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3.24 AVERAGE
3.24 AVERAGE
medium-paced
That was interesting I think it was definitely unique. The beginning was all over the place though. Patrick Carmen always catches me by surprise with his twists so that was great! Hawk is my fav. And Dylan is a giant creep masquerading as a cute skater. I hope Faith's character develops more in the next book. I feel like her personality was emotional and angry so yeah it could improve.
I just don't know how to feel about this book. On one hand, I do love the concept, on the other, we run into the same problem I've been having with a lot of books lately. I understand that the blurb on the back of the book or on the inside cover is supposed to draw in a new reader, but lately I've noticed that most of what is being advertised doesn't happen until at least halfway through. So we're sitting here waiting for all the cool action to happen as promised, but we don't get it until late. We know that Faith has a special ability. We witness it a few times. But she is completely unaware of it and wondering what's going on. That's so frustrating when it's such a central part of the story and the main character is clueless.
Another thing that bugged me was the foreshadowing. I don't even like calling it that. We kept getting lines like "had so and so done this they would have noticed this." That's not so much foreshadowing as it is screaming HEY LOOK AT THIS IMPORTANT DETAIL I AM SHOUTING ABOUT MAKE SURE YOU WRITE THIS DOWN which isn't fun in books.
I do like the idea of how dependent we will become on technology and how we really won't need to leave our houses for anything ever again. I also enjoy that our first love interest is a jock, but not in the usual sports. Instead he's into pole vaulting. Now, admittedly it's kind of hard to form a football team when there are so few people left in this society, but it was still a nice change.
Now, my main problem with Mr. Jockface Wade? He drugs Faith on their first date. Drugs her twice. He doesn't take advantage of her or anything, but he does try to continue to be friends with her when she's clearly not okay with him at all. Finally, a female character who doesn't take shit like that. She's even led to a similar situation with Dylan and she questions her actions because of what happened with Wade. So many books there are female characters who get into these situations and just don't think twice about it. They keep seeing the guy over and over and fall for him. Nope. None of that here. Faith realizes what a dick Wade is and basically tells him to fuck off. She's also not comfortable with the fact that Dylan has been watching her sleep for the past few months. He never actually goes into her room and he's doing so to make her safe and make sure she's ready to face the world, but yes that is still kind of creepy, Dylan. And she says so. She voices her concerns and he agrees that it's weird but explains that it was for the best. Not the best defence, but not as creepy as some other books.
I love Faith's relationship with Liz. Absolutely adore it. So much so I wish we had more of it. Liz was such a minor character and then she became so important
Enough is explained to understand what's going on, but it's still kind of confusing. Especially when we get to talking about sides of the war. The blurb made it sound like there was the states and then the rebellion, but it seems like there are really three sides. The states, the side Dylan is on, and the side that Wade and Clara are on. You don't know who the good guys are. I suppose it's the side Dylan is on simply because Clara tries to assassinate the President. That's just a guess, though.
I would have liked more action. The only real action scenes we have are when Wade drugs Faith and then at the big fight scene in the last few chapters. We don't even get much in the first one because Faith is drugged and doesn't realize what's going on. That last action scene was entertaining and I think I would have enjoyed the book more had there been more scenes like that.
I think I would like to read the next book in the series just because I like the concept and I'm curious where the story will go. This wasn't the greatest book in the world, it had plenty of issues to be dealt with, but it was entertaining enough. It was also a pretty quick read so I wasn't wasting my time with it.
Another thing that bugged me was the foreshadowing. I don't even like calling it that. We kept getting lines like "had so and so done this they would have noticed this." That's not so much foreshadowing as it is screaming HEY LOOK AT THIS IMPORTANT DETAIL I AM SHOUTING ABOUT MAKE SURE YOU WRITE THIS DOWN which isn't fun in books.
I do like the idea of how dependent we will become on technology and how we really won't need to leave our houses for anything ever again. I also enjoy that our first love interest is a jock, but not in the usual sports. Instead he's into pole vaulting. Now, admittedly it's kind of hard to form a football team when there are so few people left in this society, but it was still a nice change.
Now, my main problem with Mr. Jockface Wade? He drugs Faith on their first date. Drugs her twice. He doesn't take advantage of her or anything, but he does try to continue to be friends with her when she's clearly not okay with him at all. Finally, a female character who doesn't take shit like that. She's even led to a similar situation with Dylan and she questions her actions because of what happened with Wade. So many books there are female characters who get into these situations and just don't think twice about it. They keep seeing the guy over and over and fall for him. Nope. None of that here. Faith realizes what a dick Wade is and basically tells him to fuck off. She's also not comfortable with the fact that Dylan has been watching her sleep for the past few months. He never actually goes into her room and he's doing so to make her safe and make sure she's ready to face the world, but yes that is still kind of creepy, Dylan. And she says so. She voices her concerns and he agrees that it's weird but explains that it was for the best. Not the best defence, but not as creepy as some other books.
I love Faith's relationship with Liz. Absolutely adore it. So much so I wish we had more of it. Liz was such a minor character and then she became so important
Spoiler
but only after she died. I realized about a chapter or so before it was actually revealed that she was going to die and I just couldn't handle it. When they revealed it, I'm just like oh man I knew it why did this have to happen. Except it makes so much sense. Liz's death allows Faith to grow into a stronger person and accept that she has to face the world and the evils in it. It's a painful death, but one that's necessary. Like Hedwig in The Deathly Hallows.Enough is explained to understand what's going on, but it's still kind of confusing. Especially when we get to talking about sides of the war. The blurb made it sound like there was the states and then the rebellion, but it seems like there are really three sides. The states, the side Dylan is on, and the side that Wade and Clara are on. You don't know who the good guys are. I suppose it's the side Dylan is on simply because Clara tries to assassinate the President. That's just a guess, though.
I would have liked more action. The only real action scenes we have are when Wade drugs Faith and then at the big fight scene in the last few chapters. We don't even get much in the first one because Faith is drugged and doesn't realize what's going on. That last action scene was entertaining and I think I would have enjoyed the book more had there been more scenes like that.
I think I would like to read the next book in the series just because I like the concept and I'm curious where the story will go. This wasn't the greatest book in the world, it had plenty of issues to be dealt with, but it was entertaining enough. It was also a pretty quick read so I wasn't wasting my time with it.
2.5/5
OVERALL IMPRESSION: This book has great imagery. From the very opening scene, I could picture everything perfectly. Carman does a great job of painting a picture for us to imagine in our minds. I really liked the scene towards the beginning of the book in the old elementary school library.
About halfway through the book, I felt like I got slapped in the face (in a good way) by something I never saw coming. And then after that, the book lost it's way for me.
I feel like the book switched points of view way too often and in the most awkward of places. I would have enjoyed the story much more if it had only been from Faith's (the main character) point of view.
My mind got very distracted while I was reading a lot of this story because I just wasn't interested in the story line. I feel like I don't know what the point of the story was. The characters were preparing for a battle, but I don't know what the battle was about or why it was occurring I also feel like I didn't know who many of the characters were or what their part was in everything.
I'm sure the next book will clear a lot of this up, but I will probably not be fighting to get my hands on a copy. It just wasn't for me.
Memorable quote: "Once everyone had a table, no one wanted these [books] anymore. But there's something different about holding them in your hands." (p. 40).
CHARACTERS: I didn't really feel a deep connection with any of the characters. I feel like they weren't able to develop enough for me to care about any of them, but I did enjoy the character of Hawk.
COVER: The cover is nice. It does make sense with the story and has meaning behind a vital piece of information that we find out.
*I received an advanced reader's copy of this book from Amazon for my honest review.
OVERALL IMPRESSION: This book has great imagery. From the very opening scene, I could picture everything perfectly. Carman does a great job of painting a picture for us to imagine in our minds. I really liked the scene towards the beginning of the book in the old elementary school library.
About halfway through the book, I felt like I got slapped in the face (in a good way) by something I never saw coming. And then after that, the book lost it's way for me.
I feel like the book switched points of view way too often and in the most awkward of places. I would have enjoyed the story much more if it had only been from Faith's (the main character) point of view.
My mind got very distracted while I was reading a lot of this story because I just wasn't interested in the story line. I feel like I don't know what the point of the story was. The characters were preparing for a battle, but I don't know what the battle was about or why it was occurring I also feel like I didn't know who many of the characters were or what their part was in everything.
I'm sure the next book will clear a lot of this up, but I will probably not be fighting to get my hands on a copy. It just wasn't for me.
Memorable quote: "Once everyone had a table, no one wanted these [books] anymore. But there's something different about holding them in your hands." (p. 40).
CHARACTERS: I didn't really feel a deep connection with any of the characters. I feel like they weren't able to develop enough for me to care about any of them, but I did enjoy the character of Hawk.
COVER: The cover is nice. It does make sense with the story and has meaning behind a vital piece of information that we find out.
*I received an advanced reader's copy of this book from Amazon for my honest review.
This book was recommended to me by one of my friends, so being the good friend I am, I decided to give this book a try. You know what? I am glad that I picked this book up. It was quick and entertaining and very easy to read. I understand why my friend likes this book so much, and I'm glad they did, but I had a few problems with this book that could not be ignored. Let the Grinch be unleashed.
The characters were overall a bit underdeveloped for my liking. They seemed very much so like standard protagonists from about any typical dystopian novel. For example, we rarely get to see any of Faith's personality traits other than how she likes Dylan, but we don't know much about her. We know her abilities, but never her sense of humor, and that's why I couldn't give this book five stars, because it made the book fall into the average category. The characters didn't seem memorable, and it was a struggle to remember the names of the main characters at times. There was no emotional connection, and that's a shame because the author could have given the characters more personality to create a more diverse novel.
I personally thought the world that Carman created was very interesting. Telekinesis has always been a topic that interests me, but Carman really created a world that I was heavily invested in. I thought the way he had Drifters and people with the 2nd pulse categorized was explained very well, and there was no info dumping which made it very enjoyable to ease myself into the world. I got to fully understand this dystopian society, which rarely happens in dystopians lately, and I was very glad that Carman took the time to develop this book. This world was unique, which seems to be harder to find in books, so I really enjoyed the thought that Mr.Carman put into building this world.
I also thought the writing style was very well done. It is definitely a book I would recommend to reluctant readers because it was very easy to read. I was immersed into the plot quickly, and while the pacing was not all that fast, I was always interested. Mr. Carman proved that to write a good dystopian, it doesn't need to be an action packed book filled blood and gore. It was slow paced, but that was fine and actually made this book a little something different.
Overall, I liked this book and would give it the rating of 3.5 stars out of 5, and I will continue on with the trilogy because I have been told it gets even better.
The characters were overall a bit underdeveloped for my liking. They seemed very much so like standard protagonists from about any typical dystopian novel. For example, we rarely get to see any of Faith's personality traits other than how she likes Dylan, but we don't know much about her. We know her abilities, but never her sense of humor, and that's why I couldn't give this book five stars, because it made the book fall into the average category. The characters didn't seem memorable, and it was a struggle to remember the names of the main characters at times. There was no emotional connection, and that's a shame because the author could have given the characters more personality to create a more diverse novel.
I personally thought the world that Carman created was very interesting. Telekinesis has always been a topic that interests me, but Carman really created a world that I was heavily invested in. I thought the way he had Drifters and people with the 2nd pulse categorized was explained very well, and there was no info dumping which made it very enjoyable to ease myself into the world. I got to fully understand this dystopian society, which rarely happens in dystopians lately, and I was very glad that Carman took the time to develop this book. This world was unique, which seems to be harder to find in books, so I really enjoyed the thought that Mr.Carman put into building this world.
I also thought the writing style was very well done. It is definitely a book I would recommend to reluctant readers because it was very easy to read. I was immersed into the plot quickly, and while the pacing was not all that fast, I was always interested. Mr. Carman proved that to write a good dystopian, it doesn't need to be an action packed book filled blood and gore. It was slow paced, but that was fine and actually made this book a little something different.
Overall, I liked this book and would give it the rating of 3.5 stars out of 5, and I will continue on with the trilogy because I have been told it gets even better.
Don't let your teens read this, several times the main character hurts herself to feel better - really don't think we should be encouraging teens to do that. Also poorly written, misspellings, etc. the only reason I read it all the way to the end was to see how many times the main character hurts herself intentionally. ugh.
Loved it! I think it started off a little slow, but the book picked up later in the book. Can NOT wait for the next book!
Graded By: Meghan
Cover Story: Is this the New Divergent Book?!!
BFF Charm: Hell if I Know
Swoonworthy Scale: 2
Talky Talk: Still in Revisions
Bonus Factors: Mysterious Loner Dude, Anthony Michael Hall
Relationship Status: It's Not Me, It's You
Read the full book report here.
Cover Story: Is this the New Divergent Book?!!
BFF Charm: Hell if I Know
Swoonworthy Scale: 2
Talky Talk: Still in Revisions
Bonus Factors: Mysterious Loner Dude, Anthony Michael Hall
Relationship Status: It's Not Me, It's You
Read the full book report here.
Review: http://theliteraturelion.blogspot.com/2013/03/review-pulse-by-patrick-carman.html
I'm not sure as to where I'm even going to start with this novel, because I don't want to bash it and make it out to be the worst book ever, or make it seem like I will forever hate this book.
That is not true.
Despite all my anger revolving around this book, it was not the worst one book written, because this one has some potential. If it was terrible, that means it doesn't have any potential. Therefore, it wasn't terrible.
So you may be wondering what I disliked so much about it. Well, first of all I'm going to say what I did like.
First of all, the cover. It is absolutely gorgeous. I was slightly confused throughout the book as to what it represented, but in the end I figured it out. Symbolically, it represents that Faith is going to tear through the Earth with all her roots - everything that has ever happened to her is going to make her who she is. But it also shows that she is a grown girl now, and isn't afraid to fight for what she wants. Also, the tree shows up in a scene at the end of the novel and it was one of the best scenes of the book. This is what I mean by the book had the potential.
I'm glad I stuck with the book through the end. Just by having the strong ending proves that there is potential for the book and I may actually pick up the next one.
Then there's the setting. There was so much to learn about the States and the outside world and I loved how we learned more and more about it throughout the novel. Also with the Tablets, which shows that our world some day could turn into this due to our obsession with technology.
Lastly, the pulse. This was definitely an interesting idea, and I've never seen anything like this. It was original and strong - well developed and thought out.
The rest of the book through, did not share these qualities.
Where to start... well there's the beginning of the book. Not bad, until about 25 pages in and Faith, the new girl to school, already fell in love with the popular boy just because he is tall enough for her so-called gigantic stature.
WHAT? Okay, so insta-love is sometimes fine, but most often it's DEFINITELY wrong. Especially within the first 25 pages of the book. Then there's her friend Liz, who she is constantly holding hands with. At first I thought it was just a really good friendship, but then when Liz kept talking about possibly having feelings for Faith, it was still okay! I just hate how it was dropped and not brought up again. I thought that this could have either been left out completely, or it should have been developed more.
Then Faith. So she's the main character, and it's important to be able to see a consistency in the main character. Faith had none whatsoever. One minute she was mad, the next she was falling head over heels, then she was trying to be superwoman. She was all over the place, and it just got annoying. I was fine with her until page 25 and then I finally started to like her at page 275. That's a lot of pages to hate a character, but thankfully there were other redeeming qualities.
Another thing was that Faith was living by herself, and we didn't find out until page 100 or so? WHAT? She spends the first 100 pages worrying about wearing the right pair of jeans at her new school rather than possibly question how her parents are doing...? Like I said, quite annoying.
Then there was the romantic interests. First of all, Wade Quinn. This was the guy that Faith thought she fell in love with the instant she saw him. Then two days go by and he drugs her with a thing called a Wire Code and kisses her. She finds out and gets mad, but they still kind of swoon whenever they're around each other. Then *gasp* Wade has a pulse, just like Faith. Now Wade is sad that he has to kill her because she was "the only girl he ever loved." Dude, you knew her for a few days and drugged her. You call that love?
Then there's Dylan. He was fine. Kind of that brooding, mysterious type that everyone loves. Dylan has a pulse just like Faith and teaches her how to use it. He doesn't show much romantic interest in her, but you can tell there's something going on between them. Finally he professes his love to her, when she's unconscious. How does he do it? By kissing her unconscious body many times. Can you say creepy?
There were just so many things that I didn't know what to do with this book. I just kept trekking through this one, and my boyfriend had to sit through many rant-fests with me.
Truthfully, I think that everything was okay, except for the characters and how they dealt with things. The setting and background was fine, and if there was just stronger writing and some alterations made to the characters then this book would have been awesome. That's my thoughts.
I'm still wondering if I'm going to read the second book when it comes out next year. I guess we'll see!
I'm not sure as to where I'm even going to start with this novel, because I don't want to bash it and make it out to be the worst book ever, or make it seem like I will forever hate this book.
That is not true.
Despite all my anger revolving around this book, it was not the worst one book written, because this one has some potential. If it was terrible, that means it doesn't have any potential. Therefore, it wasn't terrible.
So you may be wondering what I disliked so much about it. Well, first of all I'm going to say what I did like.
First of all, the cover. It is absolutely gorgeous. I was slightly confused throughout the book as to what it represented, but in the end I figured it out. Symbolically, it represents that Faith is going to tear through the Earth with all her roots - everything that has ever happened to her is going to make her who she is. But it also shows that she is a grown girl now, and isn't afraid to fight for what she wants. Also, the tree shows up in a scene at the end of the novel and it was one of the best scenes of the book. This is what I mean by the book had the potential.
I'm glad I stuck with the book through the end. Just by having the strong ending proves that there is potential for the book and I may actually pick up the next one.
Then there's the setting. There was so much to learn about the States and the outside world and I loved how we learned more and more about it throughout the novel. Also with the Tablets, which shows that our world some day could turn into this due to our obsession with technology.
Lastly, the pulse. This was definitely an interesting idea, and I've never seen anything like this. It was original and strong - well developed and thought out.
The rest of the book through, did not share these qualities.
Where to start... well there's the beginning of the book. Not bad, until about 25 pages in and Faith, the new girl to school, already fell in love with the popular boy just because he is tall enough for her so-called gigantic stature.
WHAT? Okay, so insta-love is sometimes fine, but most often it's DEFINITELY wrong. Especially within the first 25 pages of the book. Then there's her friend Liz, who she is constantly holding hands with. At first I thought it was just a really good friendship, but then when Liz kept talking about possibly having feelings for Faith, it was still okay! I just hate how it was dropped and not brought up again. I thought that this could have either been left out completely, or it should have been developed more.
Then Faith. So she's the main character, and it's important to be able to see a consistency in the main character. Faith had none whatsoever. One minute she was mad, the next she was falling head over heels, then she was trying to be superwoman. She was all over the place, and it just got annoying. I was fine with her until page 25 and then I finally started to like her at page 275. That's a lot of pages to hate a character, but thankfully there were other redeeming qualities.
Another thing was that Faith was living by herself, and we didn't find out until page 100 or so? WHAT? She spends the first 100 pages worrying about wearing the right pair of jeans at her new school rather than possibly question how her parents are doing...? Like I said, quite annoying.
Then there was the romantic interests. First of all, Wade Quinn. This was the guy that Faith thought she fell in love with the instant she saw him. Then two days go by and he drugs her with a thing called a Wire Code and kisses her. She finds out and gets mad, but they still kind of swoon whenever they're around each other. Then *gasp* Wade has a pulse, just like Faith. Now Wade is sad that he has to kill her because she was "the only girl he ever loved." Dude, you knew her for a few days and drugged her. You call that love?
Then there's Dylan. He was fine. Kind of that brooding, mysterious type that everyone loves. Dylan has a pulse just like Faith and teaches her how to use it. He doesn't show much romantic interest in her, but you can tell there's something going on between them. Finally he professes his love to her, when she's unconscious. How does he do it? By kissing her unconscious body many times. Can you say creepy?
There were just so many things that I didn't know what to do with this book. I just kept trekking through this one, and my boyfriend had to sit through many rant-fests with me.
Truthfully, I think that everything was okay, except for the characters and how they dealt with things. The setting and background was fine, and if there was just stronger writing and some alterations made to the characters then this book would have been awesome. That's my thoughts.
I'm still wondering if I'm going to read the second book when it comes out next year. I guess we'll see!
plot was a little confusing, not much seemed to get explained in a way i could understand. good charactors though.