Sunday, May 5, 2013

DNF Mini Review: Starcrossed by Josephine Angelini

Starcrossed (Starcrossed, #1)

Goodreads Summary: How do you defy destiny?
Helen Hamilton has spent her entire sixteen years trying to hide how different she is—no easy task on an island as small and sheltered as Nantucket. And it's getting harder. Nightmares of a desperate desert journey have Helen waking parched, only to find her sheets damaged by dirt and dust. At school she's haunted by hallucinations of three women weeping tears of blood . . . and when Helen first crosses paths with Lucas Delos, she has no way of knowing they're destined to play the leading roles in a tragedy the Fates insist on repeating throughout history.
As Helen unlocks the secrets of her ancestry, she realizes that some myths are more than just legend. But even demigod powers might not be enough to defy the forces that are both drawing her and Lucas together—and trying to tear them apart.
Goodreads / The Book Depository

Genre: Young Adult, Mythology
Pages: 487
Publisher: Harperteen
How I Got It: Library

Page I Stopped At: 68

Favorite Quote: Nada. Zilch. Zero and none.

Mini Review: 

I'd seen some pretty bad reviews for this book, so when I started it, I was already going in a little hesitantly. However, for the first ten or so pages, it wasn't so bad. And then for some reason, it started getting under my skin, creeping slowly into bad book territory before I even realized it. And the worst part is? I can't even really pinpoint why I hated it so much. Someone I don't really like recommended this to me (so who knows why I picked it up) and now I'd kind of like to punch said person *sigh*

...yeah. Anyways, the major thing I disliked was Helen. I'm not sure how to put this, but there just wasn't enough inner monologue. Everything was "Helen went on the boat, Helen went to school, Helen met her friend, Helen, Helen, Helen." It just didn't seem like she thought very often. She just floats around, being rather whiny and weird. I began to despise Helen about fifty pages in.


But I was willing to press on. The synopsis, after all, is interesting enough and I was curious about the Greek mythology that was to come. However, upon the first meeting of the love interest, there is a sentence that literally made me shudder. I don't actually have the book anymore, so I can't quote it directly, but it was something like: "And then Helen saw Lucas for the first time." Like a prophecy or something.

After that, Helen tries unsuccessfully to kill Lucas for some reason or other (at this point I really don't care why), but after that she goes back to her house and beings to think about him constantly. She makes observations about how he moves (after seeing him move twice, and really only once, since he was holding her up against the wall the first time) and of course observing that he's literally the most gorgeous guy in the world.

So, yeah, that was the straw that broke the camel's back. I still wanted to keep reading, because I haven't not finished something in a long time, but after reading other reviews from people whose opinions I rely on and trust, I can't assume the story gets any better and I will be dropping this series immediately.

Oh well. Onto better books.




4 comments:

  1. Ah, this sucks. I actually liked the book other than the Helen part which I completely agree on. I like my books with a little more dialogue and there was description just all over the place. I did like the Delos family though. I read it withing 3 weeks I think (I usually read a book in 2-3 days though). It was hard for me since the chapters were so long. However, I did end up liking it. My review will be up soon, yay. I hope you have better luck with your next book. Lovely review, Rebecca!

    PS. I noticed from your 'teams' that you're team Cassian, Gale, Dimitri and Ash. Yay. Me too! Haha. Gale - kinda inbetween - I loved Peeta so much. I think I'm Peeta in the books (not that ending though.. I hm.. yeah.) and Gale in the movies I guess? I'm team both, haha.

    Siiri @ Little Pieces of Imagination

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  2. Thanks. I'm glad you were able to enjoy it more so than me. It really annoys me to DNF a book, but there are so many others out there to read, you know?

    Yep, I love my teams. :D I knew that Peeta was better for Katniss because how scarred they both were at the end of the series, but personality-wise, I always preferred Gale.

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  3. Great description of why you DNF-ed this! I found myself swept away by the writing (a recurring theme for HarperTeen novels) and ate up this book but I can see exactly why it didn't work for you.

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  4. Thanks! I thought that maybe I wasn't expressing how I felt about it very well, because I think this is the first time I disliked a heroine so strongly just being she was boring.

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