Revelations

Have you ever wondered what secrets lurk behind the closed doors of New York City's wealthiest families? They're powerful, they're famous... they're undead.

Schuyler Van Alen's blood legacy has just been called into question--is the young vampire in fact a Blue Blood, or is it the sinister Silver Blood that runs through her veins? As controversy swirls, Schuyler is left stranded in the Force household, trapped under the same roof as her cunning nemesis, Mimi Force, and her forbidden crush, Jack Force.

When one of the Gates of Hell is breached by Silver Bloods in Rio de Janeiro, however, the Blue Bloods will need Schuyler on their side. The stakes are high; the battle is bloody; and through it all, Carnavale rages on. And in the end, one vampire's secret identity will be exposed in a revelation that shocks everyone.

The third book of the Blue Blood series, Revelations (the two first ones were Blue Bloods and Masquerade), is much better than the second one, even if the characters annoy me more and more. Finally, the plot is actually starting to unravel. The vampire business is finally coming back.

As the Silver Blood seem to grow in power, Mimi’s jealousy of Jack and Schuyler’s relationship is still at the same heights than at the end of the previous book. She therefore plans her bonding (wedding, in vampire terms) with her beloved brother. The conclave travels to Rio, for they fear the strongest of the Silver Bloods is back to haunt them. Conspiracies are played behind Lawrence’s back, even if he is the Regis, the vampire leader. More and more, we perceive the true nature of the vampires, and the long story behind them.

The characters are still the same, and still as bland. Hardly any character development and way too much love obsession for me to feel comfortable. No one the age of Schuyler and Jack actually obsesses over someone to the point of renting an apartment for the sake of meeting up with a secret lover. Their love downright annoyed me, since they had never had any interest in each other before the first book of the series.

Apart from all the lovey-dovey stuff with Schuyler and Jack, this is actually quite action packed, compared to the two previous novels. What happens in Rio is entertaining and captivating for the few pages it happens on. I wish this scene had been longer, or that more emphasis had been put on it. A couple of other scenes with similar action could’ve been fun, but I guess this’ll have to do.

This is probably my favourite book yet in this series, but that isn’t saying much. It is, all in all similar in quality to the two previous ones, and I really do hope it will get better in the next book.

-Aithen

Revelations by Melissa de la Cruz
Rating : 7,3/10

The Alienist

This fast-paced, convincing thriller by the author of The Devil Soldier is set in New York City in 1896, where two men and a brave, determined woman embark on a quest that takes them into the tortured mind of a barbaric serial killer.

I had to pick a mystery book for school, so I chose The Alienist, having been meaning to read it for a fairly long time. From the very first pages, I was hooked and in love.

The author’s style is very descriptive, with many images, metaphors and comparisons. Every little detail is looked into, and though it can seem heavy at times, overall it is quite satisfying to have an overload of information, for once. Too many books these days forget to use descriptions and the whole world seems bland, or use descriptions inadequately and make the book seem strange (I am thinking of the Blue Blood series here), but in the Alienist, the dosage was excellent and the story unveiled itself like a movie in my head.

The characters being real people, they have a very detailed background, and it is well explained in this book. The Alienist brings us to understand the inspectors and have a glimpse at their soul. I really liked this feature of the book, the fact that everything is based on real events and a true story.

The plotline itself was dark and bloody, a story like I love them. It is very complex and the plot, like everything else, is rich in details. It is very well explained, and anyone can understand the doctor’s train of thought, even without his education. Maybe there were a little too many useless details here and there, but that is minor compared to how good the story is.

There are a lot of places that are visited or mentioned, too, and they re all lengthily described. Again, there may be a little too many and a little too much details, and this slightly slows the pace down. But it doesn’t hurt to have such a clear mental image of the setting. It appears to me as if I were there, in 1896 New York, with the greats in the dirty streets, resolving a particularly tricky case.

Lastly, there was just enough humour to save the book from being overly dark and gothic. It really relieves the stress that builds up quite high otherwise. They weren’t roll-on-the-ground funny jokes, but amusing enough to make me snicker from time to time.

All in all a great book that is definitely worth the read. This is one of those big fat books that you have just got to read at least once in your life. If you like thrillers, historical fiction and well developped plots, or all three, this is for you. Read it. You won’t regret it.

-Aithen

The Alienist by Caleb Carr

Rating : 8,9/10

Masquerade

Schuyler Van Alen is starting to get more comfortable with her newfound vampire powers, but she still has many unanswered questions. A trip to Italy in search of her grandfather only serves to make things more confusing. What secrets are the leaders of The Committee hiding? Meanwhile, back in New York, preparations are feverishly underway for the famous Four Hundred Ball. In true Blue Blood fashion, the ball is totally fab, complete with masks, and hidden behind this masquerade is a revelation that will change the course of a young vampire's destiny.

The sequel to Blue Bloods, Masquerade, profoundly disappointed me. I really wanted to love it; the story that had started in Blue Bloods was excellent and very promising. But this second novel just wasn’t as good as it could’ve been.

The first few pages made me yawn and flail in a frustrated manner at the same time. The second book debuts several months after the first one’s end. Schuyler and Oliver have traveled to Venice to find Lawrence, as Cordelia had asked them to. There are so many things that could’ve happened during the lost months! I could hardly contain my deception when I realized when Masquerade picked up.

So little interesting things actually happen in this book. Almost nothing otherworldly, that’s for sure. Mimi throws a ball, Schuyler learns to live with her grandfather (that she gets to love very quickly), and Jack and Schuyler date in secret. Honestly, this book bored me. The only vampire-related action is that Lawrence starts teaching Schuyler how to use her extraordinary, out of the norm powers.

By the way, in this book, two horrible things happened to the characters. Schuyler, the protagonist, is discovered to be as strong as an archangel, even if she is only a half-vampire. And Bliss is Schuyler’s hidden sister. Can someone please shoot me? These two things alone pretty much killed all interest I had for this book and made me want to throw it out the window.

I can’t say nothing in this book was good, though, since while the protagonists just do teenager stuff, in the background, a very interesting story is unfolding. The whole Silver Blood story arc is sadly relegated to a minor position as trivial matters seem to be the whole point of this book, but it is nonetheless excellent. If only the focus had been on this, instead of Mimi’s shopping sessions!

The vampire’s immortal background stories that mesmerized me in the first book also more or less disappeared, and we don’t learn as much about the past lives of the individual vampires as we’d like.

The countless descriptions of ball gowns, parties and food kind of made me nauseous, once again. There seems to be more and more as the book goes on, cutting precious space to explain the actual plot.

All in all, Masquerade annoyed me, and I wish Melissa de la Cruz had developed more on the story and background. It is directly aimed at an audience with a taste for clothes and glamour, and I am not in this crowd. I prefer good characters and plot to clothes and parties any day. I will continue reading this series, but am now wary of what might come out of it. I no longer have much hope for it to get any better.

-Aithen

Masquerade by Melissa de la Cruz
Rating : 7/10

Dirty Magic

After a night of particularly strange and vivid dreams, Joe is visited by a girl who seems to be all gray, from her hair to her eyes to her clothes. Wherever she steps, the world melts away, replaced by a land of mud and rain. Telling Joe he must come with her if he wants to save his younger sister, who is gravely ill, the girl leads Joe through to her gray world, which is in the midst of a twenty-year-old war. There Joe dodges bullets, fearsome motion-tracking tanks, and the secret police as he searches for his sister.

This was a strangely written book. I found it in the children’s section, the book looks childish, the writing is big, the protagonist is ten. Yet the vocabulary used is that of an adult, the children reason like adults, the setting is very mature. A war-streaked land, two ethnicities fighting ruthlessly, manipulative ambassadors, slavery, death penalties are all part of this book.

First of all, Joe, the protagonist, was bland. He was a flat nobody who had absolutely nothing else in mind than his guilt (since he thinks he is responsible for his little sister’s sickness). In fact, he obsesses over it and after a hundred times, the whole deal gets annoying. Also, he has way too much luck for my liking. Katherine was okay, but she thought too much like an adult. A ten year old, no matter what it went through, will always be a ten year old. Her decisions were the wise, rational ones of a battle veteran. Because yes, she lives and has lived all her life in the midst of a twenty year old conflict and runs around in sodden trenches. It’s a wonder she didn’t die of hypothermia. The thing is, she isn’t the only child in this condition. They all are. Lastly, Spider was way too good at orientation even though he was a blind man. And his “I felt the ground, It was dryer” and other lame excuses for his super-skills don’t fool me, he has the same comportment as a seeing man. Spider hears and smells and feels too well for it to be anywhere near realistic. He can also read and write.

The plot itself took too long to unravel. Travel to place A, then place B, and then place C, and then you might understand a little better what’s going on. I kept wondering why Joe had had to come to this warring world from our own, what a charge was, and the lack of answers made me frustrated and mad. Everything was explained in the very last chapter, and it ended very abruptly after that, almost as if the ending had been rushed. But to be fair, I have to say the plot was okay. The problem is, it was more or less drowned by strange and rather useless events, and the lack of explanations made this a tough read.

The writing style was downright strange. At times, it felt as if she were talking to a six year old. At other times, words like derelict or simian come up, and even I need a quick check in the dictionary to make sure I understand correctly. Also, the fact that a clicking sound was compared to the noise made by a Geiger counter was too much. Most people don’t know what a Geiger counter is, let alone know what it sounds like. The attempts at humor were pitiful fails.

There was one thing that made me desperately annoyed. Joe got a bullet through his hand in the first few pages of the book, and 215 pages, there is no mention of this event. He walks for three days straight, his bloody bandage is wet and muddy, yet he isn’t in pain? Not even a little? When I remembered about this wound, I smacked my head against the book a couple of times.

One truly great point in this book was the machines. They were extraordinary. They were frightening to read about, and I wouldn’t want to encounter any of them any day. Each machine had a different role, different weapons, a different appearance. Their descriptions were epic, and I have to admit the parts in which they were included fascinated me.

Perhaps if the characters had been more realistic, the writing more unified and the story and plot more explained, this book would’ve been better. The good elements were hidden behind the incoherencies, and a little more realism could’ve gone a long way. It is a book only to be read if absolutely nothing else is available.

-Aithen

Dirty Magic by Carol Hughes
Rating : 6,2/10

Blue Bloods

When the Mayflower set sail in 1620, it carried on board the men and women who would shape America: Miles Standish; John Alden; Constance Hopkins. But some among the Pilgrims were not pure of heart; they were not escaping religious persecution. Indeed, they were not even human. They were vampires.The vampires assimilated quickly into the New World. Rising to levels of enormous power, wealth, and influence, they were the celebrated blue bloods of American society.

The Blue Bloods vowed that their immortal status would remain a closely guarded secret. And they kept that secret for centuries. But now, in New York City, the secret is seeping out. Schuyler Van Alen is a sophomore at a prestigious private school. Suddenly, when she turns fifteen, there is a visible mosaic of blue veins on her arm. She starts to crave raw food and she is having flashbacks to ancient times. Then a girl from her school is found dead... drained of all her blood. Schuyler doesn't know what to think.

Could those vampire legends really be true?

Like Beryl said, this was some sort of contest to see who could find the worst book with great reviews and survive. Obviously, she won, since Blue Bloods was actually a pretty good book.
First of all, the characters had a certain depth. Of course, they could have been elaborated more and they were all kind of cliché in their own way, but they weren't the worst characters I ever read about. Schuyler was a pretty typical emo girl, Oliver her faithful best friend, Mimi the prick you want to slap, Jack the sexy awesome vampire, Bliss the misfit popular girl. I find the relationship between Mimi and Jack fascinating.

One thing I sometimes found annoying is how some of the girls were so superficial it hurt. There were too many parties and clothes shopping sprees and clothes descriptions for my liking. Also, Jack Force made me slightly apprehensive at the beginning, since he sounded like another Edward. When it became evident that he and Schuyler wouldn't be hooking up (at least, not for too long), I could breathe better.

Also, the vampires were different from the classic killing beasts without being sparkling Twilight vampires. They had codes, rules, laws that they have to respect, they had a history, they are organized. Their whole concept is quite mesmerizing, I even think it is worth picking this book up just for them.

The story actually had a plot, which was, I must admit, excellent. There are many answers you want to know, and the idea of a greater predator preying on the mighty vampires was good. It wasn't your typical lets-save-the-world book, it was more like lets-save-the-vampires. The ending makes you want to read on, and I just picked up Masquerade. Expect its review sometime soon.

Finally, the author's style was very nice, with great vocabulary and no abuse of slang terms (such as 'like', 'omigod', etc.).

Overall, this was a good book that will mostly please teenage girls. It is nothing like Twilight, that is for sure. It really ressembles City of Bones by Cassandra Clare, so if you loved that novel, you'll probably like this one too.

-Aithen

Blue Bloods by Melissa de la Cruz
Rating : 7,3/10

Evermore

Since a horrible accident claimed the lives of her family, sixteen-year-old Ever can see auras, hear people’s thoughts, and know a person’s life story by touch. Going out of her way to shield herself from human contact to suppress her abilities has branded her as a freak at her new high school—but everything changes when she meets Damen Auguste…

Ever sees Damen and feels an instant recognition. He is gorgeous, exotic and wealthy, and he holds many secrets. Damen is able to make things appear and disappear, he always seems to know what she’s thinking—and he’s the only one who can silence the noise and the random energy in her head. She doesn’t know who he really is—or what he is. Damen equal parts light and darkness, and he belongs to an enchanted new world where no one ever dies.

Alright, let's be done with this. Female protagonist meets newly-arrived in town Greek God. He is beautiful. Sexy. Charming. Everyone falls for him. Even men. He is rich. She falls for him too! Oh, wait. Mister beautiful is so mysterious and secretive. Why does she feel so drawn to him?

Rings a bell?

This was a challenge between me and Aithen to pick an already mildly-appreciated book and see if we survive. Uh, I barely made it alive. My hopes rose as I started reading Evermore by Alyson Noel. They seriously did. It's just a shame they were drowned in a pile of flat characters and mediocre writing. By page 50, I had enough. By page 100, I wanted to skim through the book and be done with it. Only I bared 50 more pages until I decided my sanity was at stake and quickly browsed through the rest of the book to meet a predictable and quickly wrapped-up ending.

I liked Ever. At first. Really, I did (except for her name. What parent calls his child Ever, just so the full name can be Ever Bloom? I mean, it isn't even 'cool' or 'neat' or 'witty' or whatever the author was trying to make it look like. It is what we call clichiness, my friends). She was a distant and silent teen who tried to drown her powers in heavy music and under a hoodie, waiting till the chaotic mind-swirling buzz quietened down. She reminded me of Melissa from Midnighters. She was a very promising character, who didn't care about people's opinions and had a very collected attitude toward things.

Haven (again, what's with the name?); an attention-wanter-cupcake-lover-emo-pretender, and Miles; a homosexual teen (I liked this trait about him), both of Ever's friend were, on the other hand, just ridiculous. Their good intentions and background stories didn't make up for the fact that they didn't act like real friends at all, had a very flat and undeveloped personality and acted more like children than 16-year old teens. I couldn't stand Haven's whining and Miles unconcerned attitude toward anything that happened. They were easy to bear while Ever was around, but when she started falling for Damen and the loves-me-loves-me-not petal plucking game began, she, too, was overwhelmed by stupidity. (I tell you, sparkly males are a threat to health!) Did you also know that Ever can't read Damen's mind! I think Cullen shares the same frustration.

And Damen, now.

What is it with today's literature where males in a couple must be sexy, beautiful, charming, hot, have smoldering eyes, shiny and soft skin, warm touch, brilliant smiles? Why is it that those males need to be supernatural beings, and have super powers, and have a whole school fall for them and create hysteria all around? Damen was just your Mexican version of Edward, with a far too big ego disguised as mysteriousness and just the same stalk-ish and moody attitude. Evermore is not the only book that falls in step with Twilight (that is not a praise) and makes a mess out of romance.

Because this time the romance was really a mess. There is absolutely nothing to Ever's and Damen's relationship. The only reason Ever 'loves' Damen is because, well, he's omigod so hot, he has smoldering eyes and deliciously tanned skin. Oh and yes, his touch makes her feel so warm and happy. It seems the only way Damen can be described is with his appealing body, and that's why his personality is so... amiss. I don't even know how to describe it. It was just out of place and a poor replica of Edward Cullen (Still not a praise).

The relationship also started way to quickly, there was no development, no depth, the romance was all cheesy and just about kissing and giving tulips. (Because Damen was capable of plucking a hundred tulips from behind Ever's ear just-like-that.)

Well, there's not much to say about the plot. Abnormal boy likes human girl. Too many things were left unexplained at the predictable end. Bad mix of alchemy and karma. Love at first sigh. The supposed twists are not worth being twists. The writing was also, like, omigod so unprofessional. The expression "she put her lips together" pops out about fifty times in the first 150 pages of the book. Almost nothing interesting happens and there's only action at the very end of the book, which is equal to dull candy for readers like me. Dull candy is not sweet. It makes you want to spit it out.

I've tried to find something positive about the book. I feel like I'm failing myself when I bash a book, but Evermore was just really, really, really bad. Worse than Twilight. Bad attempt at being like Twilight. I've almost never grown tired of a book after the 50th page, and this read was a challenge that I'm not redoing. My sanity is at stake, as I already said.

This book will be adored by some teens. It will be hated by the rest.

If you are to read a flat-characterized romance book where nothing happens in 1/4 of it, you might as well go read Twilight.

I won't be reading the sequel to this, and sorry if I offended anyone, but ranting feels so good.

-Beryl

Evermore by Alyson Noel
Rating: 5/10

Eyes Like Stars

All her world's a stage.
Beatrice Shakespeare Smith is not an actress, yet she lives in a theater.
She is not an orphan, but she has no parents.
She knows every part, but has no lines of her own.
Until now.

Welcome to the Théâtre Illuminata, where the characters of every place ever written can be found behind the curtain. They were born to play their parts, and are bound to the Théâtre by The Book—an ancient and magical tome of scripts. Bertie is not one of them, but they are her family—and she is about to lose them all and the only home she has ever known.

First thing that drew me to the book was obviously Jason Chan's art. Isn't the cover just delicious-looking? Just wait till you see the cover of the second book.

In any case, this book is clearly a debut novel. There are many flaws such as in the writing and plotting. Yet, the book was still captivating and I finished it quickly.

First of all, there are a lot of elements that lack explanations. From where does The Book come? Who made it? What is the theater's location? How does the magic work and from where does it come from? A lot of things such as these were left aside, and it was irritating because you didn't know anything. There were also events that I didn't understand. From where does the Sea Goddess come? She just appeared out of nowhere with a rush of water that disappeared just like that afterward. I mean, she's a Sea Goddess, and gods don't appear out of nowhere like that. I found it queer, and I don't like finding things queer.

The next thing that was risky for my appreciation of this book was that the whole story took place in the theater, and mainly on the stage. It seemed as every single action happened on it, which I found as more of an interesting trait than a displeasing one. It's as if the whole story was a play, unraveling on the stage of the Théâtre Illuminata. Original, I must say.

The plot isn't amazing in my opinion, and the twists at the end weren't that unforeseen. It has a childish vibe to it, and could still be spun around for an older audience to appreciate. I found the writing descriptive and engaging, with a taste of simplicity even though there were some amazing paragraphs that out stood the rest of the book and that I re read with blithe. At some points the dialogues, especially Ariel's, were quite admirable, and at some points, less.

Bertie's character is energetic, head strong and troublesome. I really liked her eccentricity and her stubbornness but there were moments when her stupidity and foolishness took over. I didn't also understand her fit of sadism toward Ariel. I think she could have dropped her little horns and pointed tail a little. Some of her actions such as this one were irrelevant.

I loved Ariel though. I really loved his brooding and enthralling personality, and how he fought for his motives. Nate was appreciative too, with his big-brother care over Beartie. And then you have Bertie who doesn't know who to choose. Don't you just adore love triangles? I sure do. There's quite a lot of romance in this book, which I'm sure will please many. The four faeries were funny too, with their hyper attitude and love for sugar. They lacked physical descriptions, though.

It happened that there were too many characters 'on the stage', and some came in randomly and while others were forgotten. It was rather confusing at times, but fun to see different characters from popular plays like Hamlet and Macbeth interact together. Sometimes it ended in lots of comical trouble.

The ending was tied up hastily and the character's feelings could have been more laid out. Nevertheless, it was a fun book. Cute, funny, romantic. A good read.

-Beryl

Eyes Like Stars by Lisa Mantchev
Rating: 7,6/10