Review: Croak - Gina Damico

Title: Croak (Croak #1)

Author: Gina Damico

Release Date: March 20th 2012

Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

Source: Netgalley in exchange for honest review.

Sixteen-year-old Lex Bartleby has sucker-punched her last classmate. Fed up with her punkish, wild behavior, her parents ship her off to upstate New York to live with her Uncle Mort for the summer, hoping that a few months of dirty farm work will whip her back into shape. But Uncle Mort’s true occupation is much dirtier than that of shoveling manure.

He’s a Grim Reaper. And he’s going to teach her the family business.

Lex quickly assimilates into the peculiar world of Croak, a town populated entirely by reapers who deliver souls from this life to the next. Along with her infuriating yet intriguing partner Driggs and a rockstar crew of fellow Grim apprentices, Lex is soon zapping her Targets like a natural born Killer.

Yet her innate ability morphs into an unchecked desire for justice—or is it vengeance?—whenever she’s forced to Kill a murder victim, craving to stop the attackers before they can strike again. So when people start to die—that is, people who aren’t supposed to be dying, people who have committed grievous crimes against the innocent—Lex’s curiosity is piqued. Her obsession grows as the bodies pile up, and a troubling question begins to swirl through her mind: if she succeeds in tracking down the murderer, will she stop the carnage—or will she ditch Croak and join in?

Let's have a look at that gorgeous cover for a sec. The girl's pose, that thing she's holding, what she's wearing, the bold font - everything just screams WHAT AN AMAZING AND PROMISING BOOK THIS WILL BE. But don't be mislead by the cover (just as I was) because I must tell you, this is a book that I did not finish (and won't consider continuing or reading the two sequels).

The concept was interesting, in lack of better word. I devoured the beginning (50 pages or so) but something wasn't right. I think it's because of the author's writing. I just couldn't get into it, and there was something wrong.  

Lex was pretty, umm, weird. I mean, I guess she was written that way, but at times her temper and behaviour just seems forced and it make it seem like Gina Damico just created her to be like that to fall under YA's latest trend - bad-ass heroines.  I just didn't get it. There was no explanation as to why she acts like that, just that readers are supposed to be on her side even though she got expelled, beat up other kids at school even though they've never done anything to her, played thoughtless tricks on cheerleaders, violated school rules, etc.

The bickering and the fighting (literally, I mean, we're talking about hitting, and black eyes on both parts) between Lex and Driggs. Those two are like unstoppable, the only think that kept me reading about this was to see more of their interaction with each other.  But then again, since I gave up on CROAK after 115 pages (halfway through, more or less) I have no idea what happened or blossomed with those two. 

I really wanted to like this book. I really did. Maybe that's why I gave it another chance when I was getting bored at around page 70. And it's such a shame because the cover is LOVELY. Too bad the book is not.

 

Review: Article 5 - Kristen Simmons

Title: Article 5 (Article 5 #1)

Author: Kristen Simmons

Release Date: January 31st 2012

Publisher: Tor Teens 

Source: For Review

New York, Los Angeles, and Washington, D.C., have been abandoned.

The Bill of Rights has been revoked, and replaced with the Moral Statutes.

There are no more police—instead, there are soldiers. There are no more fines for bad behavior—instead, there are arrests, trials, and maybe worse. People who get arrested usually don't come back.

Seventeen-year-old Ember Miller is old enough to remember that things weren’t always this way. Living with her rebellious single mother, it’s hard for her to forget that people weren’t always arrested for reading the wrong books or staying out after dark. It’s hard to forget that life in the United States used to be different.

Ember has perfected the art of keeping a low profile. She knows how to get the things she needs, like food stamps and hand-me-down clothes, and how to pass the random home inspections by the military. Her life is as close to peaceful as circumstances allow.

That is, until her mother is arrested for noncompliance with Article 5 of the Moral Statutes. And one of the arresting officers is none other than Chase Jennings…the only boy Ember has ever loved.

First reaction after finishing this book: Shame. What a damn shame. *heavy sigh*. Oh dear, this book could have well been my favourite of 2012 so far, but the characters just ruined everything for me. And you know how picky I am about characters, I prefer having amazing characters and zero plot but IF, like this thing here, if you've written such an original and addictive plot but with annoying and whiny characters, with love interest the charm of a goldfish, well.. you got a bit of a problem here. 

Kristen Simmons is a very talented writer. She can write pretty damn good action scenes. My heart was literally pounding every second while I was reading this book. I couldn't put it down! Every second was valuable and dangerous. Her worldbuilding was fantastic, and unlike some other dystopians or post-apocalyptic YA novels out there, this is realistic. I could actually imagine this happening for real. Which makes it even more frightening and nerve-wracking. Knowing that in maybe a 50 years or so, our society and world could end up as corrupted as this. 

This novel was intense. Like in every stage of Ember's journey there would be this obstacle that they needed to think of a plan for, and I loved reading about it. Especially the first part of the novel, it was very fresh and original, but after maybe 150 pages, when it all became very tedious and predictable. It even went to the point where I knew what was going to happen because it was so similar to the previous part of the story. I felt like everyone was very untrustworthy and I get that they don't/can't trust anyone, but I hate it when our main character does. Even when she's gone through enough shit to know better. 

What brought me down was the main character. OH GUYS. Arrrggghhhhhh! I've lost count of how many times I wanted to smack her for her stupidity and how naive she was. Oh my God! She was like one of those people in a horror movie, the one who does something incrediblity stupid and unjustified and everyone is screaming for her to go back/do something? Yep. That's our main heroine Ember. Oh geez. For someone who claimed to be smart and all that, she was freaking useless. I would have just left her there to go and die or something. And it doesn't help that her love interest soldier has the personality of a brick. Seriously. Not swoonworthy at all. He didn't show any emotion or anything. WTH. 

Call me a heartless bitch or something, but I didn't care for her mum at all. I wouldn't have bothered to go and save her if she acted like a doormat to her ex-boyfriend and had let him abuse her.The only characters that I did like, was Sean and Rebecca. I thought they were really sweet and I would have preferred them as main characters instead of secondary.

Rant over. I still feel like shaking my head at this. Thinking how much I would have loved this book if the two main characters were different. Oh well. Still unsure if I would be reading the next one.