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leothil's review against another edition
4.0
3.5 stars.
I really liked it, but came away with a feeling that a little too much was crammed into one book. The pov changes didn't work very well, I'm also sad to say. It did give us a better look at Thorne, but had the added effect of making Rune more flimsy, as she behaved more weird when seen through Thorne's eyes.
All in all, a quite good YA book, but in the end I expected a bit more of the story than it delivered.
I really liked it, but came away with a feeling that a little too much was crammed into one book. The pov changes didn't work very well, I'm also sad to say. It did give us a better look at Thorne, but had the added effect of making Rune more flimsy, as she behaved more weird when seen through Thorne's eyes.
All in all, a quite good YA book, but in the end I expected a bit more of the story than it delivered.
luna_rondo's review against another edition
2.0
Why do most of my reviews start out as - "I wanted to like this..."
But it's true - I was expecting to like this a lot more than I actually did. I absolutely loved Splintered by A.G.Howard, the next two not so much, but with just a standalone title I was expecting to be swept up in the feeling of it all.
Unfortunately, my problems stem from the writing and style of the book. The writing felt so pretentious, with words - and sometimes entire chunks of paragraphs - that were unnecessary. And the style?
Why, Sweet Maker, why??? Who thought it was a good idea to tell the story from alternating perspectives and then writing those perspectives in different points of views? There was nothing more annoying then shifting from Rune's first POV to Thorne's third POV. Ugggghhhhhhh.
It probably rests at a 2.75 Stars, more than 3 Stars.
But it's true - I was expecting to like this a lot more than I actually did. I absolutely loved Splintered by A.G.Howard, the next two not so much, but with just a standalone title I was expecting to be swept up in the feeling of it all.
Unfortunately, my problems stem from the writing and style of the book. The writing felt so pretentious, with words - and sometimes entire chunks of paragraphs - that were unnecessary. And the style?
Why, Sweet Maker, why??? Who thought it was a good idea to tell the story from alternating perspectives and then writing those perspectives in different points of views? There was nothing more annoying then shifting from Rune's first POV to Thorne's third POV. Ugggghhhhhhh.
It probably rests at a 2.75 Stars, more than 3 Stars.
kel_pru's review against another edition
3.0
I'm not sure what I even feel about this one. It was filled with gorgeous imagery and haunting backstories. But....I don't know. It made me feel weird to read. I liked it, but in a weird way.
averagebookgerblin's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
emotional
funny
hopeful
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
leahka89's review against another edition
5.0
Initial reaction: Fantastic. I'm in love with this book.
Now that I've had a little time to process, here are my thoughts. I don't think there are any spoilers below since it's all general.
Loves:
-THORN. He is the perfect antihero. His past is so tortured and dark that is causes him to live in the shadow of a monster. His love for Rune was so raw and real that it made it easy for me to forgive all of the diabolical things he did.
-Rune and her gift. She has such an amazing talent, but the pain it causes her is just... haunting. The guilt and fear she carries is so real. Feeling her pain truly was like listening to an aria.
-Diable and Ange (mostly Diable, though). I love animals as supporting characters! Though they could not speak, they each played an integral role in the story.
-There is no love triangle! At first I thought there was going to be, but it was quickly dismissed. I really appreciate that the author focused all of her efforts in Rune and Thorn's love instead is adding drama for the sake of adding drama.
-Dare I say?! THE PHANTOM! Ok, so for the majority of the book I did not like this guy. Wait until the last 25% or so. Once I heard all of his story, I couldn't help but feel sorry for him (which is exactly what he doesn't want). He is still really F'd up, but I at least was able to understand the motive behind his madness.
-A.G. Howard's prose. I fell in love with the writing style on this book. It is descriptive (but not excessive) and so romantic. The verbiage she uses is so beautiful. Even if I didn't love the story, I would've still given the book a high rating on the writing alone.
Dislikes:
-Rune's friends at RoseBlood. They, especially Sunny, were a caricature of every cliche boarding school character that you'd expect in a YA book.
-The ending. While I loved everything building up to the ending, I didn't like the way things were resolved between Rune and Thorn. Based off of their interactions with each other through the entire book, it just felt odd.
-The book is definitely slow burning. You have to stick with it in the beginning and middle because it is setting the stage for what is to come. The last portion of the book is completely worth the wait.
This is my first A.G. Howard book and it will certainly not be my last. Overall, this story is fantastic and I would recommend to anyone who enjoys retellings or music. I plan on recommending this book to a few friends who are not readers but have a love of opera.
I also would really love if some of the other characters got their own stories. For example, I would totally read a novella or book about Jipetto. Give me more of this world!
Now that I've had a little time to process, here are my thoughts. I don't think there are any spoilers below since it's all general.
Loves:
-THORN. He is the perfect antihero. His past is so tortured and dark that is causes him to live in the shadow of a monster. His love for Rune was so raw and real that it made it easy for me to forgive all of the diabolical things he did.
-Rune and her gift. She has such an amazing talent, but the pain it causes her is just... haunting. The guilt and fear she carries is so real. Feeling her pain truly was like listening to an aria.
-Diable and Ange (mostly Diable, though). I love animals as supporting characters! Though they could not speak, they each played an integral role in the story.
-There is no love triangle! At first I thought there was going to be, but it was quickly dismissed. I really appreciate that the author focused all of her efforts in Rune and Thorn's love instead is adding drama for the sake of adding drama.
-Dare I say?! THE PHANTOM! Ok, so for the majority of the book I did not like this guy. Wait until the last 25% or so. Once I heard all of his story, I couldn't help but feel sorry for him (which is exactly what he doesn't want). He is still really F'd up, but I at least was able to understand the motive behind his madness.
-A.G. Howard's prose. I fell in love with the writing style on this book. It is descriptive (but not excessive) and so romantic. The verbiage she uses is so beautiful. Even if I didn't love the story, I would've still given the book a high rating on the writing alone.
Dislikes:
-Rune's friends at RoseBlood. They, especially Sunny, were a caricature of every cliche boarding school character that you'd expect in a YA book.
-The ending. While I loved everything building up to the ending, I didn't like the way things were resolved between Rune and Thorn. Based off of their interactions with each other through the entire book, it just felt odd.
-The book is definitely slow burning. You have to stick with it in the beginning and middle because it is setting the stage for what is to come. The last portion of the book is completely worth the wait.
This is my first A.G. Howard book and it will certainly not be my last. Overall, this story is fantastic and I would recommend to anyone who enjoys retellings or music. I plan on recommending this book to a few friends who are not readers but have a love of opera.
I also would really love if some of the other characters got their own stories. For example, I would totally read a novella or book about Jipetto. Give me more of this world!
cassiesbookshelves's review against another edition
1.0
DNF. i rarely put books down without finishing them but i’ve tried to start this book at least three times and every time i hate it so much by page 30 that i can’t continue so i’m officially giving up
jaseychris's review against another edition
1.0
I didn't even finish this book. VAMPIRES? SERIOUSLY? IS NOTHING SACRED? YOU MISSED THE VAMPIRE TREND BY ABOUT 10 YEARS.
celsius273's review against another edition
2.0
I don't even know where to start with this one. It's actually like the most generic paranormal book you've ever read (you name the trope, it's like 99.87392% there) so there's that, but it was also oddly captivating because those tropes work so I'm super conflicted. On reflection, there's really absolutley nothing special about this book (also the retelling aspect is super bad) yet it wasn't all too bad so yeah, two stars I guess.
Let's just work through the tropes. There's a girl with a dead parent, strange inexplicable powers, a boarding school in the middle of nowhere, a snarky best friend, a shy girl friend, a guy friend - emphasis on friend, an immediately bitchy enemy girl, a hot guy who shares girl's powers and won't tell her everything instead dropping clues one word at a time every 2648 years (give or take a couple thousand years), and yes instalove that's convenient explained away in a really dumb way.
There you have it, a quick run down of this book. See, our main character, Rune, is sent to this boarding school for music because she has this urge to perfectly (and I mean perfectly) belt out opera whenever she hears music playing and hopefully she's able to tae her urges at said school. When she gets there, she keeps seeing this mysterious guy lurking around on the grounds and he creepily arranges a trap in an abandoned church to meet her. They immediately fall in love (like his hotness is mentioned every time they meet) and it's revealed to her that she's a paranormal being and that the original Phantom is plotting to do wierd stuff to her to get his original Christine back. The rest of the book is Rune discovering more about her powers and the history of the Phantom and then an ultimate battle that ends in a HEA and tada we've reached the end.
There are quite a few parts of this book that are really ridiculous. For starters, the insta love is explained because Rune and Thorn (it's YA, what kind of names did you expect) are so called "twin flames" aka they were actually the same person in a past life but that soul go split into two bodies (which immediately begs the question why the opportunity for a LGBT relationship wasn't siezed?). Then there's a club that the Phantom runs for reasons explained in the book (ridiculous in and of themselves) and the wierdest thing is that somehow Rune gets her and her 5 friends in somehow getting through all the adults in the school and at the club. Finally there's the way that all this crazy stuff is going on in the school yet no one really says anything about it pretending it all just doesn't exist.
I surprisingly wished there was more coverage of the actual schooling because a lot of interesting stuff happened there (the school part revolves around auditioning for part that somehow takes over a month to get) and it was really relegated to back drop which I get because you need to get the whole paranormal part of the book out there. I also wished that the pacing of the book could be fixed because we get a giant slow info dump for the first 100 pages or so of the ebook and then random fast almost rushed action scenes and then a lot more info dumping by Thorn along the way. The ending alo needs a lot of help because there's a whole noble sacrifice thing going on and then the sacrifice is wasted and I mean that's just plain dumb. If you're going to force a character to "die" for the greater good, please follow through (sorry for spoiling) and actually keep everyone who's supposed to be dead dead
Read this book if you want, just know that you're going to have to roll with a lot of unoriginal and sometimes confusing things to actually get to the end.
Let's just work through the tropes. There's a girl with a dead parent, strange inexplicable powers, a boarding school in the middle of nowhere, a snarky best friend, a shy girl friend, a guy friend - emphasis on friend, an immediately bitchy enemy girl, a hot guy who shares girl's powers and won't tell her everything instead dropping clues one word at a time every 2648 years (give or take a couple thousand years), and yes instalove that's convenient explained away in a really dumb way.
There you have it, a quick run down of this book. See, our main character, Rune, is sent to this boarding school for music because she has this urge to perfectly (and I mean perfectly) belt out opera whenever she hears music playing and hopefully she's able to tae her urges at said school. When she gets there, she keeps seeing this mysterious guy lurking around on the grounds and he creepily arranges a trap in an abandoned church to meet her. They immediately fall in love (like his hotness is mentioned every time they meet) and it's revealed to her that she's a
Spoiler
vampireThere are quite a few parts of this book that are really ridiculous. For starters, the insta love is explained because Rune and Thorn (it's YA, what kind of names did you expect) are so called "twin flames" aka they were actually the same person in a past life but that soul go split into two bodies (which immediately begs the question why the opportunity for a LGBT relationship wasn't siezed?). Then there's a club that the Phantom runs for reasons explained in the book (ridiculous in and of themselves) and the wierdest thing is that somehow Rune gets her and her 5 friends in somehow getting through all the adults in the school and at the club. Finally there's the way that all this crazy stuff is going on in the school yet no one really says anything about it pretending it all just doesn't exist.
I surprisingly wished there was more coverage of the actual schooling because a lot of interesting stuff happened there (the school part revolves around auditioning for part that somehow takes over a month to get) and it was really relegated to back drop which I get because you need to get the whole paranormal part of the book out there. I also wished that the pacing of the book could be fixed because we get a giant slow info dump for the first 100 pages or so of the ebook and then random fast almost rushed action scenes and then a lot more info dumping by Thorn along the way. The ending alo needs a lot of help because there's a whole noble sacrifice thing going on and then the sacrifice is wasted and I mean that's just plain dumb. If you're going to force a character to "die" for the greater good, please follow through (sorry for spoiling) and actually keep everyone who's supposed to be dead dead
Read this book if you want, just know that you're going to have to roll with a lot of unoriginal and sometimes confusing things to actually get to the end.
trisha_thomas's review against another edition
4.0
"Guard your throats and hide your eyes.
He's not dead you fools. Legends never die."
I love that A.G. Howard tackles new and interesting ideas. The phantom of the opera story line does not have a lot of options out there for Young Adult so it's great that a new one popped up. But I have to warn you. True to this author's style. it will take you AT LEAST 5 chapters to really feel pulled into the story. You have to give her books 5 confusing chapters before you stop. Trust me.
This one did not disappoint. Full of lore and paranormal, love and music, it was easy to enjoy the story until the midway point - where I had to keep reading and devoured the book in just a few hours.
Rune is an odd character and one that took me time to really like. Thorn is equally confusing and a bit off putting because he is so secretive. Erik is an enigma most of the story. I liked hearing about the competing students, the friends she makes and her gut-wrenching need to sing. It had so many fascinating elements that kept me reading and wanting to know more. I love this author. I will continue to read all her books!
He's not dead you fools. Legends never die."
I love that A.G. Howard tackles new and interesting ideas. The phantom of the opera story line does not have a lot of options out there for Young Adult so it's great that a new one popped up. But I have to warn you. True to this author's style. it will take you AT LEAST 5 chapters to really feel pulled into the story. You have to give her books 5 confusing chapters before you stop. Trust me.
This one did not disappoint. Full of lore and paranormal, love and music, it was easy to enjoy the story until the midway point - where I had to keep reading and devoured the book in just a few hours.
Rune is an odd character and one that took me time to really like. Thorn is equally confusing and a bit off putting because he is so secretive. Erik is an enigma most of the story. I liked hearing about the competing students, the friends she makes and her gut-wrenching need to sing. It had so many fascinating elements that kept me reading and wanting to know more. I love this author. I will continue to read all her books!