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3.97 AVERAGE
3.97 AVERAGE
This book was three in one and let me tell you by the third book i was a little over the plot of the book but i pushed on to finish. THe book started out promising, i really enjoyed the first portion. Kaitlyn was the right amount of independent, but still caring. as well as the other character were good compliments. I think the part that most turned me off was that it was same bad villain and force that the group of teens were attempting to fight the entire time. and by the end i was just sick of it. Unfortunately i wanted to see what happened in the end so i forced myself to continue reading which made the book take me longer than usual because i just lost interest. THe one good thing is that i really enjoyed the writing style of Smith for most of the book. I am going to read Vampire Diaries next to explore Smith's writing more
Ah insta love, the bane of my existence.
2.5 stars, which is being generous considering I was 100% prepared to write this off as a DNF and give it a rating of -1 stars if that was even possible while reading the first book.
Okay, so separately:
-Book 1 sucked, big time, there's no sugar coating that. I had to force myself through it.
-Book 2 definitely was a step up, but only because of one character's new secret and an interesting twist I hadn't seen before. Faster paced, faster read. Maybe too fast. The pacing was very off.
-Book 3 was okay, tied everything up neatly, had some scenes that were painful to read.
For the series as a whole, my overall consensus: Meh. Decent premise ruined by poor simplistic writing and insta love/poorly executed love triangle.
And now for the ranting and all the little details!
This story premise had potential. A bunch of psychic teenagers being brought to an institute to hone their powers, but things are not as they seem. A bit cliche, but hell yeah, could be really interesting if done right. But it wasn't. The characters, the writing and the poorly executed romance are incredibly weak. A more accurate description of this book would be "look at everybody's freaking eye colours" because I swear they mention them at least five hundred times throughout the whole thing... Each. And that's pretty much 90% of what we learn about the characters. They have no depth except maybe, MAYBE Gabriel. Him and his secrets are the main thing that kept me reading through this monstrosity of a book. Even then, he can come across as just your basic YA bad boy. And other than him, the characters are the most clueless group of people I have ever had the displeasure of reading about. Not just clueless in a way that plot requires them to be, but at most times, just plain idiotic.
"God," Kaitlyn whispered, "how could I have been so dumb?"
I was asking her that same thing through the entire first book. How? How is it possible for one character to do so many stupid things in such a short period of time? Also talk about Mary Sue.
This reads like a first draft, juvenile, basic and flat. Phrases and words are repetitive. I swear if I have to hear just how golden Rob's eye's or skin or aura or hair is one more time, I'll punch someone. I was beginning to think he looked like Zeus from Disney's Hercules.
Dialogue rarely showed character and was used as a plot device to badly explain things. Pacing is off so it goes slow, slow, slow, then all of a sudden bing bang boom! Deus ex machina. And jeez, one characters use of 'jeez' got on my nerves.
And then, then oh boy. Then there's the insta love, love triangle actually. Our MC Kaitlyn, after one bad date, has sworn off boys for good! For good! Boys suck! Boys hate her! Dating? Nope! Fat chance! Then she gets to the institute and guess what happens? She instantly falls in love with the first two guys she lays eyes on and repeats their eye colours in EVERY. SINGLE. SENTENCE. She declares her love for a guy in literally a matter of hours or pages, a guy she has barely spoken to and who sounds like he doesn't even know what romance is! Then, instead of focusing on psychic things and investigating evil attackers, she's flustered trying to get him to notice her! Meanwhile, she's having fuzzy feelings for the murderous delinquent who hates her! Ah, yes, true love!
It would have been better if the romance was actually fleshed out and built up gradually and believably over time. The only time Kaitlyn was a remotely good heroine was when she was away from Rob. Plus, I swear Gabriel and Rob had more chemistry and meaningful scenes together than Kaitlyn and either.
So, why the 2.5 stars you ask? Well for one, everyone else was right, the psychic link was interesting, I wanted to see what came of it. 1 star for that. Gabriel's powers and the concept of a psychic vampire were unique and I was falling for this jerk. 1 star for him. The concept behind some things in this book I've never seen before. 0.5 stars for creativity in that suit. But there are way too many flaws and horribly annoying things about this book and it's poor writing that prevent me from rating it higher. I do not reccommend it to anyone. Go read the Darkest Powers instead, it's YA paranormal done right with a similar plot, but with characters and plot twists that are well thought out and a romance that grows believably over time.
Things I want to yell about or comment on that will spoil important plot points below the cut:
-Rob too, idiotic. When you're on the run, rules don't matter1 You need to hot-wire a car so you don't die at the hands of a maniac??? Hot-wire a freaking car!
-Has everyone in this book been living under a bridge? Psychoactive? You're psychics, what do you think it means? Rocks in weird formations like people or animals?? You idiots! They're Inukshuks, it's Inuit! Lewis keeps trying to kick over important clues! The characters frustrate me to no end.
-"She had never been to a foreign country." I- I mean I don't think I'd really consider Canada foreign, you're just like eight feet away from the states.
-I find it very hard to believe that absolutely no one in any place in Vancouver knew where to find a single Inukshuk....
-The crystal people were so useless man. Unique concept sure, totally implied to be from Atlantis, but uh, really no violence? No fighting? No wonder you're a dying race. And after searching for the place for so long, the characters were only there for like less than a day, I didn't care about thesecrystal gems people of the crystal at all, certainly not enough to mourn their deaths.
-And talk about heel face turn. Gabriel's motivation for turning evil is probably one of the dumbest things I've heard.
-And really? You were keeping your super powerful sought after crystal in a drawer right there? Right in the open in a location you know the opposition knows about/ Can you get any dumber??
-"Anna, do you think about boys?"
"Well, we've been pretty busy lately with other things."
Finally a sane thing for a YA character to say, but of course it was just set up for her being with Rob.
-But wow, just the sheer I don't even know what feeling washed over me when they said they killed LeShan. I was actually, wow, feeling sad? Surprised? Amazed? Repulsed? Dismayed?
-Terminated. Lost their minds. By the way they were talking about the kids in the pilot study I was thinking they'd be full on stark raving mad or practically catatonic... not like mildly obnoxious teenagers.
But then, then she introduced the 'people' in the crystal room. Absolutely disgusting. It was painful to read and I never want to have to read it again.
2.5 stars, which is being generous considering I was 100% prepared to write this off as a DNF and give it a rating of -1 stars if that was even possible while reading the first book.
Okay, so separately:
-Book 1 sucked, big time, there's no sugar coating that. I had to force myself through it.
-Book 2 definitely was a step up, but only because of one character's new secret and an interesting twist I hadn't seen before. Faster paced, faster read. Maybe too fast. The pacing was very off.
-Book 3 was okay, tied everything up neatly, had some scenes that were painful to read.
For the series as a whole, my overall consensus: Meh. Decent premise ruined by poor simplistic writing and insta love/poorly executed love triangle.
And now for the ranting and all the little details!
This story premise had potential. A bunch of psychic teenagers being brought to an institute to hone their powers, but things are not as they seem. A bit cliche, but hell yeah, could be really interesting if done right. But it wasn't. The characters, the writing and the poorly executed romance are incredibly weak. A more accurate description of this book would be "look at everybody's freaking eye colours" because I swear they mention them at least five hundred times throughout the whole thing... Each. And that's pretty much 90% of what we learn about the characters. They have no depth except maybe, MAYBE Gabriel. Him and his secrets are the main thing that kept me reading through this monstrosity of a book. Even then, he can come across as just your basic YA bad boy. And other than him, the characters are the most clueless group of people I have ever had the displeasure of reading about. Not just clueless in a way that plot requires them to be, but at most times, just plain idiotic.
"God," Kaitlyn whispered, "how could I have been so dumb?"
I was asking her that same thing through the entire first book. How? How is it possible for one character to do so many stupid things in such a short period of time? Also talk about Mary Sue.
This reads like a first draft, juvenile, basic and flat. Phrases and words are repetitive. I swear if I have to hear just how golden Rob's eye's or skin or aura or hair is one more time, I'll punch someone. I was beginning to think he looked like Zeus from Disney's Hercules.
Dialogue rarely showed character and was used as a plot device to badly explain things. Pacing is off so it goes slow, slow, slow, then all of a sudden bing bang boom! Deus ex machina. And jeez, one characters use of 'jeez' got on my nerves.
And then, then oh boy. Then there's the insta love, love triangle actually. Our MC Kaitlyn, after one bad date, has sworn off boys for good! For good! Boys suck! Boys hate her! Dating? Nope! Fat chance! Then she gets to the institute and guess what happens? She instantly falls in love with the first two guys she lays eyes on and repeats their eye colours in EVERY. SINGLE. SENTENCE. She declares her love for a guy in literally a matter of hours or pages, a guy she has barely spoken to and who sounds like he doesn't even know what romance is! Then, instead of focusing on psychic things and investigating evil attackers, she's flustered trying to get him to notice her! Meanwhile, she's having fuzzy feelings for the murderous delinquent who hates her! Ah, yes, true love!
It would have been better if the romance was actually fleshed out and built up gradually and believably over time. The only time Kaitlyn was a remotely good heroine was when she was away from Rob. Plus, I swear Gabriel and Rob had more chemistry and meaningful scenes together than Kaitlyn and either.
So, why the 2.5 stars you ask? Well for one, everyone else was right, the psychic link was interesting, I wanted to see what came of it. 1 star for that. Gabriel's powers and the concept of a psychic vampire were unique and I was falling for this jerk. 1 star for him. The concept behind some things in this book I've never seen before. 0.5 stars for creativity in that suit. But there are way too many flaws and horribly annoying things about this book and it's poor writing that prevent me from rating it higher. I do not reccommend it to anyone. Go read the Darkest Powers instead, it's YA paranormal done right with a similar plot, but with characters and plot twists that are well thought out and a romance that grows believably over time.
Things I want to yell about or comment on that will spoil important plot points below the cut:
Spoiler
-In book two when they're about to go on the run and Gabriel is stealing money from the purse of the woman who betrayed them, our idiot heroine Kaitlyn has the absolute gall to say, "It's wrong." Really? Really, Kaitlyn? You know what else is wrong?? Killing children, experimenting on them or selling them as weapons to the highest bidder!-Rob too, idiotic. When you're on the run, rules don't matter1 You need to hot-wire a car so you don't die at the hands of a maniac??? Hot-wire a freaking car!
-Has everyone in this book been living under a bridge? Psychoactive? You're psychics, what do you think it means? Rocks in weird formations like people or animals?? You idiots! They're Inukshuks, it's Inuit! Lewis keeps trying to kick over important clues! The characters frustrate me to no end.
-"She had never been to a foreign country." I- I mean I don't think I'd really consider Canada foreign, you're just like eight feet away from the states.
-I find it very hard to believe that absolutely no one in any place in Vancouver knew where to find a single Inukshuk....
-The crystal people were so useless man. Unique concept sure, totally implied to be from Atlantis, but uh, really no violence? No fighting? No wonder you're a dying race. And after searching for the place for so long, the characters were only there for like less than a day, I didn't care about these
-And talk about heel face turn. Gabriel's motivation for turning evil is probably one of the dumbest things I've heard.
-And really? You were keeping your super powerful sought after crystal in a drawer right there? Right in the open in a location you know the opposition knows about/ Can you get any dumber??
-"Anna, do you think about boys?"
"Well, we've been pretty busy lately with other things."
Finally a sane thing for a YA character to say, but of course it was just set up for her being with Rob.
-But wow, just the sheer I don't even know what feeling washed over me when they said they killed LeShan. I was actually, wow, feeling sad? Surprised? Amazed? Repulsed? Dismayed?
-Terminated. Lost their minds. By the way they were talking about the kids in the pilot study I was thinking they'd be full on stark raving mad or practically catatonic... not like mildly obnoxious teenagers.
But then, then she introduced the 'people' in the crystal room. Absolutely disgusting. It was painful to read and I never want to have to read it again.
I read all these books when they first came out and I was just a teeny bopper way back in the 90s. I still love rereading them and I lend then to every teenager I know how likes to read
I've read a lot of good things about this author, and maybe because of the popularity of some of the other titles I went in really wanting to like this story, but ultimately, it turned out to be just too far out there for me. I found myself raising my eyebrow continually at the plot and the characters. There was a lot of potential, but it all ended up feeling silly to me. I think I will have to try some of the Smith's other books because I missed the boat entirely on this one.
It...wasn't...good. I made it about halfway through book 3 before giving up. I thought the first one was entertaining enough to continue, but by the beginning of the third one it started to feel like a chore. I really like the concept, but I think it was poorly executed. There were also too many characters. It's not that I couldn't keep track of them, it's that literally none of them feel real. Also, this is possibly the MOST INSTA-LOVE-Y book I've ever read. It was a chore to read, and probably wasn't worth it considering that since it's a bind-up, it'll only count as one book towards my reading goal.
Basically, I recommend if you're really interested in the premise of the story, read the first one. If you love it, go ahead and continue; if it's meh for you, just quit while you're ahead.
Basically, I recommend if you're really interested in the premise of the story, read the first one. If you love it, go ahead and continue; if it's meh for you, just quit while you're ahead.
I though that the book was good, my favorite part was the first one, then it goes in order after that. The first part really had me thinking that Mr. Zetes and Joyce were good and i sort of felt bad for Gabriel because of his last girlfriend. the Rob thing where he didn't know she was a girl put edge on things but it was a little weird. the second part didn't grab me a lot when they were on road because it felt like a boring trip. at night with Gabriel, it got interesting because of the advancement of his powers. i didn't like Gabriel leaving because i wanted him and Kaitlyn to end up together because her and Rob thought they were in love as soon as they kissed. the third part was odd. the beginning with Gabriel was good and Anna giving the hint that she liked Rob for the first time (what?). when Gabriel found out why she was really there was when it went weird because she acted weird and she kind of went insane. Rob and Anna were really weird because Anna was all like, now that Kait is gone, i'm gonna hit on her bf while she's being annoying even though i didn't even show it until that night we went grocery shopping and now. it ended nice where everyone had someone and the cute fairytale ending thing. one of my favorite parts was when Gabriel tells Kait about his life and reminds her of the sun while she is in that back room.:) but if you want to read it, the third part is a skimmer.
This is possibly the best book I have ever read! I dont even know how much more than that I can write than that. A MUST READ!
Enjoyed this when I was younger - didn’t realise there were more books. Probably won’t ever read this series in the future as I read this when I was in year 8 (13?)
2 1/2 stars. This 1/2 stars thing is becoming a trend in my reviews.
I don't want to give it 2 stars because the book kept me entertained. I don't want to give it 3 stars because it had too many flaws.
First of all: the main character, Kaitlyn: she raises the bar for all Mary Sues out there. She is the epitome of Mary Suedom. She's different from everybody else. A witch. An outcast who was so 'ugly' kids dared each other to run up to her and touch her (yes I'm being serious). No friends. People where scared of her because of the ~special color of her eyes. A loner who likes to draw and sees the world with an artist's eye. This girl will eventually blossom *insert hand gestures* and even turns into some kind of leader figure/heroine/here she comes to save the day-kind of girl. *facepalm*
Kaitlyn can see the future and because of her special ability, she is asked to participate in some sort of project for special kids. She and 4 other kids agree and they are sent to some sort of house where they all live together, so they can perform tests on them to see just how psychic they are. Each of them has a different power.
Naturally, Kaitlyn falls in love with the first boy she sees (Rob) and in return, everybody is smitten with her because she (what a surprise!) is gorgeous! Even the dangerous killer Gabriel, who killed 2 people so far (not bad for a 17-year old) BUT *insert music* the fact that he didn't mean to kill them... makes it alright! He couldn't control his powers! The audience sighs with relief. Yeah he's just a badboy, rawr.
Rob of course doesn't know what hit him because his mind doesn't work that way. Apparently. He doesn't think of girls in a romantic way. Boys at that age... Like Xander once said: looking at linoleum makes guys want to have sex. But thanks to Kait's dazzling looks and charming personality, Rob will quickly change his mind. The most logical next step is a jealous Gabriel etc etc blah blah. Two completely different guys fighting for the same girl. How original.
The funder of this little project turns out to be an evil mastermind who wants to use those kids for all kind of dark and illegal things (minds out of the gutter, now) but this all becomes clear pretty early on in the story. Kaitlyn, Rob, Gabriel, Anna and Lewis run away to find help, they get caught (more or less), meanwhile Gabriel goes back willingly and suddenly decides he is evil (Kait led him on, the little skank). Then Kait decides to go back and save him (she thinks she's the only one he'll listen to), but then it's her turn to be rejected. Some stuff happens then (boring things, mostly) and eventually Kait and Gabriel hook up. The end.
What I liked a lot was the psychic link between the 5 main characters. They hear each other's thoughts (thanks to Gabriel). You'd think the writer would have used this amazing little gem to build up the relationships, right? Well, she didn't. How she missed that home run is beyond me.
Side note: I know this makes me sound like a pervert but I think the idea of communicating with somebody on such a personal level is very appealing. I'd kill to have something like that with somebody (preferably the love of my life lol)
Let's see... There was a lot of lip curling going on (have you ever seen anybody do that in real life while being serious?), a lot of action, and I have to admit I stayed entertained. Conclusion: good storyline, not enough creativity, could have been something A LOT better. L.J. Smith, it was nice meeting you but I won't be reading any more of your books. I'm sorry, god knows I tried.
I don't want to give it 2 stars because the book kept me entertained. I don't want to give it 3 stars because it had too many flaws.
First of all: the main character, Kaitlyn: she raises the bar for all Mary Sues out there. She is the epitome of Mary Suedom. She's different from everybody else. A witch. An outcast who was so 'ugly' kids dared each other to run up to her and touch her (yes I'm being serious). No friends. People where scared of her because of the ~special color of her eyes. A loner who likes to draw and sees the world with an artist's eye. This girl will eventually blossom *insert hand gestures* and even turns into some kind of leader figure/heroine/here she comes to save the day-kind of girl. *facepalm*
Kaitlyn can see the future and because of her special ability, she is asked to participate in some sort of project for special kids. She and 4 other kids agree and they are sent to some sort of house where they all live together, so they can perform tests on them to see just how psychic they are. Each of them has a different power.
Naturally, Kaitlyn falls in love with the first boy she sees (Rob) and in return, everybody is smitten with her because she (what a surprise!) is gorgeous! Even the dangerous killer Gabriel, who killed 2 people so far (not bad for a 17-year old) BUT *insert music* the fact that he didn't mean to kill them... makes it alright! He couldn't control his powers! The audience sighs with relief. Yeah he's just a badboy, rawr.
Rob of course doesn't know what hit him because his mind doesn't work that way. Apparently. He doesn't think of girls in a romantic way. Boys at that age... Like Xander once said: looking at linoleum makes guys want to have sex. But thanks to Kait's dazzling looks and charming personality, Rob will quickly change his mind. The most logical next step is a jealous Gabriel etc etc blah blah. Two completely different guys fighting for the same girl. How original.
The funder of this little project turns out to be an evil mastermind who wants to use those kids for all kind of dark and illegal things (minds out of the gutter, now) but this all becomes clear pretty early on in the story. Kaitlyn, Rob, Gabriel, Anna and Lewis run away to find help, they get caught (more or less), meanwhile Gabriel goes back willingly and suddenly decides he is evil (Kait led him on, the little skank). Then Kait decides to go back and save him (she thinks she's the only one he'll listen to), but then it's her turn to be rejected. Some stuff happens then (boring things, mostly) and eventually Kait and Gabriel hook up. The end.
What I liked a lot was the psychic link between the 5 main characters. They hear each other's thoughts (thanks to Gabriel). You'd think the writer would have used this amazing little gem to build up the relationships, right? Well, she didn't. How she missed that home run is beyond me.
Side note: I know this makes me sound like a pervert but I think the idea of communicating with somebody on such a personal level is very appealing. I'd kill to have something like that with somebody (preferably the love of my life lol)
Let's see... There was a lot of lip curling going on (have you ever seen anybody do that in real life while being serious?), a lot of action, and I have to admit I stayed entertained. Conclusion: good storyline, not enough creativity, could have been something A LOT better. L.J. Smith, it was nice meeting you but I won't be reading any more of your books. I'm sorry, god knows I tried.
I love this book. I couldn't put it down the whole time and is by far my favourite book ever. I re-read it more times then I can remember.