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2.9 AVERAGE
2.9 AVERAGE
DNF at p. 229. I can't believe I made it this far. WHAT IS HAPPENING IN THIS BOOK? 229 pages in and I have only a vague idea of the plot, who the main characters are and what their purpose is. Several times I vocalized my confusion at the poor book. seriously, can anyone explain this book to me? Moving on to my next book.
adventurous
tense
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
**I received my copy from the publisher in exchange for an honest review.**
Abandoned.
Once in a while, there comes a book that you just can't finish. It might be that the plot is terrible or there's too much exposition. No matter how hard you try, you can't get past the shortcomings long enough to actually read the words on the pages. Seeker is one of those books for me. I gave up on it at 65% after trying to read it for like six months, maybe even longer than that. SIX MONTHS! That is a long time to try to read the same book.
At first the story was interesting, but then as things went on and got more complicated, I realized nothing was being explained and I was pretty lost. Quin and her friends Shinobu (guess what race he is, go on) and John are Seekers-in-training, which seem like arbitrators of justice or something. They all live and train on a grand estate in Scotland/not-Scotland owned by Quin's dad, who is also their teacher. They go to take their final test and swear their oath, but John (who has a classic I'll-never-be-good-enough chip on his shoulder) fails and decides to get revenge by setting fire to the whole place (or something). Quin and Shinobu also realize that Seekers are just assassins. In the ensuing chaos, Quin and Shinobu jump in a portal to...Hong Kong/not-Hong Kong/someplace...where they live separate lives for 18 months or something until John finds them again.
That's the whole story for 65% of the book! So much of it is intertwined with random backstory that not only has unclear relevance, but is spouted off and then skipped over like it was so obvious what it meant. "Blah blah, he held my mom captive and she's this ghost of a corpse now, okay back to my revenge"...what?!?! Then there was the whole portal time jump or whatever (see, I don't even know what it was) and I'm not sure where in time the rest of the story took place. It says 18 months later, but 18 months from when? From when they landed in Hong Kong/not-Hong Kong but where in time was Scotland/not-Scotland taking place? Several hundred years earlier? In the earlier part in Scotland/not-Scotland, I got the impression they dressed and lived like they were in 1600s or something but they had some pretty advanced technology in Hong Kong/not-Hong Kong. Did they time jump? Did they portal jump? Did they do both? I have no idea.
To top it all off, there is a lot of random stuff with Quin's mommy and daddy issues and her random love triangle (or maybe not? It was hard to tell!) that was confusing. I have no idea what or how or why anything was happening, because nothing was really explained. Are Quin and John in love or is he just lusting after her? Does Quin feel something for Shinobu or is John just paranoid jealous? Are Quin's parents in love or does her dad just let her mom live there? Is Quin's mom a drunk or is she actually someone we should care about? What do all the words the characters keep using mean??
From what I THINK might have been going on, this could've been really good, but it was really poorly executed. Like SO poorly executed that I don't know how anyone could read this and understand anything. How do you categorize this book? How do you read it and come away with a good handle on the plot? It's like the author had a ton of ideas but didn't know how or didn't want to try to integrate them all, so they just DUMPED it all in one book and closed their laptop for the day. Needless to say, it didn't work.
Abandoned.
Once in a while, there comes a book that you just can't finish. It might be that the plot is terrible or there's too much exposition. No matter how hard you try, you can't get past the shortcomings long enough to actually read the words on the pages. Seeker is one of those books for me. I gave up on it at 65% after trying to read it for like six months, maybe even longer than that. SIX MONTHS! That is a long time to try to read the same book.
At first the story was interesting, but then as things went on and got more complicated, I realized nothing was being explained and I was pretty lost. Quin and her friends Shinobu (guess what race he is, go on) and John are Seekers-in-training, which seem like arbitrators of justice or something. They all live and train on a grand estate in Scotland/not-Scotland owned by Quin's dad, who is also their teacher. They go to take their final test and swear their oath, but John (who has a classic I'll-never-be-good-enough chip on his shoulder) fails and decides to get revenge by setting fire to the whole place (or something). Quin and Shinobu also realize that Seekers are just assassins. In the ensuing chaos, Quin and Shinobu jump in a portal to...Hong Kong/not-Hong Kong/someplace...where they live separate lives for 18 months or something until John finds them again.
That's the whole story for 65% of the book! So much of it is intertwined with random backstory that not only has unclear relevance, but is spouted off and then skipped over like it was so obvious what it meant. "Blah blah, he held my mom captive and she's this ghost of a corpse now, okay back to my revenge"...what?!?! Then there was the whole portal time jump or whatever (see, I don't even know what it was) and I'm not sure where in time the rest of the story took place. It says 18 months later, but 18 months from when? From when they landed in Hong Kong/not-Hong Kong but where in time was Scotland/not-Scotland taking place? Several hundred years earlier? In the earlier part in Scotland/not-Scotland, I got the impression they dressed and lived like they were in 1600s or something but they had some pretty advanced technology in Hong Kong/not-Hong Kong. Did they time jump? Did they portal jump? Did they do both? I have no idea.
To top it all off, there is a lot of random stuff with Quin's mommy and daddy issues and her random love triangle (or maybe not? It was hard to tell!) that was confusing. I have no idea what or how or why anything was happening, because nothing was really explained. Are Quin and John in love or is he just lusting after her? Does Quin feel something for Shinobu or is John just paranoid jealous? Are Quin's parents in love or does her dad just let her mom live there? Is Quin's mom a drunk or is she actually someone we should care about? What do all the words the characters keep using mean??
From what I THINK might have been going on, this could've been really good, but it was really poorly executed. Like SO poorly executed that I don't know how anyone could read this and understand anything. How do you categorize this book? How do you read it and come away with a good handle on the plot? It's like the author had a ton of ideas but didn't know how or didn't want to try to integrate them all, so they just DUMPED it all in one book and closed their laptop for the day. Needless to say, it didn't work.
Wow. I'm not sure what exactly I expected, but this book disappointed me... The characters felt really half-hearted and all over the darned place, the plot was super jumpy and scatter-brained, and the rest of the descriptions were really abnormal.
The characters Shinobu, Maud, Quin, and John were all really confusing... Shinbu was probably my favorite because he went through a lot of change, growth, and yet he still stayed the same. Quin was so annoying. She got weak and then strong, scared and then fearless- honestly, Quin was just too unreliable for me. John, I obviously disliked. He was so weak, and grated on my nerves. Maud was just so much stress and whininess heaped on me. I kinda skimmed through those chapters.
The plot was really confusing because it jumped around without warning. Sometimes I was totally lost, and other times I was reading as quickly as I could to absorb everything. The whole plot was just kind of flip floppy.
Honestly, some of this book was great, and others just dragged for me. Book 2? Maybe.....
http://www.infinitybookreview.blogspot.com/2015/09/seeker-by-arwen-elys-dayton.html
The characters Shinobu, Maud, Quin, and John were all really confusing... Shinbu was probably my favorite because he went through a lot of change, growth, and yet he still stayed the same. Quin was so annoying. She got weak and then strong, scared and then fearless- honestly, Quin was just too unreliable for me. John, I obviously disliked. He was so weak, and grated on my nerves. Maud was just so much stress and whininess heaped on me. I kinda skimmed through those chapters.
The plot was really confusing because it jumped around without warning. Sometimes I was totally lost, and other times I was reading as quickly as I could to absorb everything. The whole plot was just kind of flip floppy.
Honestly, some of this book was great, and others just dragged for me. Book 2? Maybe.....
http://www.infinitybookreview.blogspot.com/2015/09/seeker-by-arwen-elys-dayton.html
Liked the last 3rd of the book better than the rest of it - not sure I would read the sequel even though the ending was better. Partly because of characters since I didn't really connect or like any of them except Maud.
Seeker is an interesting book with vibrant characters. I am very much looking forward to reading the next in the series.
This story combines both the old and the new. It provides us with characters who were indoctrinated into one way of thinking but manage to break free of the programming in order to choose their own paths. Filled with many difficult choices for characters you will either like or hate, this tale shows us that we do not have to be a product of our environment.
This story combines both the old and the new. It provides us with characters who were indoctrinated into one way of thinking but manage to break free of the programming in order to choose their own paths. Filled with many difficult choices for characters you will either like or hate, this tale shows us that we do not have to be a product of our environment.
i was unsure of this at the start but it wasnt that bad by the end. in the beginning i felt a bit lost, but i think that was the point. this book didnt reveal much, and gave you more the further you read. it was quite interesting, and its a unique world, but im not fully sold by it and im not feeling a craving for more so even tho i enjoyed this one, i dont think im gonna pick up the other books in this series.
I don't normally go for this type of book but I thoroughly enjoyed it. It was easy reading and not that deep. I became invested in the characters and looking forward to reading more about them!!
Note: I received a free copy of Seeker from the publisher in return for an honest review.
Hailed as the next Hunger Games and Divergent series, I had to check this book out. While reading it, I could see where the comparisons came from, the world after a great war(s), a strong female character who likes to fight, and a love triangle. However, I felt as if in trying to be the next series, the book got a little muddled along the way. To try and create intrigue, the story picked up in what was more or less the middle of another story line. Okay, I can go with that and I figured out what was going on after being very confused for a significant amount of the first section. And then the jumping started. We moved back and forth multiple years and then ahead again until we met up with the characters again in their "present day." Once we were back to the present day was when I actually started to get into the story, but also became annoyed. I found myself in the middle of this book with only one character who's story I actually cared about (the young dread) and many characters who I truthfully couldn't care next if they made it out alive or not.
Furthermore, this book seemed to jump between fantasy, science fiction, and an odd attempt at real life more than I was okay with. If anything, it just seemed to further emphasize the fact that you should not give hormonal teenagers weapons of any kind. They don't know what side they're on, what's going on, or what to do with their power.
Will I read the next book in the series? Truthfully, I'm not sure. As I mentioned, by the end of the book, I wanted to know more about the Young Dread and what happens with her, so I may continue to read it just for her story line.
Hailed as the next Hunger Games and Divergent series, I had to check this book out. While reading it, I could see where the comparisons came from, the world after a great war(s), a strong female character who likes to fight, and a love triangle. However, I felt as if in trying to be the next series, the book got a little muddled along the way. To try and create intrigue, the story picked up in what was more or less the middle of another story line. Okay, I can go with that and I figured out what was going on after being very confused for a significant amount of the first section. And then the jumping started. We moved back and forth multiple years and then ahead again until we met up with the characters again in their "present day." Once we were back to the present day was when I actually started to get into the story, but also became annoyed. I found myself in the middle of this book with only one character who's story I actually cared about (the young dread) and many characters who I truthfully couldn't care next if they made it out alive or not.
Furthermore, this book seemed to jump between fantasy, science fiction, and an odd attempt at real life more than I was okay with. If anything, it just seemed to further emphasize the fact that you should not give hormonal teenagers weapons of any kind. They don't know what side they're on, what's going on, or what to do with their power.
Will I read the next book in the series? Truthfully, I'm not sure. As I mentioned, by the end of the book, I wanted to know more about the Young Dread and what happens with her, so I may continue to read it just for her story line.