Monthly Archives: September 2012

Book Review: Taste, by Kate Evangelista

Author, Kate Evangelista sent me an e-copy of her new YA novel Taste.

Description from Goodreads:
At Barinkoff Academy, there’s only one rule: no students on campus after curfew. Phoenix McKay soon finds out why when she is left behind at sunset. A group calling themselves night students threaten to taste her flesh until she is saved by a mysterious, alluring boy. With his pale skin, dark eyes, and mesmerizing voice, Demitri is both irresistible and impenetrable. He warns her to stay away from his dangerous world of flesh eaters. Unfortunately, the gorgeous and playful Luka has other plans.

When Phoenix is caught between her physical and her emotional attraction, she becomes the keeper of a deadly secret that will rock the foundations of an ancient civilization living beneath Barinkoff Academy. Phoenix doesn’t realize until it is too late that the closer she gets to both Demitri and Luka the more she is plunging them all into a centuries old feud.

Review:

I’m gonna just say up front that this review is based on my personal opinion, likes and dislikes of Taste. I say that because I have no real qualms with the writing, plotting, or pacing of the novel. In all areas it was fine. However, I find that I really didn’t much like the book. Given that the basic structure of the book was appropriate my dislike can only be caused by personal likes and dislikes, which can be expected to be different for everyone. What rubs me the wrong way might delight another reader.

I really expected to like Taste. I love The Vampire Knight and the plot sounds so similar…mysterious, beautiful night students attending an upscale private academy. But there the similarities end.

To start with I generally dislike pathologically stubborn heroines who mouth off in the face of danger. I didn’t like it in Bella. I didn’t like it in Luce and I didn’t like it in Phoenix. I really really disliked Phoenix. I get that she is tough and fearless, with real authority issues. That came through loud and clear, but surely you would expect her to have at least a little sense of self preservation. Nope…none, none at all. In fact I would call her actions suicidal. Each time she displayed a complete lack of self-control and allowed her mouth to almost get her killed or chaffed at being given life saving instructions I found myself thinking, “I really don’t want to read this.” Seriously, Phoenix’s anger at being told what to do (or not do) is comparable to someone getting angry and stepping into on-coming traffic just because they’ve been told not to. Then because they miraculously managed not to get killed, acting like their actions were reasonable and their anger over being given an instruction just.

She really rubbed me the wrong way. I don’t think I’ve ever come across a main character who was quite so selfish. Her sob story about her dead mother and distant father was no where near enough to soften my feelings for her and tempt me to forgive her behaviour. She showed a complete disregard for the fact that she was endangering herself and EVERYONE around her. She was angry when she wasn’t given information she had no reasonable reason to be entitled to. She had the arrogance to think that based on nothing more than a brief overheard conversation she had the right to start interfering in the lives and politics of a nation she knew NOTHING about. In her dealings with Calixta she proved herself to be both jealous and cruel. I didn’t like her at all. Which is a real shame because I really liked everyone else. Luka was playful and mysterious. Demitri was wonderfully conflicted and just as sexy as he was meant to be. Dray made a great loveable buffoon of a mad scientist. I even liked Yana and Preya. If I could have cut Phoenix out of the picture I would probably have really liked the book. I don’t think she deserved her happy ending.

Next, love triangles drive me insane. Especially when the girl in the middle doesn’t seem to have done anything to warrant the attention of two men (in this case, not just two men but two beautiful, powerful crown princes no less). The reader never does really find out what about Phoenix is so appealing. There is the whole bond between her and Demitri to contend with, but his attachment to her seems to predate that. Why?

I did appreciate the detailed social structure of Barinkoff City and the Zhamvy society. Evangelista obviously put a lot of time and thought into it and it shows. I liked that contrary to the norm, the male lead was willing to at least say the people are more important that me or you…yes the whole is generally more important that any single piece of itself. I also thought that the occasional use of teenage vernacular from the narrator along the lines of ‘Dude I’m so high right now’ matched the character from whose point of view the story was told.

I like a good paranormal romance as much as the next person, but Taste seemed to take the characteristics of the genre and distill them until so strong they were difficult to stomach. It just wasn’t for me. However, I think that those who not only liked, but loved Twilight or Fallen will adore Taste. It even has the one word title to ease its transition into the clic. For those people I strongly recommend it. For the rest of us, I’m not so sure.

Book Review of Clive Hindle’s The Eighth Square

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Janus Publishing Co. kindly sent me a copy of Clive Hindle’s The Eighth Square.

Description from Goodreads:
Jack Lauder, a man of simple pleasures, was a successful lawyer who enjoyed nothing more than climbing in the mountains and a good old competitive game of chess. But he is about to be dragged into a deadly world of deception, where truth and fiction become inseparable, and the life he knew will be changed forever. Somebody has a very personal vendetta against Jack and he must put all the pieces of the puzzle together to figure out why he is being framed. He finds himself caught up in a web of drug-smuggling and murder. In a haze of confusion, Jack will have to think several moves ahead to survive this hostile game against an opponent who will stop at nothing until Jack is annihilated.

The Eighth Square begins with Jack Lauder’s return to his legal practice. He is almost immediately commissioned to handle the post-humorous estate of an estranged acquaintance. From the very beginning this strikes him as strange and the impression is only amplified as the story progresses. It is pretty clear that Jack is wrapped up in something bigger than himself. The story progresses quickly as he tries desperately to extricate himself.

I liked the book. It moved along steadily, had some interesting characters and the dialogue felt natural. There were times when I was unsure if scenes were dreams, memories, or reality. I’m aware that neither was Jack some of the time, but as a reader I might have liked to know where I was standing a little more clearly. Not knowing made me uncomfortable.

It would also probably help if the reader had some knowledge of chess, rock climbing and/or sailing. I was able to follow and enjoy the story even though I don’t intuitively know which square on the chess board is is e4 or what the queen’s gambit looks like, what a pro does while one is climbing, or what it means to reef a sail. But someone who knows these things might have gotten even more from the story than I did.

As Jack tries to thinks five moves ahead of his opponent the story hangs more and more tenuously on coincidence and luck for Jack’s continued success. I didn’t find this particularly believable, if I’m honest, but I can’t say that it detracted too much from my enjoyment. It’s a good psychological thriller, set in interesting terrain, and I’m glad I got the opportunity to read it.

Book Review of Betty Woodcock’s The Pram

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Author, Betty Woodcock, sent me a copy of her novel, The Pram. Honestly, I don’t find the cover too appealing, but it disguises a bit of a gem.

Description from Amazon:
When Carrie buys a secondhand pram for her eagerly awaited grandchild, she becomes trapped in a horrifying nightmare world, terrorised by her own aborted baby . . . already worried that only she can see the phantom baby in the pram, Carrie is appalled when her granddaughter is placed beside it and the two merge. Unsure if she has imagined this, she tells no one. And so her nightmare begins . . . She is shocked when the phantom converses with her in her mind . . . especially when it claims to be her own aborted child. Horrified, torn between a mix of love and revulsion for her grandchild and terror of the intimidating invading spirit, Carrie doesn’t know what to do. Then she begins to see ghosts, and is convinced she is losing her mind. The mind-to-mind conversations become menacing and Carrie panics and sometimes answers the baby aloud, causing misunderstandings with her daughter. She dreads that her grandchild will never outgrow this weirdness which is becoming terrifyingly entrenched. So when her long-ago lover’s unexpected return to her life coincides with vindictive blasts of pain in her head, she can’t resist asking for his advice. He is intrigued by Carrie’s heavily censored story, and too late, she realises she has made a mistake . . . he also has a genetic link to the malevolent She must keep them apart because neither of them know that he is the father.

Review
The Pram recounts the frightening experience of Carrie M. as she is terrorised by the ghost of her worst mistake. Told largely in the first person, The Pram drops the reader into the mind of the main character. While not a huge fan of first-person narratives, it is pretty effective in this particular case. It provides you with a very clear understanding of her thoughts, thought processes, worries, and very real fears as she tries to come to terms with the existence of what she considers to be an alien being within her grandchild. This inside knowledge did leave me feeling a little bit like Carrie made a snap decision about Baby, though. While this may, in fact, have been the right decision, in the end, she never once considered that the baby might be benign. She accepts that the other ghosts are and even takes Baby’s word for it, but she never pays Baby the same courtesy. This, coupled with the abrupt manner in which Carrie treats her daughter in order to disguise her dislike for the baby, left me disliking her. I get that she was terrified, and who can be expected to be at their best when in the grips of terror? I should give her a little leeway on the issue, but I still didn’t like her. In fact, I didn’t like most of the characters. I found Carrie’s daughter to be annoying and Gervaise false. I kept waiting for him to turn out to be the baddie somehow. But a person can like a book without liking the characters. Unlikeable characters are just as valuable as goodie-goodies. I think they seem more life-like.

The writing is clear and easy to follow. There are a few typos, but not enough to spoil the read. I considered it to be a really satisfying read, with one exception. Unless this is meant to be an allegory on the power of God (how he can easily accomplish what humans are unable to even when they try their hardest), the whole thing felt like it wrapped up a little too quickly and easily. All-in-all, it’s worth the read. I read it on an international flight, and it easily passed the time for me.