Review: Nightstruck by Jenna Black

Nightstruck by Jenna Black
Publisher: Tor Teen
Release Date: April 5th, 2016
Purchase: Amazon

The start of a paranormal horror series from Glimmerglass author Jenna Black.

The night is the enemy, and the city of Philadelphia is its deadliest weapon.

Becket is an ordinary teenage girl, wrestling with the upheaval of her parents' divorce. Her biggest problems to date have been choosing which colleges to apply to, living up to her parents' ambitious expectations of her, and fighting her secret crush on her best friend's boyfriend. That all changes the night she tries to save an innocent life and everything goes horribly wrong.

Becket has been tricked into opening a door between worlds. As dark magic trickles into Philadelphia, strange creatures roam the streets and inanimate objects come to life, all of them bloodthirsty and terrifying. The city returns to normal when the sun rises each morning. The moment the sun sets, most citizens shut themselves in their houses and stay there no matter what they hear.

The magic is openly hostile to most mortals, but there are some it seems to covet, trying to lure them out into the night. While Becket struggles to protect her friends and family from predatory creatures of the night, she is constantly tempted to shrug off her responsibilities and join them.

My thoughts:
I am incredibly frustrated by this book.  The story was a really interesting one, but the main character Becket is insanely annoying and really killed this story for me.

The story opens up really strong and I liked the whole creepy factor that the author chose to go with.  Was it original not really, but her spin was great and I found I liked it.  That all changed when Becket became the main focus.  Her constant "I'm not good enough, nobody will ever like me" grated on my nerves almost from the get go.  I like stronger characters and this story deserved a stronger character.  It needed it honestly.  She was a weak minded person who didn't fight.  I kept screaming at my Kindle FIGHT!!  She never did.  Even in the end she never fought and I just can't forgive her for what she did.

I also had a HUGE problem with Piper, Becket's so called best friend.  How Becket could ever call Piper that is beyond me.  This girl was rude, self-absorbed, and downright mean.  If you have to schedule time to be with your best friend months in advance because she is too busy with her other friends she is not a friend to you. I have read several books where the BF is the best person ever, but I hated Piper. Yes I said hated.  Every time she would come into the picture I groaned and just wanted to hit her.  And this shows again that Becket wasn't a strong character because she made up excuses for Piper and just let her walk all over her. It was painful to see and I wish Becket would have kicked her to the curb.

The romance was okay.  I would have liked to have seen a certain someone profess their feelings out loud.  Instead I got to see Becket agonize over every single signal and it got annoying. I promise I really tried to cut her some slack as I was the overly shy nerdy in my high school days, but I couldn't look past all of it.

What stinks is that I loved the story.  The small glimpses we get to see I loved.  It was dark and crazy and felt like The Purge on magic steroids.  I would have loved to have seen more development in the overall world.  I wanted the hows and whys and way more details than we were given. I think if the author had chosen to focus more on the dark story and less on the teenage angst this would have been a huge hit for me.  I will read the next installment because even though I'm really angry the cliffhanger ending did reel me in.  GAH!  I really hate when that happens, but it did and all I can hope for is that we get to see more of the magical side of things and I hope I get to see a stronger Becket.

A side note I'm beyond furious at what Becket's dad did.  I can't say much because its a huge spoiler, but man I have never been madder at a parent in my lifetime of reading.  She didn't deserve what he did and for that I have to give her a few sympathy points.

2.5 snowflakes

Review: Delicate Monsters by Stephanie Kuehn

Delicate Monsters by Stephanie Kuehn
Publisher: St.Martin's Griffin
Release Date: June 9th, 2015
Purchase: Amazon

From the Morris-Award winning author of Charm & Strange, comes a twisted and haunting tale about three teens uncovering dark secrets and even darker truths about themselves.

When nearly killing a classmate gets seventeen-year-old Sadie Su kicked out of her third boarding school in four years, she returns to her family’s California vineyard estate. Here, she’s meant to stay out of trouble. Here, she’s meant to do a lot of things. But it’s hard. She’s bored. And when Sadie’s bored, the only thing she likes is trouble.

Emerson Tate’s a poor boy living in a rich town, with his widowed mother and strange, haunted little brother. All he wants his senior year is to play basketball and make something happen with the girl of his dreams. That’s why Emerson’s not happy Sadie’s back. An old childhood friend, she knows his worst secrets. The things he longs to forget. The things she won’t ever let him.

Haunted is a good word for fifteen-year-old Miles Tate. Miles can see the future, after all. And he knows his vision of tragic violence at his school will come true, because his visions always do. That’s what he tells the new girl in town. The one who listens to him. The one who recognizes the darkness in his past.

But can Miles stop the violence? Or has the future already been written? Maybe tragedy is his destiny. Maybe it’s all of theirs.

My thoughts:
My first thought after finishing Delicate Monsters was I don't get it.  And I really don't.  I've read one other book by this author and I remember being completely blown away and honestly Charm & Strange has stayed with me so I know what Stephanie Kuehn is capable of.  Now I do remember Charm & Strange having a say what moment and being slightly confused, but it all came together at the end and made sense.  This book though I am just at a loss with.

So I knew going in this book would be deep.  Stephanie Kuehn doesn't shy away from the hard stuff so I settled in with tissues within reach.  The whole time I was reading I kept thinking there is a reason why she is making me repulsed because I was indeed repulsed by her characters.  Each and everyone of them with the exception of Miles were just disgusting.  But I kept reading hoping that things would be made clear.  Well things were not made clear and I honestly don't really understand what the point of this story was.  Was it to show mental illness?  Was it to show that Sadie really did care in the end to some extent?  I get the mental illness part, I can see it woven in throughout the story but I don't think it was woven in strong enough.   I don't even know how to describe this story other than to say it was about three very messed up teenagers each messed up in their own way.  We get to see thru the eyes of each individual and yes it was painful at times, but the author made her characters so destructive that I couldn't feel compassion for any of them.

I loved in her previous book how the big bomb was dropped in the end and I expected it to happen again since this book seemed to be following the same formula, but when it was dropped I didn't get it.  I know I keep going back to I don't get it but I really don't. I think I get what was happening to certain characters, but I am completely baffled by the ending.  What in the hale happened??

I guess I can look at this in three ways...1. My mind just doesn't think outside the box enough and I didn't read between the lines as much as I should have or 2. This open ended last chapter was on purpose and the reader is supposed to think of their own ending or 3.This book is just not up to par to other one I read and the author tried too hard to be out there and expected too much of her readers. I am not sure which way I will go, but those are my thoughts at the moment.

2.5 snowflakes

Review: Side Effects May Vary by Julie Murphy

Side Effects May Vary by Julie Murphy

Published March 18, 2014

Publisher: HarperCollins/ Balzer + Bray

What if you'd been living your life as if you were dying—only to find out that you had your whole future ahead of you?

When sixteen-year-old Alice is diagnosed with leukemia, her prognosis is grim. To maximize the time she does have, she vows to spend her final months righting wrongs—however she sees fit. She convinces her friend Harvey, who she knows has always had feelings for her, to help her with a crazy bucket list that's as much about revenge (humiliating her ex-boyfriend and getting back at her archnemesis) as it is about hope (doing something unexpectedly kind for a stranger). But just when Alice's scores are settled, she goes into remission.

Now Alice is forced to face the consequences of all that she's said and done, as well as her true feelings for Harvey. But has she caused irreparable damage to the people around her—and to the one person who matters most?

Julie Murphy's Side Effects May Vary is a fearless and moving tour de force about love, life, and facing your own mortality.

My Thoughts

Harvy = 5 Stars
Alice = 0 Stars
Rating Clarification = 2.5 Stars

Wow! What a tough book to warm up to! I haven’t struggled with a protag this much in a long time. There were many moments in the story that I just about threw in the towel, so I surprise myself that I saw it all the way through.

Side Effects May Vary balances a potentially touching story between two very different protagonists. First you have sixteen year old Alice that is diagnosed with cancer. From one day to the next, she sees her life take a dramatic turn where she not only fights to stay alive but also struggles with coming to grips with some of the troubles in her life. Because her days are suddenly numbered, she decides to enlist the help of her longtime friend Harvey to exact some revenge on those who did her wrong.

However, when she finds herself in remission, she’s not only forced to deal with her new reality but also the consequences of her decisions that leaves many people angry and troubled with her actions against them.

Throughout the entire story, I struggled with trying to gain an ounce of sympathy for Alice. I simply didn’t like her. I know… I know… we’re talking about a kid that was dealt the c-card so an automatic sympathy pass should be granted. Well that just didn’t happen. This kid was downright callous, selfish and mean! It confuses me why an author would develop a character in such a way. At first I felt like I was missing something, but no… Just about every character in the novel validated my feelings. One when so far as to say, “The cancer might be gone, but the bitch isn’t.” Mean words, but I tell you she deserved them. Such a tough book to enjoy when you don’t like the narrator.

Thankfully for this book, there was another side to this story that was told from Harvey’s point of view. I loved this character and he was one of the reasons I saw this through the end. Harvey was kind, unassuming and aware. He knew he was being used by Alice and finally towards the end of the novel he makes some tough decisions that forces Alice to re-think who and what she is and how she treats people. Great balance in the story!

Overall, I struggled completely with Side Effects May Vary. Not one I feel comfortable recommending.

2.5 Snowflakes