By OR Melling
I give this a 2/5. Okay, very mixed feelings here! On one hand, I really really enjoyed the descriptive passages about Ireland and its rich history and mythology. On the other hand, I felt that the characters and the general plot were extremely underdeveloped, and in addition, just downright bizarre. - The worst thing an author can do is neglect characterization. Her two protagonists - cousins Findabhair and Gwen - are just weird. first of all, adult supervision, anyone?!?!?! of course not. it's never definitively explained what exactly these girls are doing, what they believe in, or even who they are. Things are just presented like “here you go!” without any characterization or explanation. Now, I actually think there ways to portray a struggle between emotions (there is a question of joining the fairy word), but the author doesn’t give us any of that. There’s no explanation as to why characters do the things that they do, so we can’t really understand them, relate to them, or develop any feelings ourselves. Some of my individual thoughts: - Unromance: it's like the author wants there to be a romantic angle, but she doesnt have the wherewithal to actually write and develop it. On a personal note, I think the author has a really warped idea of what “romance” is. In fact, I think the author has some warped ideas about a lot of things. I would totally understand the struggle if there was a good love element: wanting to stay with said mythological creature, etc…but the scenario presented here is not a romantic one (pg 146 especially) - The decision to have fairies be “neither good nor bad” or for there to be an absence of good/bad, creates a paradox when later, the king supposedly is in love with Findabhair. If there’s no good or bad, how can there be love (which is good)? The whole thing doesn’t make sense. It seems like I (as the reader) am putting more thought into this than the writer! - This battle stuff is way, WAY too fast. It’s very hard to appreciate/empathize with the gravity of the situation if things are so rushed and hectic. ^^Yes, "battle stuff". I guess to write fantasy, it is required that there be some kind of supernatural battle. In this case, it comes out of nowhere, with the unlikeliest and most haphazzard band of fighters, and it's extremely unclimactic. This is a far, far cry from Minas Tirinth. So, it wasnt excrutiatingly bad, but it certainly wasnt great, either. There are things I can take away from this book, however, and that is the "travelism." To be fair, the author does really make you feel that you are touring Ireland--but that's the only redeeming quality. I wouldnt discourage anyone from reading this, but I would certainly caution them not to expect much...
HUSH, HUSH By Becca Fitzpatrick
I give this a 4/5. I wasn't sure whether to give this 4 stars or 5---ahh what the heck, I'll jump on the bandwagon and give it a 5. For a debut novel, Hush Hush was an exciting read! Yes, it reminded me of Twilight, but that's maybe just because I actually *like* Twilight! :P I found it pretty original, too; the subject matter was definitely intriguing. The plot moves at a pretty steady pace until about 2/3 of the way in, then it accelerates quite rapidly. I know a lot of authors like to do that: keep the reader guessing and all that, but I kind of felt like the book went from "hush hush" to "rush rush". Several times toward the end I had to reread segments just to get a bearing what exactly was happening. The ending segments also seemed a bit confusing and left me having to consult earlier passages again to figure out how events ended up relating to each other. And I'm still not really sure about the more mythological aspects of the story. This might just be a "personal me" thing, but I grew up hearing about angels; I know what I believe and what I dont, and there are some revelations in this story that seem weird or just unconventional (like the "fall" of the angels, how the angels live/behave in "heaven"). I'm sure most other people won't even notice, so whatever. What I really liked was the relationship between the two main characters, Nora and Patch. Patch certainly is quite a character, and I certainly enjoyed him, ;) Yes, he may act a bit...idk, "ungentlemanly," but come on, he's a FALLEN ANGEL! you cant expect him to be "mr. manners" (hey, they can't all be Edward Cullen). So for YA/fantasy romance enthusiasts, I would strongly recomment this book! I'm wondering if Fitzpatrick's next book will be a direct sequel to this; the story seemed nicely concluded at the end, but who knows! Usually I try to wait until a series has been completed, so I don't know! Maybe I read this a little too early...:P P.S.: the TITLE! i still dont know why the book is called Hush, Hush! There's no explanation in the book! Random!
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