Review: Catching Fire by Suzanne Collins

Catching Fire by Suzanne Collins

My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I liked the second half of the novel much more than I liked the first. The first was pretty boring. Katniss is back at District 12 and going through life. She wants Peeta to be with her, but feels like she has chosen Gale.

I hate love triangles, especially one as badly done as this so I didn't really care much about Katniss' inner turmoil as she tried to decide which guy is right for her. If we had seen more from Gale, then I think I would have maybe understood this triangle more, but in the Hunger Games, we saw him in the beginning and in the end. Peeta was the main guy in that book and so we saw more of his feelings.

In Catching Fire, Gale is in the beginning and end and once again Peeta is the main guy in this book. I don't really understand how we're suppose to root for Gale when we hardly know him.

The second half of the novel is Katniss going back to the Hunger Games. I'm not going to lie, when I first saw this I was wondering why we had to do this again. But the more I read from it, the more I liked it. The allies were good and I really liked Johanna and Finnick. Both were smart and had a good head on their shoulders.

Katniss, was a tad annoying. And Peeta was either being carried or helped in some way. He was pretty much useless.

There was so much more that could have been done, but nothing happened until the end.

I have a feeling that Mockingjay will be better, so I'm looking forward to that.

Teaser Tuesdays: wk4

Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading. Anyone can play along! Just do the following:

• Grab your current read
• Open to a random page
• Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page
• BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!)
• Share the title & author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers!

I'm currently reading two books.

And the houses along the snow-filled road display their illuminations. Their promise of warm shelter is nearly inescapable...to animals, insects...and to humans alike.

pg 138 of Mushishi vol 4 by Urushibara Yuki

~-.-~

I kept looking for her the rest of that day, puzzled by her reaction. Like most people, I had no clue of her random connection to Hannah Baker.

Th1rteen R3asons Why by Jay Asher (not sure the exact page of the book, since I'm reading the ebook version of this)

Leave a link to your teaser tuesdays and I'll be sure to check them out!

Review: Fever by Lauren DeStefano

Synopsis:

Running away brings Rhine and Gabriel right into a trap, in the form of a twisted carnival whose ringmistress keeps watch over a menagerie of girls. Just as Rhine uncovers what plans await her, her fortune turns again. With Gabriel at her side, Rhine travels through an environment as grim as the one she left a year ago - surroundings that mirror her own feelings of fear and hopelessness.

The two are determined to get to Manhattan, to relative safety with Rhine’s twin brother, Rowan. But the road there is long and perilous - and in a world where young women only live to age twenty and young men die at twenty-five, time is precious. Worse still, they can’t seem to elude Rhine’s father-in-law, Vaughn, who is determined to bring Rhine back to the mansion...by any means necessary.

Pages: 352 pages (Hardcover)
Publisher: Simon & Schuster Books For Young Readers
Released: February 21, 2012

...not really sure what happened here.

After I finished Wither, I knew the first thing I needed to do was to read Fever...actually, the first thing I wanted to do was go to bed, since it was late at night. But once I woke up, I knew I would have to read Fever.

Fever takes place right after Wither ends and somehow, it just didn't do anything for me. My problems with Rhine were intensified in this novel and while I could forgive and overlook her behaviour before, I just couldn't do it here.

The main reason was, some of the stuff just didn't make sense at all.

Rhine wants to do something, but someone else ends up helping her. No, not really helping her. They actually do everything and Rhine just has to listen to them. This is fine with me though. What bothered me was the lack of sex. Hear me out.

In Wither, she never consummated her marriage with Linden, which I always had a problem with. He has sex with Cecily and Jenna, but not Rhine. Why? He respects her wishes, which was great. He's a good guy, but it still didn't make sense.

In Fever, Rhine is captured and placed in a prostitution ring. You think she's going to have sex, because her job is to have sex or be beaten, but it doesn't happen. Why? With Linden, I get that he's a good guy and wants to respect her. But Madame. She beats little kids, her girls, and drugs them. She doesn't seem like the type to just say, "It's okay Rhine. No sex pour vous."

I know you may be thinking something weird about me, but before I say anything more, let me just mention that I'm not a sex fiend or want to see Rhine get it on.

I don't.

But in both of those scenarios, Rhine having sex is something that is expected to happen, especially with how this world is. Instead, both Linden and Madame let her go. Linden has sex with his other wives, Madame gets the other girls to have sex with the paying customers, and Rhine thinks of ways to escape.

I dunno, it didn't make sense to me.

Anyways, let's talk about romance. Gabriel seems like the main guy, except he really doesn't do much in Fever. I feel bad, because even though I liked Linden more than him in the first novel, I excepted him to have a greater role in Fever. This sadly doesn't happen. Nothing happens to him and at the end of everything, he's not even in the picture anymore.

Overall:

I think by biggest problem with Fever is that it truly felt like a middle book. Wither was excellent and Fever, nothing happens. They run, get captured, get drugged up, run away, get sick, find a good place, get captured, cliffhanger......joy. Seeing the world and realizing that it wasn't as good as she remembered would have added some conflict between Rhine and Gabriel. Seeing how horrible the world is, would add more conflict in this book. Gabriel doing something would have added conflict in this book. Gatherers, who should be on the streets, looking for young girls and see the girls get captured, would add more conflict to this book.

I just wanted something more and sadly, I didn't get it. That being said, I do have high hopes for the next novel in this series. Once it comes out, I'm definitely picking it up and seeing how this trilogy ends. Can't wait!

Review: Wither by Lauren DeStefano

Synopsis:

By age sixteen, Rhine Ellery has four years left to live. She can thank modern science for this genetic time bomb. A botched effort to create a perfect race has left all males with a lifespan of 25 years, and females with a lifespan of 20 years. Geneticists are seeking a miracle antidote to restore the human race, desperate orphans crowd the population, crime and poverty have skyrocketed, and young girls are being kidnapped and sold as polygamous brides to bear more children.

When Rhine is kidnapped and sold as a bride, she vows to do all she can to escape. Her husband, Linden, is hopelessly in love with her, and Rhine can’t bring herself to hate him as much as she’d like to. He opens her to a magical world of wealth and illusion she never thought existed, and it almost makes it possible to ignore the clock ticking away her short life. But Rhine quickly learns that not everything in her new husband’s strange world is what it seems. Her father-in-law, an eccentric doctor bent on finding the antidote, is hoarding corpses in the basement. Her fellow sister wives are to be trusted one day and feared the next, and Rhine is desperate to communicate to her twin brother that she is safe and alive. Will Rhine be able to escape--before her time runs out?

Together with one of Linden's servants, Gabriel, Rhine attempts to escape just before her seventeenth birthday. But in a world that continues to spiral into anarchy, is there any hope for freedom?

Pages: 368 pages (Hardcover)
Publisher: Simon & Schuster Books For Young Readers
Released: March 22, 2011

Can I just start by saying that this book was fantastic? Because it was. It really, really was.

When I opened the book and read the first chapter, I knew that this was going to be a great book. The plot can be summed up in two sentences. *ahem* Rhine is captured and is bought by a Housemaster who marries her, along with two other girls. She wants to go back to her brother, but must play by the rules in order to find the perfect moment to escape.

From this summary, you will probably realize one thing. This book, mostly takes place in a house. A rich house. Despite this being a dystopian novel we don't really get a sense of this, because of the location. There are hints, for example the first chapter when the Gatherers show up, when certain characters die, despite their young age, and when Rhine tells us about how Rowan and her survived out in Manhattan. Other than this, not so much is shown.

So if you are looking for a heavy dystopian novel, this one might get you disappointed. But you should still give it a try.

The characters, for the most part, are fleshed out nicely. I do think Rhine was slightly naive about her situation, but she's young so I forgave her. I did love Rhine's sister wives, Jenna and Cecily, though. Jenna was a fantastic character, who was smart, observant, and knew how to play the game. Cecily, while naive like Rhine, did show that she's observant and can make things happen for her.

I liked the interactions between the sister wives and their husband. Linden, despite some of his problems, made for a better love interest than Gabriel.

Overall:

I really loved this book. So much so that once I finished, I went out and got Fever. Yay! In terms of dystopian novels, this is different, but it does have a good premise and an interesting story.

I liked it!

Review: Graveminder by Melissa Marr

Synopsis:

Rebekkah Barrow never forgot the tender attention her grandmother, Maylene, bestowed upon the dead of Claysville, the town where Bek spent her adolescence. There wasn't a funeral that Maylene didn't attend, and at each Rebekkah watched as Maylene performed the same unusual ritual: three sips from a small silver flask followed by the words "Sleep well, and stay where I put you."

Now Maylene is dead and Bek must go back to the place--and the man--she left a decade ago. But what she soon discovers is that Maylene was murdered and that there was good reason for her odd traditions. It turns out that in placid Claysville, the worlds of the living and the dead are dangerously connected. Beneath the town lies a shadowy, lawless land ruled by the enigmatic Charles, aka Mr. D--a place from which the dead will return if their graves are not properly minded. Only the Graveminder, a Barrow woman, and the current Undertaker, Byron, can set things to right once the dead begin to walk.

Pages: 336 pages (Hardcover)
Publisher: William Morrow
Released: May 17, 2011

I haven't read a book in a long time. Somehow, I was busy with school and life to actually have the time to pick up a book and read it.

When I went to the library to pick up some graphic novels/mangas I saw this and somehow I was drawn to it. The cover (with the old house) was creepy and the blurb sounded delicious. For the first time in a long time, I was truly excited to pick up a book.

Then I started to read it. This is the first book of Melissa Marr that I've read, I know her by her Wicked Lovely series and can tell that she's a talented young adult novel. The problem with this book is that it is marketed towards adults, but the writing sounds like something you'd find in teen fiction. Nothing wrong with that if done correctly, but it didn't work here.

The characters. There are actually three issues I had with the characters:

1. Rebekkah is annoying. Byron is whipped. And for the majority of the book (especially the first 2/3rds of it) they talk about nothing except their angst for each other. I felt suffocated just reading about how much Byron loved her but how much Rebekkah couldn't handle commitment, but still wanted him but couldn't. Add on to the fact that they are apparently destined for each other and this little reader couldn't handle it. It was just too much. The entire time they were together, I wished that either one of them died or they broke up.

2. The rest of the characters are very flat, with the exception of Daisha and Elizabeth. Daisha is shown quite a bit, but I wish we saw more of Elizabeth. From the two chapters that she showed up, she was a really interesting character. Her mother is power hungry, but she just goes with the flow afraid of the consequences. She knows her mother is wrong, but she's afraid. Interesting. Except she doesn't show up and after all is said and done, she didn't even need to be in the book.

3. The villain. No spoilers, but the villain was pretty bad. The problem here is that...hmmm, how can I explain this without spoiling? The villain is predictable and one that makes absolute sense. It's just that the villain didn't show up for most of the book and their actions in the latter half didn't make sense.

~-.-~

Overall:
The plot, by itself, is interesting. It just wasn't executed properly. Was it creative? Yes, I think Melissa Marr had a lot of great ideas in this book. Was the writing great? Sadly no. As an adult novel, it didn't work. Had this been written with teens I think I might have liked it a bit more. Rebekkah and Byron's angst wouldn't have been as annoying, because I could blame the hormones.

The premise of the book makes it exciting and when I picked this up, I felt that. Sadly, the execution and the characters are a different story.

1 star

Review: Ready Player One by Ernest Cline

Synopsis:

It’s the year 2044, and the real world is an ugly place.

Like most of humanity, Wade Watts escapes his grim surroundings by spending his waking hours jacked into the OASIS, a sprawling virtual utopia that lets you be anything you want to be, a place where you can live and play and fall in love on any of ten thousand planets.

And like most of humanity, Wade dreams of being the one to discover the ultimate lottery ticket that lies concealed within this virtual world. For somewhere inside this giant networked playground, OASIS creator James Halliday has hidden a series of fiendish puzzles that will yield massive fortune—and remarkable power—to whoever can unlock them.

For years, millions have struggled fruitlessly to attain this prize, knowing only that Halliday’s riddles are based in the pop culture he loved—that of the late twentieth century. And for years, millions have found in this quest another means of escape, retreating into happy, obsessive study of Halliday’s icons. Like many of his contemporaries, Wade is as comfortable debating the finer points of John Hughes’s oeuvre, playing Pac-Man, or reciting Devo lyrics as he is scrounging power to run his OASIS rig.

And then Wade stumbles upon the first puzzle.

Suddenly the whole world is watching, and thousands of competitors join the hunt—among them certain powerful players who are willing to commit very real murder to beat Wade to this prize. Now the only way for Wade to survive and preserve everything he knows is to win. But to do so, he may have to leave behind his oh-so-perfect virtual existence and face up to life—and love—in the real world he’s always been so desperate to escape.

A world at stake.
A quest for the ultimate prize.
Are you ready?

Pages: 384 pages (Hardcover)
Publisher: Crown; First Edition edition
Released: August 16, 2011

What do you get if you took World of Warcraft, the Sims, and The Surrogates and mixed them in a blender for 80 seconds? If you said that you’d get a world where you could control your own ‘Sim’ in a huge massively multiplayer online world, where you can go on quests, hang out with friends, and even go to school. And in this world, it allows players to be anything that they wanted to be. A hotter body, sure. An awesome warrior with cool weapons and has huge muscles, of course. A player, in both senses, whatever you want you can get. The world offers a better you, a better life, a better world, so much so that some people spend their entire time in the online world that they forget about the real world.

If this was your answer, then you’d be correct. You’d also be correct if you said that you’d get the delightful debut novel, Ready Player One, by Ernest Cline.
When James Halliday, the creator of OASIS, passes away it kicks off contest like no other. Since he was never married and has no offspring or friends, his entire fortune is up for grabs. And what better way to do this then with a game? In his will, he left a puzzle. Solve it and you get to do a quest, once you do that, you get another puzzle. Solve that and you do a question...I think you get the idea.

The only way to get this is if you immerse yourself in all things Halliday. He loved the 80s, so even though the year is 2040, the 80s made a huge comeback. The more you know the better chance you have at winning the inheritance and gaining total control over OASIS.

The main character, Wade, goes on this quest, but finds that the further he gets into this puzzle, the deadly it becomes for him, not only in OASIS, but in the real world to.

~-.-~

Overall:

Ready Player One has a lot of great things going for it. As a gamer, I loved reading about the world that Cline created and seeing how it affected everyday life. Even though I didn’t grow up in the 80s, I did get a lot of the pop culture references and what not. Just a note, there is a lot of 80s references. A lot.

The story, as a whole, is fairly interesting. On one hand, it’s exciting and seeing how Wade figures out the puzzles was fun to read. But on the other hand, the book did tend to tell you things instead of showing them to you. I think with this book it was a bit hard to not have an info dump here and there, because of the nature of the story. I just wish that the info dumps weren’t so much. I wanted to read more about what Wade was doing and even learn more about his dystopian world.

The characters are a bit hit and miss too. I found Wade annoying and stupid, but he was an interesting character. But I think the main problem is that the good guys are clearly labelled; and therefore, they don’t have as much depth to them as I would have liked. The same goes with the bad guys. The Sixers, minus the head honcho, had no personality. The main villain was a touch over the top. You do get some development, but not as much as I'd like.

I think my biggest con of this book is the first few pages. In the prologue, Wade tells us that he was the winner of the competition and is writing this book in order to set the record straight. I felt like this kind of took away from the climax of the story. Instead of wondering whether Wade makes it or not, I already knew that he got it. The sense of surprise was taken out.

This may seem like I hated the novel, but I didn't. I actually liked the story and felt like Cline did a great job for his debut novel. There are problems, but I did like the premise and the gamer in me had fun reading this. I'll be looking forward to Cline's next novel. Definitely check this one out.

3.5 stars

ps. There is a movie coming out about it soon.

Review: The Lake by Banana Yoshimoto

Synopsis:

A major literary sensation is back with a quietly stunning tour de force about the redemptive power of love.

While The Lake shows off many of the features that have made Banana Yoshimoto famous—a cast of vivid and quirky characters, simple yet nuanced prose, a tight plot with an upbeat pace—it’s also one of the most darkly mysterious books she’s ever written.

It tells the tale of a young woman who moves to Tokyo after the death of her mother, hoping to get over her grief and start a career as a graphic artist. She finds herself spending too much time staring out her window, though ... until she realizes she’s gotten used to seeing a young man across the street staring out his window, too.

Pages: 192 pages (Paperback)
Publisher: Melville House
Released: May 3, 2011

Before I start, I just want to say that if you see this book at amazon, goodreads, book depository, the library, the book...basically anywhere that you can find this book. Do not, under any circumstances, read the synopsis past the point that I've posted here. Why? Because the synopsis kind of spoils the book. So if you plan on reading this, don't read the synopsis.

I've only read one book by Banana Yoshimoto, Asleep, which I enjoyed. I love her writing style and how it gives off a very dreamy sort of style. I'm still not sure if it's correctly translated, but I think for the most part, Michael Emmerich did a great job.

The story is about Chihiro and Nakajima and their complicated relationship. Chihiro is still suffering from the death of her mother and it's clear that Nakajima has a painful past that no one could ever imagine. (unless you read the synopsis, so don't!) The more Nakajima learns to trust Chihiro, the more she wants to heal him. It's a complicated relationship, but one that both of them want and need.

~-.-~

Overall:

The Lake is a relatively short book. It's only 192 pages. But after reading Asleep and now The Lake, I've noticed that even though her books are short they feel longer. I remember reading this and feeling like a long time has passed, but I was only on page 70. Now, whether this is a bad thing or a good one is entirely up to the reader.

As far as the story goes, it's okay. There is a sense of loneliness, grief, and pain throughout the pages. This is a pretty dark book, but one that I thought was quite good. Like I mentioned before, I became a fan of Yoshimoto's writing style after reading Asleep and I was glad that the same translator was used for both books. When I read her books I feel a sense of disconnect from her characters, but they still keep me engaged. It's weird, but it's one of the things that I like about her writing.

The Lake does start off slow and I did feel like it dragged on at some points, but I still enjoyed my time reading this.


ps. Did I mention that you shouldn't read the synopsis?

4 stars

This was provided by netgalley

Review: Practical Jean by Trevor Cole

Synopsis:

Jean Vale Horemarsh is content, for the most part, with the small-town life she’s built: a semi-successful career as a ceramics artist, a close collection of women friends (aside from that terrible falling-out with Cheryl years ago), a comfortable marriage with a kind if unextraordinary man. But it is only in watching her mother go through the final devastating stages of cancer that Jean realizes her true calling. No one should have to suffer the indignities of aging and illness like her mother did—and she, Jean Horemarsh, will take it upon herself to give each of her friends one final, perfect moment . . . and then, one by one, kill them.

Of course, female friendships are quite complicated things, and Jean is soon to discover that her plan isn’t as simple as she initially believed it to be.

Pages: 320 pages (Paperback)
Publisher: Harper Perennial
Released: October 18, 2011

When I first heard about this book, I was excited. The blurb sounds like a fun dark comedy, the cover fits the blurb to a tee, and overall I knew that I would have a great time reading this. Then I read it and it only left me with mixed feelings.

Jean Vale Horemarsh had to take care of her dying mother, during the ordeal she realized that the entire process was horrible and didn’t want to see anyone else go through that. When her mother finally kicks the bucket, Jean is left with this feeling and wondering what to do. Her husband is worried that she isn’t showing any grieving signs and her friends keep telling her that they’ll be there for her, but Jean just can’t shake this annoying feeling.

Then it hits her. Dying, the way her mother died, was horrible. Dying, when you’re happy, is best. So she comes up with the plan to kill all of her closest friends, so they don’t have to suffer like her mother did. She meets with them, one by one, and tries her best to give them an evening of happiness before she murders them. It’s the least she could do for someone she cares so deeply about.

~-.-~

Overall

This was kind of hit and miss with me. The concept, the cover, and the synopsis made me feel like this would be a fantastic dark comedy to read, and for the most part it is. The very idea that Jean would feel compelled to kill her friends and make sure they are happy before death is a morbid topic. But every so often Cole will add some comedic moments that do make you laugh.

Sadly, I felt like the book dragged on at some points and I did feel bored. Jean was a character that I didn’t really care for. I don’t need to like the main character in order to like a book, but there has to be something interesting about them. Jean seems like a very nice woman, who decides to do something horrible in order to fit her own selfish needs. This sounds interesting, but I don’t know if it carried well in the book. At least for me, it didn’t.

The Cheryl side story was interesting at the beginning, but Cheryl has to be one of the most pathetic characters I've ever read. Reading her parts, even though it was needed in the story, did pull me out of Jean and her plot to kill her friends. Actually, I don't even think the Cheryl plot was needed, now that I think of it.
This is still a fun little book to read and if you like black comedy then you’ll definitely want to check this out.

3.5 stars

This book was provided by net galley.

Review: Honestly, Red Riding Hood Was Rotten! by Trisha Speed Shaskan

Synopsis:

OF COURSE you think I did a horrible thing by eating Little Red Riding Hood and her granny. You don't know the other side of the story. Well, let me tell you...

Pages: 24 pages (Paperback)
Publisher: Capstone
Released: August 1, 2011

One of my all time favourite kids’ books is The True Story of the Three Little Pigs by Jon Scieszka. I remember reading this as a kid and falling in love. It was also the book that got me into fairy tale retellings, so it has a very special place in my heart. I can praise this book till high noon, because it was funny, it was insightful, and the illustrations were great. But I can’t.

So why did I bring it up? Well, when I heard about Honestly, Red Riding Hood Was Rotten! I was excited. It reminded me of The True Story of the Three Little Pigs with the Big Bad Wolf telling his side of the story about why he ate poor Granny and Little Red Riding Hood. Also, the artwork is cute and reminded me of Capstone’s other novel Secrets, Monsters, and Magic Mirrors.

The story is a simple one. The Big Bad Wolf is a vegetarian and a big lover of apples, whether it’s Golden Delicious, Fuji, Pink Lady, it doesn’t matter because he loves them all! But he’s run out of apples and he’s run out of food, now he’s starving and isn’t sure what to do.

Then one day he smells something wonderful and sees a big apple. The apple in question isn’t a Ginger Gold, Cameo, McIntosh, or even a Zuccalmaglio's Reinette. No, this huge incredibly rare apple is Little Red Riding Hood, who has clearly been snacking on a lot (and I mean a lot) of cakes. When the wolf runs off to Granny’s House expecting to see old women, he’s welcomed by the biggest Granny Smith he’s ever seen.

Gee, the Big Bad Wolf has it rough.

~-.-~

Overall

The story isn’t anything new, but Trisha does help the reader try to see things from a different perspective. And the artwork helps push this point by displaying the wolf’s desperation. The story is also cute and I’m sure any kid would love this.

But due to my love of The True Story of the Three Little Pigs and the epicness of that story, I think I felt a tad disappointed in how the story ended up. That isn’t to say this is a bad book, it isn’t. I was just wanting more. The artwork is great though.

3.5 stars

This book was provided by net galley.

Review: Liar's Kiss by Eric Skillman and Jhomar Soriano

Synopsis:

Nick Archer isn't much of a detective, but he's managed to get himself one pretty sweet surveillance gig: once a week he sends a jealous millionaire the photos that prove his wife is faithful, leaving Nick plenty of free nights to spend making a liar of both himself and the client's wife. But when the client turns up dead, his cheating wife is the prime suspect and it's up to Nick to clear her - except Nick has an agenda of his own, and connections to this case that go deeper than anyone realizes.

Pages: 120 pages (Hardcover)
Publisher: Top Shelf Productions
Release: May 10, 2011

~-.-~

It starts off as a normal night for Nick Archer. He takes pictures of a millionaire's wife to show that she's faithful. Once that's done, he finally gets down to business by hooking up with his client's wife. It seems to be a win-win situation for Nick and his client's wife. He gets money for proving her innocent and she gets to have a little fun without her husband knowing.

After their midnight tryst is over, she goes home only to find her husband's cold dead body waiting for her. Needless to say, she becomes the prime suspect in the murder. She couldn't have done it though, she has a solid alibi. She was with Nick. Except if she says that she won't get the inheritance money and there are also those pictures that Nick took of her being a 'faithful' and 'loyal' wife.

Can Nick save her before the book is over? Dun Dun Dunnnnnnnnnn


Overall

Jhomar Soriano's artwork was my favourite thing about Liar’s Kiss. It's detailed in all the right places and really brings out the whole crime noir feel of this graphic novel. Eric Skillman's writing is crisp as well. Instead of including long pieces of dialogues, he made everything, for the most part, short and sweet with a lot of back and forth between the characters. It reminded me of an 80's crime drama, so I enjoyed that.

One of the things that I didn't like was how some of the characters were clichéd, but I think that's to be expected when you write in this genre. Some of the dialogues did seem a little over the top; and therefore, making the situation not as serious as it should be. The ending did wrap up a bit too quickly for my liking. As a lover of twists, I liked the ending. I just wish there were a few more pages to fully flesh it out and give it that oomph.

Other than that this was a fun quick read. The writing is crisp, the artwork is stunning, and the pacing made this book helped keep you engaged. There are a few problems, but if you're looking for a short graphic novel filled with betrayals, secrets, lies, and murder then you'll want to check this out.

3 stars

This book was provided by net galley