Lies Beneath by Anne Greenwood Brown: Promises Much, Delivers Little

Lies Beneath by Anne Greenwood Brown
Genre: YA Urban Fantasy (?)
Pub Date: June 12, 2012
Rating: PG
Coffee Beans: 2.5/5
Spoilers: Not really
Favorite Line: I hadn’t killed anyone all winter, and I have to say I felt pretty good about that. (pg 10, ebook), Maris chose her words like a surgeon chose a scalpel (pg 18, ebook), The sky darkened like ink spreading through a shirt pocket… (Pg 86, ebook)
Disclaimer: I received a free copy of this book from the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for this honest review

Publisher’s Summary:
Calder White lives in the cold, clear waters of Lake Superior, the only brother in a family of murderous mermaids. To survive, Calder and his sisters prey on humans, killing them to absorb their energy. But this summer the underwater clan targets Jason Hancock out of pure revenge. They blame Hancock for their mother's death and have been waiting a long time for him to return to his family's homestead on the lake. Hancock has a fear of water, so to lure him in, Calder sets out to seduce Hancock's daughter, Lily. Easy enough—especially as Calder has lots of practice using his irresistible good looks and charm on unsuspecting girls. Only this time Calder screws everything up: he falls for Lily—just as Lily starts to suspect that there's more to the monsters-in-the-lake legends than she ever imagined. And just as his sisters are losing patience with him.

My Review:
Okay – First, I felt this book had a lot of promise. The cover is suh-weet (although I was confused as to why the put a mermaid on the cover when it’s told from the point of view of Calder , a merman). The summary is dark and awesome. The first few chapters were more than I could have hoped for.

Which is why I was so confused by all the two and three star reviews on GoodReads (I didn’t read any of them, just looked at the ratings). I thought to myself, “Pft! These weirdoes don’t know a good book when they read one!” and proceeded on my merry reading way. I mean, a book with an opening line like this, had to be good, right? RIGHT?!?! I hadn’t killed anyone all winter, and I have to say I felt pretty good about that.

WRONG.

What I liked:
I liked Brown’s take on the traditional mermaid myth where mermaids were bad and killed people (anyone else notice that YA books are turning more dark when it comes to fairy tales? I like it). The fact that they fed on the happiness of humans because they couldn’t produce their own. The fact that deep down, they were primal and instinctual beings.

The author does a great job of dropping tidbits of information relevant to the mythology behind the story as well as the mermaids’ motivation for what they’re doing. It flows so well and feels so natural. But at some points, I was thoroughly confused and wished she’d dropped a little more clues. Like the revenge they felt for their mother. Were they just really pissed, or was their drive more paranormal and instinctual? I’m leaning towards the latter of the two, but we’re never really given a good picture.

The writing, for the most part, was really great. Good descriptions and flow (…my stomach twisted like a snake in a jar, pg 30, ebook). Dialogue was natural and engaging. I liked Lily’s tattoo: No coward soul is mine but that’s beside the point. The story had so much potential to be a really good book.

What I didn’t like:
The book opens with Calder telling us he’s abstaining from taking human lives. But why? All we’re given is the reason of  “because he wanted to see if he could.”

*Shrugs shoulders*

Yeah, okay. I guess that’s good. Enough. But I would’ve liked to be given a better reason than that.

Something that actually had more significance to him, so that way when he’s tempted to kill Lily we know the battle he’s fighting and the strength it takes to resist. (But now that I think of it, there really wasn’t that much of a struggle for him. C’mon, dude. You haven’t eaten ANYTHING in over NINE MONTHS. It’s okay to be thinking your girlfriend looks a little tasty).

There also seemed to be a couple of scenes that weren’t important because they didn’t add to the plot what-so-ever and then were never mentioned again. And WEIRD things happened in them, and in the “real” world, the events would have been brought up and shunned. (I put “real” in quotes because in a REAL world, Calder’s fishtail of a rear end would’ve been kicked to the curb and would’ve been served with a restraining order by the biggest, baddest, meanest looking delivery person I could find).

For the most part, I got a really good, 3D sense of the characters, especially Maris. Calder, though, was a little ambiguous. I couldn’t help but get a generic feel for him. And therefore, generic, non-committed feelings for him. Good-looking guy. Strong. Smart. Funny. Possessive. Protective. (Anyone else seeing the clichéd cookie cutout “main guy” image so prevalent in today’s YA books?) I want something, SOMEONE real! I really thought I’d get it with Calder, but no dice.

And Lily…flat. And a 100% WEAK character. No, let me take that back. She’s far from weak. Loves her family, would sacrifice herself for him, thinks Calder’s muy estraño from the beginning. So she’s not weak, I guess. But the fact that Calder’s pretty much STALKING her, and she KNOWS IT, and she doesn’t follow her first impression that he CREEPS HER OUT, is pretty aggravating. So maybe she’s just a DUMB character?

I would have liked it so much more if she was put in a situation to be forced to partner with him against her better judgment in order to save the greater good instead of falling for him after he keeps pestering her. To me, it would’ve been a much more plausible evolution of a relationship.

I also think that part of the story being told from Lily’s POV would have been VERY beneficial for me as a reader. Then, at least, I’d have had some sense of reasoning behind her decision to go out with this complete creep that is Calder.

Girls (or anyone, really): If a boy is stalking you (showing up at your house in the middle of the night with lame reasons, ends up getting a job where you applied, is following you around), and you already have a bad feeling about him, please don’t perceive that as flattering. I’m so fed up with books that portray this kind of behavior as right or acceptable. There are real people out there who do these kinds of thing and are dangerous. The fact that authors are portraying this as something to be attracted to or desired is horrible.

*Steps off soap box. Dusts hands off*

There, I feel better.

I hate delivering BRs like this one. It hurts me to give my honest opinion because I know how much love, blood, tears, and pieces of ourselves an author puts into their books. They love it. Their agent and publisher love it. But it’s my job to give my honest opinion about what I read. And I DON’T love this book. I don’t even really LIKE it. I feel meh about it. I know there will always be people like me out there, but it doesn’t make this any easier. Ever.

Anyway, you may like it. Pick it up and read it, deciding for yourself. Me? I won’t be recommending it to anyone.

Happy reading, my friends!

--Me

Wither by Lauren DeStefano

Wither by Lauren DeStefano

The Chemical Garden Trilogy (Next book, Fever, is due out February 2012)

YA Distopian

Rating: 2.5/5

Spoiler Alert: Only a little


Another kick-ass cover is out in the world, folks, and it belongs to this book. I mean, how can you look at it and NOT pick it up? But to be honest with you, after reading this book, I kind of wish I hadn't. Maybe just slipped off the book jacket and asked if I could buy that, instead. No margin notes in this one, either, so I'll try to recapture the emotions I had when I wrote down my notes in my notebook. Again, this is from back in August. 

Here's the official summary from the series' website: "By age sixteen, Rhine Ellery has four years left to live. She can thank modern science for this genetic time bomb. A botched effort to create a perfect race has left all males with a lifespan of 25 years, and females with a lifespan of 20 years. Geneticists are seeking a miracle antidote to restore the human race, desperate orphans crowd the population, crime and poverty have skyrocketed, and young girls are being kidnapped and sold a polygamous brides to bear more children.


"When Rhine is kidnapped and sold as a bride, she vows to do all she can to escape. Her husband, Linden, is hopelessly in love with her, and Rhine can't bring herself to hate him as much as she'd like to. He opens her to a magical world of wealth and illusion she never thought existed, and it almost makes it possible to ignore the clock ticking away her short life. But Rhine quickly learns that not everything in her new husband's strange world is what it seems. Her father-in-law, an eccentric doctor bent on finding the antidote, is hoarding corpses in the basement. Her fellow sister wives are to be trusted one day and feared the next, and Rhine is desperate to communicate with her twin brother that she is safe and alive. Will Rhine be able to escape—before her time runs out?"



Great concept Oh my gosh, what a great concept this book has. The potential for this story to completely ROCK is limitless (good movie, by the way, Limitless)! But alas, the author has failed to find it.



I wanted a little more emotion from the MC Rhine, (while her name was awesome), was flat and bland. Through the entire book, I felt as if her emotions weren't realistic to the situation she was in. She either didn't care enough or cared too much about the wrong thing. She obsessed over finding her twin brother, but I constantly felt like it was an afterthought slipped in by the author to remind us she had a reason to get out of her situation. As if being forced to marry a psycho and being held prisoner by a crazy father-in-law wasn't enough.



Too much back story given-even though it's "dispersed" I know that back story can be important, and I know it's best not to deliver it in dumps. But I felt like the back story delivered in this story was pointless. It didn't add anything to Rhine's story and I only found myself getting bored and skipping ahead to where the flashback ended.



Characters seem a little flat – I'm not emotionally connected—potential to have been deeper I didn't care if Rhine got out of the house, Linden wasn't as bad as she made him out to be. Even I could see that. I didn't care if she lived happily ever after with the servant boy (and yes, there is a love interest there even though the summary didn't mention it at all), and I certainly didn't care if she found her twin brother or not. Does this mean I'm a harsh person? Nah. It means the story didn't deliver what it needed to in the most essential part.



There were some parts that seemed completely out of the blue and a bit awkward Darn it. I wish I would've put down the page numbers for this one. I can't remember what I was referring to, but if you pick up the book, you'll see what I mean.



Good story idea, premise—but I feel she could have gotten a lot deeper That's pretty self-explanatory.



I felt the constant flashbacks of her brother were distracting and forced



I liked the end of the book It was well written and I think, fit the story. Leads up to the sequel, but ties up the current book without the reader feeling cheated.



I enjoyed the tension created by Vaugh The father-in-law is a creepy, perfect villain. I have a soft spot for the bad guys.



Gross/good/realistic descriptions about childbirth and location, but not on other things. All I ask for is consistency! If you're going to give me details on a 16-year-old giving birth (which, I'll be honest with you, I could have done without) and the pretty little gardens, then darn it, give me those kinds of details for the story and character arcs!



Overall, it's not a bad book. Am I going to recommend it to friends, probably lightly. Am I going to go out and buy the second installment? Probably not.

The Maze Runner

The Maze Runner (book 1)

James Dashner

YA Dystopian (younger range of YA)

Spoiler: None

Rating: PG (Some blood, death, etc, but nothing extremely graphic)

Coffee Beans: 2.5/5

I finished the Maze Runner by James Dashner and have mixed feelings about it. It's a good concept (young boys dumped in a maze with no memories of anything. All they have is a drive to solve the maze and to escape). There's a fair amount of mystery and things that go bump in the night.

Now, I know that this is intended for the younger spectrum of the YA crowd, but I still felt like it could have been developed more to hold the reader's attention better. The characters were a little flat and cliché for me to really get into and enjoy. Granted, there were some twists and turns I didn't see coming, I wasn't addicted to this book like others I have been to in the past, and it wasn't until the very end that I was like, "Whoa. That's cool!" when Dashner really caught my attention.

I didn't have the intention to pick up the second book in the series (Scorch Trials), but when those last few pages hit, that's when I got invested in the story and in the characters. Maybe book two will be better than book one, but do I have the motivation to pick it up and the time to invest in it when I have so many other great ones that are demanding my time? Probably not.

Pick it up and decide for yourself, but for me, it was just…meh.

Tomorrow Girls: Behind the Gates by Eva Gray

Tomorrow Girls: Behind the Gates

by Eva Gray

MG Distopian

Content Rating: G

Spoiler Alert: A little

Coffee Bean Rating: 2.5/5

I know, I know. This book is for a way younger crowd than me, but that doesn't mean that I can't find it Interesting. 

Tomorrow Girls is a dystopian/post-big disaster (I don't want to call it post-apocalyptic, because I don't think it is). Families with money send their children away to a special school to take them away from all the horribleness that is their world.

The MC, Louisa and her best friend, Maddie (who everyone is pretending is her twin) get shipped off to Country Manor School for survival training. They meet a couple different characters on the bus ride up, Evelyn (the conspiracy nut) and Rosie (the jock/queen B.). The four of them end up getting grouped together as roommates which ads for the necessary chemistry and tension to get the story moving along. It's not that long of a book, and not that much really happens (but it is aimed for the younger crowd).

Evelyn thinks the school is really an undercover rebel forces training camp to take down the government, Louisa loves it there, Maddie hates it there (their friendship succumbs to their strain, but in the end they overcome), and Rosie learns to let others in and not be so mean.

The group of four go on a wilderness overnight trip, meet the school of boys across the lake, find out that the faculty has been lying to them and that they're not as safe as they thought. That's it. The end. If you wanna know more, you're going to have to read book 2. Which I'm not planning on doing.

It was a fun enough book to read (it was an ARC, so there's obligation on my part), but I'm not hooked enough to find out what happens next. And it's not just because it's a book aimed at middle-graders. But, you're more than welcome to make that decision for yourself. :)

--Me