I picked up this novel because the book bloggers I really respect all had great things to say about this. I have never so ardently disagreed.
In the first page, the main character is pathetic. "It's so hard to open my eyes!" I am stuck to a boy and he stole everything that made me myself. We spent 100 years cuddling. Hot boy and main character are surprised she has a special power to simply survive. How demeaning. For this I will not name her; she will simply be "the main character." (And also because she is Clary/Bella/Could be anyone). There is also zero introduction which I have never experienced before. It was not pleasant. At first I was convinced I picked up a book from the middle of a series. This has never happened to me before.
Well in the first scene she wants to go home to her honey after "being asleep" for 100 years. Yeah, that's a great idea. But lucky for her, only 6 months have passed on "the surface". That is a pretty useless time warp since nothing happened except sleeping/cuddling in the 100 years she was gone.
When she returns, no one is seemingly happy to have her back. Her dad "tastes" disappointed. Other than the fact the MC is now tasting emotions, her dad is apparently horrid. No one runs to great her when she gets back in school, they just gossip about her being a druggie. Then her honey is, perfectly, in her first class of the day. But aghast! she hasn't thought about what to do now that she has traveled worlds to find him. She gets tongue tied and all she can say is "hi." I honestly don't know if I can stand a few more hours of this torture.
The writing style is also annoying because the author withholds so much information that the narrator knows. Then sometimes she goes back to explain scene set up after the scene happens. Also, the main character has bouts of memory loss, that is never actually a problem because she remembers everything and it's casually thrown in there after all the memories come back. It's like it was just a clause thrown in there to help the writer get herself out a jamb. This sloppy and confusing. It is also filled with gems like "I heard one of them sigh but I didn't know which one."It's like the author lacks confidence and understanding of language. She added 60% more words to a sentence so that repeats the same idea. The story bounces between a 'now' and 'then' time frames which is both helpful for getting essential details since nothing was provided in the beginning and a waste. Had the story been told chronologically it would have been much better because as I learned how the MC to ended up in her position I did soften to her a tad. It would have also helped the character to make sense.
Speaking of character that don't involve the female protagonist let's review them. First there is Cole, the bad boy, ever living, emotion eater, rock band guitarist. He is in love with the main character for no discernible reason. Then there is Jack, the wholesome love interest that was the best friend and then the boyfriend. I normally adore this type. Jack will be my exception because he isn't especially endearing, he is just too plain.
The side characters include Jules, the main character's best friend. This character was treated as simply a role, not a character at all. It was painful. The main character's family, Tommy and Dad, were developed slightly better. The emphasis that the MC puts on them in her mind is not the same emphasis that her actions describe. This sort of illusion is actually dangerous because thinking feelings is not the same as living them out. I will say that the very end of book sort of switches gears in this but for all the wrong reasons and way too late. The only other characters worth noting are Mary, Will, and the MC's English teacher. Mary was actually not bad, but there was a major plot hole connected with her. Maybe it will be addressed in the future but I'll never know. The English teacher was role a filling. But Will, now here is proof that Ashton can write a good character. He has real problems that stem from serious events in his past but he changes over time to combat them. I liked Will. Aston did so much with so little screen time with him.
Then there are sorts of fabricated problems that feel thrown in like this nugget about a quarter way through:
"My eyes started to sting even though I wasn't sure if I had recovered enough emotions to cry." What? When did this become a problem? She hasn't had trouble "feeling" anything before. She has been boiling with emotion from the beginning.
Then there is the MC weird sense of humor. "I smiled at the way he said 'guest' like that was my name or something."
About two thirds of the way through, the main character's father is suddenly a lawyer as well as the major which is revealed in a comment that addresses the way he addresses juries. It's this sort of want to be critical thinking lesson that jars the flow of the book and distracts the reader from the action.
Good things:
+Beautiful cover. Like drop dead gorgeous.
+The author brings up some interesting questions about being famous, like "do famous people always feel like others are waiting for them to perform?"
+Random burst of good humor like when Cole has a good quip about turning a frown on it's *ss. That was actually funny.
+The main character also does that thing where she assumes because the rock band is famous on a grass roots level that they are like the famous people she sees on TV. This is a great nuance that adds depth to the main character.
The ending of this book is suppose to be shocking and true love's glory but honestly the foreshadowing was more like a neon sign than anything remotely subtle so it felt stale. So how I managed through it all thanks to the Good Reads book challenge (only two more for this year's goal!), otherwise it would have been a dnf.
I realize that this review is pretty harsh but not calling out the problems isn't in the spirit of writing good reviews. I don't actually write well enough to write good reviews but I need all the practice I can get. I give this book one guitar out of five.
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