Reading level: Young adultPublisher: Simon & Schuster Children's Publishing
Pub date: October 13, 2009
Page count: 291
My rating: 1/5 stars
Seriously? Is this all you have to do to get published these days? Take the Twilight plot, plug in a few different names, use fallen angels instead of vampires, and BAM, a best seller? What am I thinking, wasting my time going to an honest 8-5 job every day??? I'm serious. You don't even have to change the personalities of the main characters. Nora = Bella (but even less interesting). Edward = Patch (but even less complex).
Nora and Bella are both Mary Sue types. The kind of utterly plain, boring people that millions of girls just like them out there (myself included) would really like to believe could actually become wrapped in the middle of a fairy tale, the heart throb of a mysterious and brooding Prince Charming, the central character in an epic saga.
Wake up, girlies, it's not happening. Worse yet, it's not even interesting to read about in fiction.
I'm not saying the protagonist in this type of story has to be a beautiful prom queen. It's okay if she's a bit anti-establishment, if she has a certain underdeveloped natural charm and doesn't need makeup, if she's in the marching band. But for godsake, she needs to have SOMETHING. A sense of humor? A passion for deep sea fishing? Whatever. Something interesting, some defining characteristic to make us understand why in the world she is the main character in a book series. To make us care enough to finish the book, for the love of god (which I did NOT manage here, I will admit fully. I made it halfway through, and even that was a real challenge).
Nora of hush, hush has nothing going for her. Her narrative is literally like reading the diary of a constipated frontal lobotomy patient (without the exciting drama of the lobotomy ordeal--or even the constipation). Here's an example of a typical Nora monologue (of my own rendering):
I was walking down the hall thinking about Patch. I hate Patch, he's such a creep. He's just not safe! Suddenly an asteroid crashed through the roof, and looking over I saw Patch standing next to me. In that moment, it didn't matter that an asteroid was about to crush my fat head into a bloody mass of mangled flesh and brains. Because Patch was there and despite everything, I felt safe and comforted. I wanted him to touch me, mmmm.
Shut up, Nora, no one gives a crap, and let's be serious, if fallen angels really did exist, they wouldn't waste their time on boring Mary Sues like yourself.
At least Twilight was kind of the first of its kind. Hush hush is a pathetic imitation...an imitation of something that wasn't too great in the first place. I can't wait to give away my copy in my next book giveaway.
By the way, the current giveaway ends on Friday. So hurry up and enter!
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HA! This is the reason I haven't picked up this book yet. At least from the reviewers I respect, I keep hearing how this one was drivel. Thanks for the honest opinion.
ReplyDeletele sigh...i too hesitated for a long while on account of some very scathing reviews i'd come across. but then i found myself at the airport facing a 7 hr flight with a dead kindle...and this was on the bookshelf, and the cover was so cool.........ughhh. i should know better by now than to judge a book by it's cover.
ReplyDeleteFascinating review, and I see your points.
ReplyDeleteI didn't have as much a problem with the characters (though in a lot of aspects you're right) as I did with the plot. I was willing to go along with it until the ending. It felt like we were being set up for something a lot bigger than what actually happened.
I'm going to give the next book a chance because I didn't hate this novel. I just thought I'd like it a little more than I did.
I threw this book in the garbage dumpster. Seriously. I have NO TIME or patience for these literary scams. How DARE this author take a plot and replicate it? It should be titled Plagiarism: Twilight Angels. Would someone take Harry Potter, all the characters, re-name the school, and not be as prolific a writer and be a best-seller? NO! How ballsy of Mz Becca Fitzpatrick! She really has some nerve! Well at least those of us who have anything going on upstairs still have enough sense to know who is a legitimate author and who simply wants to cash in a few extra bucks. This gal should not have any pride or joy regarding this book, unless she's reflecting on how easy it was to scam the general public. What a hack!!!! I tell everyone not to support this book, this author, or any other works out there like it (and there are more!!!)
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