DNF Mini Reviews

Here's an update of some recent DNFs and a mini-review of each one.


1.  Awake by Natasha Preston

My Synopsis:

A new boy arrives in Scarlett's class, and they take an immediate liking to one another.  When she tells Noah that she can't remember anything before the age of 4 due to a traumatic incident involving a fire, he presses her to figure out why she can't remember.  Then she endures a head injury in a car accident and she starts remembering things.  The things she remembers makes her question her parents and what type of secrets they are keeping from her.



How Far I Got: About 1/3 of the way through.

Why I DNF'd: I really wanted to read this book because OMG the cover!!!  It's so pretty!!  So pretty.  So yeah, with a cover like that, the book must be awesome, right???  No.  No this book was definitely NOT awesome.  I hate to say this, but I would put this in the top 10% worst YA books I have read to date.  It's really disappointing.  I heard great things about The Cellar.  Granted, I didn't read The Cellar, but because of the goodness that I had heard about it, I was expecting this to be really good.  It's not.

First is the Inst-Love.  Noah comes on super strong... like creepy strong.  Like Edward strong.  And Scarlett is planning their life together (married w/ kids) by the second time they hang out.  The next problem I had was the premise.  The thing that was supposed to drive the book was that, *GASP*, Scarlett can't remember anything before the age of 4!!  Ummmmmm?  Am I missing something?  Raise your hand if you have tons of distinct memories before Kindergarten....  I see no hands.  Because nobody really remembers stuff from before they were 4 or 5.  Maybe if something BIG happened, but more likely if you can recall something, it's probably because you've been TOLD about it enough times, you end up feeling like it's a memory.  So I know that there were reasons for Noah coming on so strong, but I just didn't like it.  And I skimmed a little further into the book where it starts to get into the cult thing, and PUKE.  I don't like Noah.  He's Edward and Scarlett is plain-Jane, special snowflake Bella.

Other no-no's- Special colored eyes: stop with this, just stop.  The best frenemy: Why were Imogen and Scarlett friends??  All they did was snip at each other and slut shame.

So that's a big HELL NO to this book.  Do yourself a favor and pass.



2.  When by Victoria Laurie

My Synopsis:

Maddie has an odd superpower- she sees numbers above people's heads.  It takes her father dying for her to realize that the numbers are death dates.  Since the death of her dad, Maddie's mom has gone downhill.  In the grips of addiction, she has Maddie do "readings" for people for money.  When a child that Maddie predicted goes missing, her bid to fly under the radar is blown.  Now the police are taking a hard look at Maddie... maybe she's orchestrating this in order to make her psychic predictions come true.  Maybe her BFF Stubby is in on it.  Maybe not, but as more kids disappear, it's not looking good.



How Far I Got: Halfway

Why I DNF'd: The idea of this book sounded so cool.  Also I'm always on the lookout for a good YA thriller.  This wasn't terrible, but I wasn't feeling it either.  The writing wasn't great, the conversations felt awkward, and ugh I had a hard time believing people would really be as stupid as the book made them act.  This girl and her best friend were probably the two least likely to kill people.  I can't believe they would ever be taken seriously as a threat.  The police are not that dumb, they would have cleared these two swiftly.

Like I said, if the writing had drew me in better or if I clicked with Maddie, I may have totally liked this.  But that didn't happen.  Cool premise, but disappointing execution.  I don't really recommend, but also I could see people liking it, just not me.






Have you read either of these books?  What were your thoughts?