Category: Urban Fantasy
Other Side of Forever by Shannon Eckrich
(Cover picture courtesy of Avery Olive.)
Seventeen-year-old Allie Anderson’s telekinetic powers are anything but useful–she can’t bring her father back, can’t stop her mother’s downward spiral into alcohol, and can’t keep her from falling in love with Ethan Bradley. Loving Ethan is easy, but it comes with a hefty price: Ethan is prohibited by his people from interacting with mortals–because he isn’t mortal himself. When Allie and Ethan’s love is discovered, there’s someone who will do anything to keep them apart. If Allie can’t learn to control her powers and fight to save Ethan, this dark entity will make every attempt to stop her beating heart. And if that happens, not even the energy of an immortal can bring her back.
[Full disclosure: Shannon Eckrich sent me a free ebook in exchange for an honest review.]
Well, that wasn’t at all what I expected. And considering I was expecting a typical YA book with a love triangle and a helpless heroine, that’s a good thing!
There was no love triangle. I’m still trying to process this amazing fact. I haven’t encountered a YA book without a love triangle in years, ever since the Twilight craze began. Other Side of Forever also doesn’t end in the way you expect it to either. Shannon Eckrich didn’t go for the stereotypical ending I would expect from a book with immortals. Heck, even her characters didn’t fit into the archetypes they appeared to.
If I’m not being very articulate right now it’s because I’m still trying to process this new development. Avoidance of clichés and stock characters? I’m having a tough time with this.
The plot was fast-paced and took some pretty unpredictable twists, both Allie and Ethan were believable characters, there was no Insta-Love and the immortals in this book are unique. If it had been my choice, I would not have stopped reading Other Side of Forever for anything: food, drink, etc. It quite literally kept me on the edge of my computer chair, reading frantically to find out how thing would turn out. Shannon Eckrich’s premise was also unique and Allie’s discovery of the secret world of immortals helped move the plot along as external forces tried to wrench her and Ethan apart.
The characters, oh the characters! Allie was not a poor, helpless damsel in distress. She was resourceful and strong, but not your stereotypical kick-butt heroine either. She’s just an average girl who has some emotional scars from a pretty awful childhood. Ethan was not your stereotypical bad-boy immortal jerk. No, he was sweet and kind and never pressured Allie into anything or treated her badly at any point in the story. Both characters were obviously well developed and their relationship didn’t go in the typical Insta-Love arc you find in YA. There were roadblocks along the way and the characters overcame them instead of acting like immature idiots. As you guys know, I’m not a big fan of romances. But I absolutely loved this one.
I don’t care what type of books you normally read. You need to read Other Side of Forever right now. You’ll love it.
I give this book 5/5 stars.
Genome by Gary Alan Henson
(Cover picture courtesy of Createspace.)
Jack Thomas is amazed to find himself heading the company of his dreams, nestled in the high-tech backdrop of beautiful Boulder, Colorado.
Built with his best friend and partner Frankie, the bio-genetics company has achieved success far beyond their wildest dreams. The company is poised to revolutionize the treatment of cancer and other diseases.
The only thing missing is Jack’s highschool sweetheart, Emily, who was brutally murdered, her killer never found.
With the help of PIP, a sexy artificial intelligent assistant, and beautiful green-eyed psychic, Samantha, Jack risks his life using the latest genetic technology to delve into a terrifying world of spirits that he didn’t even know existed.
Genome explores the boundaries between what we can create and what we may never fully understand—science and the afterlife, chance and destiny, and a love that crosses the chasm of life and death.
[Full disclosure: Gary Alan Henson sent me a free print copy of his book in exchange for an honest review.]
First off, I absolutely loved the blend of science and magic in Genome. Science has never been my strongest area, so I won’t even begin to pretend to understand half of the technical information Gary Henson included in his debut novel. However, the spirit world that Samantha and Jack encounter is very well-developed and is an interesting contrast to the logical, scientific parts of the novel. It’s not very often that you see a novel where there’s both science fiction and a bit of fantasy, but this odd combination works very well in Genome. If you’re a real science fiction lover, this book is perfect for you because of the insane amount of research Gary Henson obviously did to bring Jack and Frankie’s futuristic company to life.
The main characters like Samantha, Jack and Frankie were very well fleshed out. This was definitely helped by the fact that we got to look inside all of their heads, which also helped move the plot along. There were no sections that really dragged in the book because we could see the motivations and thoughts of all the major characters. Combined with some amazing plot twists, this made for a really fast-paced read.
However, I don’t feel that the characters lived up to their full potential because of the point of view Gary Henson chose. Genome is told in a sort of third person omniscient present tense, meaning that the narrative is in third person and switches between characters frequently but is also told in present tense (i.e.: he goes to the supermarket and picks out a nice fresh apple). This isn’t so much confusing as it is irritating at points because we are being told what happens rather than being shown.
I think part of the problem with the writing was that this was Gary Henson’s first novel. Now don’t get me wrong—it’s very good for a first novel—but I don’t think it lived up to its full potential. The writing wasn’t as polished as it could have been, some of the dialogue was stiff and there were some minor typos (mainly missing quotation marks).
Still, the plot twists, great world-building, realistic characters and the amazing amount of research that went into Genome suggest that we’ll see even better things from Mr. Henson in the future.
I give this book 3.5/5 stars.
Thirst No. 1 by Christopher Pike
(Cover picture courtesy of The Book on the Hill.)
Alisa has been in control of her urges for the five thousand years she has been a vampire. She feeds but does not kill, and she lives her life on the fringe to maintain her secret. But when her creator returns to hunt her, she must break her own rules in order to survive.
Her quest leads her to Ray. He is the only person who can help her; he also has every reason to fear her. Alisa must get closer to him to ensure her immortality. But as she begins to fall in love with Ray, suddenly there is more at stake than her own life.
Oh no! Christopher Pike had a female vampire as his main character, but guess what? She was a real vampire. Yes, a blood-sucking, cold-blooded killing machine who has almost no regrets about murdering people in order to survive. Not only is Sita a real vampire, she has an amazing backstory and, in the context of urban fantasy vampires, it is a believable one. No, it’s not a science origins vampire story, but it is interesting and Christopher Pike created an interesting world around it.
I think Sita is proof of Loren Estleman’s statement in his book on writing that characters don’t have to be sympathetic, but they have to be interesting. She’s hardly sympathetic in the beginning, but at least she is interesting. As she grows throughout the three books that make up Thirst No. 1 (which were originally published separately), we begin to see an almost human side of her. Sita falls in love, confronts her past and begins to look to her future and even though it’s a slow character arc, it’s believable.
The plot moves along pretty quickly because the three books that make up the volume are less than 200 pages each. However, being a book about real vampires, Thirst No. 1 is extremely gory. I would not recommend it for young audiences, especially because of the gore and sexual content. But despite gore that seems almost unnecessary, Thirst No. 1 is a good book that overall, I enjoyed.
I give this book 4/5 stars.
Born at Midnight by C. C. Hunter
(Cover picture courtesy of Down The Rabbit Hole.)
One night Kylie Galen finds herself at the wrong party, with the wrong people, and it changes her life forever. Her mother ships her off to Shadow Falls—a camp for troubled teens—and within hours of arriving, it becomes painfully clear that her fellow campers aren’t just “troubled.” Here at Shadow Falls, vampires, werewolves, shapeshifters, witches, and fairies train side by side, learning to harness their powers, control their magic, and live in the normal world.
Kylie’s never felt normal, but surely she doesn’t belong here with a bunch of paranormal freaks, either. Or does she? They insist Kylie is one of them and that she was brought here for a reason. As if life wasn’t complicated enough, enter Derek and Lucas. Derek’s a half Fae who’s determined to be her boyfriend, and Lucas is a smokin’ hot werewolf with whom Kylie shares a secret past. Derek and Lucas couldn’t be more different, but they both have a powerful hold on her heart.
Even though Kylie feels deeply uncertain about everything, one thing is becoming painfully clear: Shadow Falls is exactly where she belongs.
Pardon me while I go bang my head against the wall.
*dull thuds are heard in the background*
Okay, even that couldn’t stop me from drawing similarities to the following books: Marked, The Summoning, City of Bones and yes, even Twilight. I’ve read the same plot many times, just in different reincarnations. This is just the latest, which is why I’ve developed the following formula for a successful YA urban fantasy:
Take 1 “average-looking” but really hot teenage girl who’s going through tough times at home and at school. Add in one huge, embarrassing incident where she either gets caught doing something bad or her powers are revealed and is shipped off to a special home or school. At said home/school Ms. Judgy will determine everyone a slut or a freak, but eventually realize that they are magical beings and she is as well, but that she is unusually powerful or completely unique. Add in 2 hot guys: one “nice” guy and one “dangerous” guy who are both magical beings and both are in love with her. Throughout her training, Ms. Judgy will realize that the people are not so bad and near the end of the book will uncover a plot against the school/home/students and foil it, winning the respect of everyone except your mandatory Mean Girl. End on a cliffhanger.
Congratulations, you have now written a best-selling YA novel!
Also, I don’t need to do a plot summary because guess what? I just described the entire plot of Born at Midnight! Kylie is a vapid, completely uninteresting, typical YA heroine. She’s supposed to be your average girl, but has guys tripping over themselves to woo her and telling her constantly how beautiful she is. (Hint: real life usually isn’t like that.) Hunter tries to add in some girl-empowerment by showing how ‘spunky’ Kylie is by breaking up the fights between her roommates and standing up to Burnett and Austin, two government agents. Instead, it just comes off as contrived.
The plot is painfully slow at some points, but speeds up in the end to trick readers into getting the next book. It has some ‘twists’, but I was able to predict all of them using the above formula. Although she doesn’t choose which guy by the end of the book, I can make a safe bet by saying she’ll choose the “dangerous” guy, Lucas at the end of the series. They always choose the “bad” boys over nice guys. This is certainly one series I will not be continuing.
I give this book 1/5 stars.
Marked by P.C. Cast and Kristin Cast
(Cover picture courtesy of Hooked to Books.)
Enter the dark, magical world of the House of Night, a world very much like our own, except here vampyres have always existed. Sixteen-year-old Zoey Redbird has just been Marked as a fledgling vampyre and joins the House of Night, a school where she will train to become an adult vampyre. That is, if she makes it through the Change—and not all of those who are Marked do. It sucks to begin a new life, especially away from her friends and on top of that, Zoey is no average fledgling. She has been chosen as special by the vampyre Goddess Nyx. Zoey discovers she has amazing powers, but along with her powers come bloodlust and an unfortunate ability to Imprint her human ex-boyfriend. To add to her stress, she is not the only fledgling at the House of Night with special powers: When she discovers that the leader of the Dark Daughters, the school’s most elite group, is misusing her Goddess-given gifts, Zoey must look deep within herself for the courage to embrace her destiny—with a little help from her new vampyre friends.
Marked represents everything that’s wrong with the YA genre.
Okay, that’s a bit harsh and more than a little melodramatic, but it also has a grain of truth in it. Literary snobs point to the juvenile writing style, vapid characters and utterly predictable plot and say all YA books are like that. Let me show you two examples of the horrible writing:
“So I listened to the haunting Gaelic lyrics and pitch-forked up poopie.” (pg 133)
“I wished it was cold and Kayla would freeze her over-developed boobies right off.” (pg 175)
Writing style and voice are such important components of a novel that when they make it feel like a wish-fulfilling tween wrote it, it’s a good indicator of other problems. I don’t know about you, but pretty much all sixteen-year-olds I know would die rather than even think the word “poopie.” P.C. and Kristin Cast have deliberately dumbed down the writing so they think it will appeal to teens, but in truth they have underestimated their target audience and insulted my intelligence.
Pretty much all the of the characters, except Neferet, are stereotypes. Zoey is the chosen girl who’s super powerful, Damien is the smart and sensitive gay guy, Erik is the hot love interest, Stevie Rae is the cute little Southern girl and Aphrodite is the hot queen bee straight off Mean Girls. Neferet is really the only character with a little bit of depth and she barely features in the novel.
The plot is so predictable that it’s sickening. It almost felt as if P.C. and Kristin Cast made an effort to throw every cliché known to mankind in their novel. To be honest, if I didn’t know better I’d think this was a parody, yet it’s deadly serious. Scary, isn’t it?
I give this book 0.5/5 stars