they were as subtle as the British. But somehow Clae made Jem say "I love you" to Tessa in Chinese. Oh my goodness, did she ever know expressions such as "I love you" was introduced to China *after* the Republic of China was formed? That "I love you" simply isn't part of the common language in the 1870s?
I also have problem suppressing my disbelief when Jem made out with Tessa and had his hands up beneath her nightgown. Just...What is that?
[image]
A Victorian gentleman would never treat a woman like this, not if he respected her. But no, realism has to make way for steaming hot make-out sections, right?
I also can't suppress my disbelief when I read that a Shadowhunter asked Sophie "to see him" outside of training. I can't believe a Victorian gentleman would do that when in this case Sophie was a maid. Not that there's anything wrong about liking or loving a maid, but I can't believe for a second that any man of Victorian polite society would actually do that.
Then I want to point out the issue about Jem's parentage.
In the Victorian era, race discrimination was common, and marriages between different races were...rare, especially within the polite society. So why would Jem's parents be faced with no objection when they got married? I don't quite buy this "Shadowhunters have no race discrimination" claim---for how would there possibly be no race discrimination against people of colors when the Shadowhunters had such a bad attitude toward Downworlders and they were so against the idea of women being the bosses? Plus unlike J K. Rowling's wizards who didn't have to interact with Muggles directly, the Shadowhunters had to live among humans and moved in the humans' society, so I can't believe the racism at that time could have no influence on the Shadowhunters.
Furthermore, my good GR friend Andre also informed me that Opium War took place four years before Jem was born, and you can imagine how the Chinese might feel toward British and half British-half Chinese mixed children at that time. So why would Jem never mentioned having racist problems during his childhood?
I also want to point out how unrealistic Tessa's reaction to Jem is.
I found it unrealistic for Tessa not having any negative feeling or doubt toward Jem when they first met. She wasn't even being taken aback when she learnt there is a half Chinese among Shadowhunters. It's highly unlikely because...back in the time of 1870s, race discrimination against Chinese were wild-spreading among American general public. During the time of TDI, discrimination against Chinese was widely common, especially among the working class people---who believed their jobs were stolen by the Chinese, and the mainstream media of that time was eager to paint Chinese as evil invaders or scary criminals who had a lot of immoral bad hobbies (e.g. opium smoking, gambling and whoring and even rat-eating etc) which were against the Christian values. The media of that time happily and self righteously fed those stereotypes to the public.
That, was how unpopular the Chinese had once been in America, no kidding. And I can't think for a reason for Tessa to be unaware of Chinese and/or mixed blood people's bad reputation of that time. Tessa only acted like "Oh so Jem is a half-Chinese? Oh, I had never seen a Chinese before!" That's quite unrealistic.
Conclusion:
In one of my statuses, my GR friend Ceilidh commented that: "Oh honey, you really are a literary masochist. First the Tiger's Racist Curse books and now this? "
Okay, I admit that Ceilidh is right, reading C. Clare's books really makes me a literary masochist. Because for what reason else would I be reading Clockwork Prince, when the author (1) has became very very lazy, (2) had done poor research on the historical London, (3) hasn't taken her creations and her readers seriously, (4) has been giving us increasingly shitty plots and characters, (5) didn't even TRY to make her story and characters make sense.
I'm serious, after reading seven of Clare's novels, I don't think this woman respects her readers, nor her own stories....more
I admit this, I got fed up by Clare's constant Edgar Allan Poe references and when I skimmed to the ending part and saw (view spoiler)[Annabel Lee from Allan Poe's poem (hide spoiler)] being a mother fucking actual character in this book, I lost it and quit.
I am so pissed that I feel the need to write a 'poem' about this whole freaking Poe business:
Cassandra Clare
--a satire based *very* loosely on Annabel Lee, a poem by Edgar Allan Poe--
It was many many and many a year ago In a kingdom of Badly Written YA Novels, That an 'author' there lived who By the name of Cassandra Clare And this 'author' wrote novels Filled with melodramas, Mary Sues and someone else's ideas
I was a reader and doomed to suffer, In this kingdom of Badly Written YA,
For hardly anyone else could Always fill her books with sheer meaninglessness, The same like Cassandra Clare was capable of doing.
And this was the reason that, long ago In this kingdom of Badly Written YA, Cassandra Clare decided to fill her novels With so many quotes, Beautiful words taken from better authors and poets, Cut out and stuffed into Clare's thick books. Sadly these quotes serve no real purpose at all In this kingdom of Badly Written YA.
I, the poor reader, not happy with Clare's awful use of, Edger Allan Poe's quotes, Is screaming in rage, Yes! Why must The Conqueror Worm have anything, To do with some guy turning into a worm, In Clockwork Princess?
And why must Poe and Annabel Lee have Any relation with demon hunters, In the sunny Los Angeles? Hell, it makes no sense. Just like so many other contradictions In Clare's Mortal Instruments Series.
In the very end, I hope you guys are as offended by my poor poem-writing-skill as I'm offended by Clare's stupid Poe's quotes.
Honestly, Clare's use of my idol Edgar Allan Poe as references isn't the biggest turn-off in this book yet, the real turn-off is the YA romance angst and how Clare wrote this book while fully expecting readers to care about the every little thing her characters do in their day-to-day lives and expecting readers to give a shit about these details.
The problem is, characters need to be somewhat interesting for me to care about them, but Clare's characters, as usual, aren't even remotely interesting nor well constructed.
Plus, at least 200 pages of this book could have been trimmed away, so where were Clare's editors when we need them the most?
So, what had gone wrong? Here is a check list:
**Warning: slight plot spoilers below**
(1) The matter of simple mathematics
The population of L.A. : 3,976,322 (2016)
Number of Shadowhhunters: inclunding Emma, the Blackthorns, the Ashdowns, Diana and Cristina, etc; around 20-30 Shadow Hunters in total.
Number of demons: don't know, but supposedly there must be many demons in a large city like L.A.
So there are only 20 or so Shadowhunters to keep the demons in L.A. under control the whole time, it looks like the demons had been having plenty of slow days in L.A. all along.
(2) Uninteresting gay romances:
I always like gay/yaoi romances here and there, but OMG how can this certain someone think this faerie guy truly loves him because the faerie has been tender to him!?
Get real, please.
(3) The general stupidity of the Shadowhunters:
First, these people allow Jace and Clary to run the New York Institute. *facepalms*
Secondly, when the wicked, manipulative faeries release a prisoner back to the L.A. Institute, our MCs do nothing to prevent said prisoner from harming the children. No, they haven't even suspected said prisoner might be brainwashed into harming them. No, they haven't even thought about this.
Thirdly, there seems to be no psychologist, no social worker, no orphans adoption system in the Shadowhunters society.
I mean, the adult Shadowhunters always died on missions and there had just been a massive war some five or six years ago, but in the Shadowhunters' society, we can still barely find one psychologist to help the survivors, no mention of PTSD treatment, no welfare system to look after the orphans.
Last but not least, no one outside of the L.A. Institute has ever realized their supposed chief is mentally ill and it is actually a few teenagers who are actually running things and fighting demons with little to no management from older Shadowhunters.
(4) I really don't like how Clare fully expects readers to be invested with her main characters when these characters have nothing to make me root for them:
Alright, I know I'm supposed to care about Emma and her investigation to find her parents' killer, I know I'm supposed to care about Julian, his emotional problems and his hotness, I know I'm also supposed to find the younger Blackthorn siblings cute and adorable---I'm supposed to care because that is exactly what Clare's tone and her writing has been indicating all along: most of the main characters were given a lengthy backstory, their daily routines (e.g. training, eating breakfast, throwing jokes at each other or simply chatting away, etc) are given the utmost attention and screen time; as though the daily routines and the internal monologues of these characters are so interesting that they all deserve readers' unlimited attention and time.
The truth is: they don't deserve that much of spaces and screen time. I would rather see the plot moves forward in a bit of a faster pace instead of dealing with the Blackthorns siblings and their chatters, or the romantic angst between Emma and Julian, just to name a few of these annoyance. *sighs*
(5) When reading this book, I was trapped with some of the blandest and most boring main characters in my recent memory:
Let's face it, Emma Carstairs and Julian Blackthorns are really boring both as a pair of BFF and potential love interest for each other. One of the main problems is I just totally don't get Emma as a character, she seems to like fighting and training and wanting to avenge her parents.........and that's all I get from her as a character.
Not to mention, even when Emma is a supposedly well trained warrior, she still decides to carry a sword around 24/7 which makes no sense to me even when I know this sword is from her dead parents. She also tends to act purely out of impulse, randomly fighting demons and going out to investigate demon activities without telling anyone where she is going---Stupid with a capital S damn it, it is just the same like Jace, all over again.
As to Julian, oh boy he is even more boring than Emma, although to be fair the guy has a bit more common sense and sense of responsibility in him than Emma, and as far as character's trait goes, he likes to paint and draw---still it just isn't enough to hook me with this character. I mean, am I really supposed to be invested with a character only because he is hot, he is into art and he has a sensitive soul?
To make matter worse, Clare wrote about Julian and his lengthy backstory fully expecting me to care about him as a person and his endless struggle with trying to raise 4 younger siblings since 12 or so years old. Okay, I know child-caring in such a young age is hard, still I feel nothing when I read about the hardship he faces.
I sense that with Julian and one of his younger brothers, Clare did try to address serious topics such as Special Education Needs and the problem of Shadowhunters not valuing their children's other talents (e.g. painting) outside of their fighting skills, but it just isn't enough to keep me interested; not even for 5 minutes.
As to the other Blackthorn siblings, they are so freaking boring! I understand that they are struggling to deal with the death of their father, the kidnapping of their older brother and the BS dished out to them by other adult Shadowhunters, but I simply can't guilt-trap myself into caring for any of them.
There also is Cristina...a Shadowhunter from Mexico! But as far as I can see, she is here only to show 'Look! There is a POC in the story!'
(6) the tiresome romantic woes between Emma and Julian take up a lot of spaces in the story:
I have a feeling that Emma and Julian might not have turned out being so bland and uninteresting if all the romantic angst had been taken out from the storyline: they could have just been a case of "I like you, you like me, let's start dating!", or even better they could have simply stayed friends for crying out loud. That could have been kind of cute.
Instead, Clare decided these two need to have romantic angst, jealousy and misunderstanding between them, tons of it.
In order to get to the bottom of the unnecessary of the romantic woes between Emma and Julian, we must first get back to Point no. 3 in this review: the general stupidity of the Shadowhunters...especially the adults.
I mean all of the romantic angst between these two is established by the fact that they are parabatai---magic bound warrior partners with a bond which is supposedly unbreakable---and for some odd and unknown reason two parabatai aren't supposed to feel romantic love toward each other!
You think this taboo can keep Emma and Julian and their raging teenager's lust ridden hormones in check? You better think again!
So, the whole point about Emma and Julian's feeling for each other being 'forbidden' is based solely on the foundation of them being parabatai; and if you asked me, this 'forbidden love' feels really forced and underwhelming to me, even worse than the 'forbidden love' between Jace and Clary.
Plus it really makes zero sense to me when these adults just let Emma and Julian bind themselves to be parabatai at the tender age of 12, shortly after Emma suffered the trauma of losing both her parents. I mean, who in their right minds would allow two 12 years old kids making permanent life decision like this?!
To be honest, my good guess is by the end of the trilogy, Clare would find a loophole (no matter how far-fetched it is) for these two to break off their parabatai bond so they can sex each other up eventually.
(7) Nothing happens:
Last but not least, I'm getting to the most damaging part of this book's many flaws: nothing happens in the first 300+ pages
We don't get much hint about the identity of the murderer of Emma's parents, we don't get much hint for the conspiracy surrounding the demon activities, for most of the time we don't even get much action scene. All we get is romantic subplots breeding left and right, and a lot of details about the daily activities of the Blackthorn family and their backstories.
300+ pages filled with these kind of nonsense is a bit too much for me. And trust me, if Lady Midnight doesn't have such kind of poor planning, shabby plots, awful pacing and nonexistent sense of direction, I wouldn't have DNF-ed it.
The Final Words: don't buy it, don't borrow it, it just doesn't worth it.
Another series within the poorly constructed world of Shadowhunters, a world which obviously is borrowed from Harry Potter?
Oh. My. Goodness. [image]
You know what I'm trying to say here, right?
I admit I'm being very negative here, but Cassandra Clare has so far given me almost nothing to be positive when it comes to her books.
And for those angry fans who say stuff like "You shouldn't comment on a book you haven't yet read!", I want to share this comic (by Vicky/KurvosVicky), although his comic focuses on movies but the same can be well reflected on books and manga/comic
Note: I read the Chinese translation of this book, and I will merely run a simple list about the pros and cons of this novel:
(1) The research and the Note: I read the Chinese translation of this book, and I will merely run a simple list about the pros and cons of this novel:
(1) The research and the mythology are awesome. (at least it seems awesome enough to me)
(2) The story takes us to different parts of the world, and the description of different landscapes is nice.
(3) My good-to-bad rating of angel-related-series (including YA, Japanese manga and novels for adults): Angel Sanctuary >> Daughter of Smoke and Bone series >> Angelology series >> Angelfall series >> Mercy series >> Unearthly series >> Fallen series >> Forbidden >> Prophecy of the Sisters series >> Angelfire series >> Hush Hush series >> A Temptation of Angels (by Michelle Zink)
(4) But the characters are all flat like a piece of wood.
(5) Hardly any of the characters' motivation and reasoning makes much sense. For example, who in his or her right mind would try to blow up a nuclear plane?
(6) The romance does nothing to impress me.
(7) There're action scene in the end, but I can't suppress my disbelief when none of the characters seems to: (a) thinks about the consequences of their action before they act, (b) make any reasonable decision and choice.
(8) Due to the problems stated above, the ending feels very, very forced and disappointing.
(9) Last but not least, I'm pissed to see the author continues to treat the Noah's Ark myth as a historical event, there're enough videos on Youtube to inform you how unlikely it was for good-old Noah to keep so many animals alive and keep them fed on his Ark...
I expected to love this book, I expected to find it as good as Daughter of Smoke and Bones, but in the end reading this book is the same like reading I expected to love this book, I expected to find it as good as Daughter of Smoke and Bones, but in the end reading this book is the same like reading a poorly written Angel Sanctuary's fanfic written by an untrained teenager.
Rating: a disappointing 2.5 stars, 1 star goes to Penryn's mother, 1 stars goes to the story's ending and 0.5 stars goes to Obi, one of the supporting characters.
0 star for the heroine Penryn Young, 0 star for Raff, the angel and love interest, 0 star for the poorly construed world, 0 star for the randomly thrown in angel and demon mythology, 0 star for all the poorly-developed supporting characters, 0 star for the shallow and flat female characters, 0 star for the girl-on-girl hating, 0 star for the uneventful plot (before the ending), 0 star for the poor explanation.
Need I go on?
In my opinion, Angelfall doesn't really deserve the hyper; I don't hate this book but I don't like it neither (That's why I can't give it 3 stars, which would mean I like it).
Comparing with Angelfall, books such as Angelology suddenly looks meaningfully written and well planned with interesting, exciting plots. But if I have to choose among Fallen, Hush Hush, Unearthly and Angelfall, I will cling to Angelfall for my dear life because Angelfall obviously is the lesser evil among all those horrible angel YA books.
Let's do some breakdown here:
(1) Penryn Young: She is far tougher than many 'I can't do anything' YA heroines, but does this mean she's interesting or likable? No, in fact I found her to be very boring. After reading the book I still don't even know what she looks like aside from the fact that she's described as pretty, wow.
Last but not least, her name is just stupid, I'm sorry to be harsh, but I cannot help it. When the MC's name is so stupid that it bothers you whenever you look at it, then it deserves a mention.
(2) Prenyn's sister Paige: I am supposed to care whether she lives or dies? Why should I care? I barely know anything about Paige aside from the fact she is wheelchair-bound, then she was kidnapped by the angels and then she had been nowhere in sight throughout the book, until the very end!
I think the author only uses Paige to guilt trap us into rooting for Penryn, but I'm not buying any of this.
(3) Raff: He's supposed to be a powerful angel but for most of the book I found him plain and underwhelming. He is just...kind of there throughout the book. Plus I can't stand Penryn spending a lot of time telling us how handsome Raff is, that's annoying.
(4) Prenyn's mother: She's one of the few characters which I actually like, but unluckily she tends to disappear for a long time and then pops up at the right place, at the right moment. That really reeks of plot device.
(5) The other angels: None of them have much traits to be spoken of, and they are very flat and poorly developed as characters.
(6) The world building: It's the weakest part of the book. A lot of things and elements of mythology are being slightly touched upon, but they are never developed nor explained.
(7) The other humans: Penryn, the MC, cares only for her sister and mother, since the book is entirely narrated by her, then in turn I cannot care for the other humans, because when Penryn doesn't bother to know and care about them, then why would I care?
I am so fed up by YA 'heroines' who only care about herself and her immediate family, but somehow we are still supposed to think they're the tough girls or role models or something. Give me a break.
(8)Women NOT fighting alongside men: As much as I like Obi, one of the team leaders of the human rebel group, still it's difficult to overlook that aside from Penryn and her mother, other female characters simply did nothing to join the fighting against evil angels, only men go to war and what do women do? They wash the dirty clothes. Can it be serious?
Guess what, in history lesson, I once read that not only women from the rural area of Canton, China (in fact, it was women from all over China for the same matter), banded together to help fighting against the Japanese invaders during World War II; there's also historical record about an old, uneducated village woman chose to sacrifice her own life after she was captured instead of letting other rebels take risk rescuing her from the enemy camp. The old woman actually told her comrades (her own daughter among them) not to try rescuing her because many more lives would be lost if they did. That's historically what women would do for their families, their homeland and their people. They didn't sit back and wash the dirty clothes whilst the men went out and fought the war. Is that clear enough!?
Link to an article which includes details about female soldiers fighting during WWII: LINK (Chinese only)
(9) All angels get a vote and have an universal election to select their leader: Don't even get me started with how stupid it is, just don't.
Angelfall isn't an awful book, but it just isn't very good either. If you have time to kill, go for it....more
I stumbled upon Dark Heart Rising, sequel to Dark Heart Forever and decided to give the book a try. Dark Heart Forever didn't impress me much, but I dI stumbled upon Dark Heart Rising, sequel to Dark Heart Forever and decided to give the book a try. Dark Heart Forever didn't impress me much, but I don't think it's horrible, though to be honest when I opened Dark Heart Rising I found myself unable to remember most of the events in book 1. I only recalled there's a werewolf boy and a human girl in the story, and the werewolves, vampires, witches and fallen angels all live in a secret dimension of their own; and these supernatural creatures are banned to mix with humans. Hell, I can't remember who is the bad guy. Okay, one hell of forgettable book it is.
Dark Heart Rising is a passable YA novel and it is easy to read, the main character Jane is an okay heroine who isn't a pain in the ass like so many other Paranormal YA book females. Though I found nothing outstanding in Jane and the entire story seems to be lacking when it comes to originality and style.
Still, everything is fine until the new male character, Soren's past is revealed. *plot spoiler warning* I found it problematic for the author to justify mass killing of an entire family. And why would Jane trust Soren and help him locating his younger sister (who was adopted by another werewolves family) after she learnt what he had done? Wouldn't she worry that Soren is only playing nice in order to sever his own agenda? Wouldn't she worry that Soren wants to find his sister only to finish what he had started years ago? I know if I were Jane, I'd be deeply worry. *end of spoiler*
The ending isn't bad, but it has nothing to differ itself from countless other YA paranormal romances in the market, and the author didn't bother to make up her mind on what she wants to do with Raphael, the villain in book 1. (at one part, Raphael is a hatred-ridden psychopath, then he shifts into a deeply troubled young man who plots to start an revolution in his society in the next chapter?) I suggest you to read the book when you can borrow it in the library....more
![プラチナエンド 2 [Platina End 2] (Platinum End, #2)](https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1461975552l/29456274._SY75_.jpg)
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