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3.47 AVERAGE
3.47 AVERAGE
emotional
mysterious
sad
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
The text wasn’t the most amazing, but the character development was not it <3 (my friends disagree with me though so who knows maybe i’m wrong)
Not everybody will agree with me when I say this is a good book. The story is very slow and I think you have to like the legend behind the place where the main character lives, cause it's such a huge part of everything.
I can't wait to read what happens next.
I can't wait to read what happens next.
This book starts out with Abbey's best friend missing and comes to find out that she is dead. Abbey is having to deal with all of her feelings from the loss. She meets Caspian who tries to help her deal with everything. Their relationship grows throughout the story and hits a major twist at the end. Abbey is very likable, and it's easy to feel her sorrow and confusion over her missing best friend. Caspian, is an unlikely hero. He's hardly around, but his presence is felt long after each time he leaves Abbey.
The story takes place around Sleepy Hollows cemetery and really sets the mood. Jessica has done a great job with her research on it, because when you read the book you can just picture all of the details in your head. While this is the beginning of a trilogy, it's very sweet and spooky all at the same time, I found myself enjoying the book very much.
Some reviews that I have read were saying that this was a spin off from The Sleepy Hollow by Washington Irving. In my opinion it is not. Abbey and her best friend Kristen were huge fans of Sleepy Hollw and Washington Irving. They lived in the town that revovled around the story. I think one great touch to the book was the quotes at the beginning of each chapter from The Sleepy Hollow. It helped set the mood.
It's very hard to write a review about this book without giving away spoliers so I will leave you with this. This book kept me guessing, every time I thought I had figured something out, a new piece of evidence surfaced and disproved me. The ending was very surprising to me as well.
Look out for the second book in this trilogy " The Haunted".
The story takes place around Sleepy Hollows cemetery and really sets the mood. Jessica has done a great job with her research on it, because when you read the book you can just picture all of the details in your head. While this is the beginning of a trilogy, it's very sweet and spooky all at the same time, I found myself enjoying the book very much.
Some reviews that I have read were saying that this was a spin off from The Sleepy Hollow by Washington Irving. In my opinion it is not. Abbey and her best friend Kristen were huge fans of Sleepy Hollw and Washington Irving. They lived in the town that revovled around the story. I think one great touch to the book was the quotes at the beginning of each chapter from The Sleepy Hollow. It helped set the mood.
It's very hard to write a review about this book without giving away spoliers so I will leave you with this. This book kept me guessing, every time I thought I had figured something out, a new piece of evidence surfaced and disproved me. The ending was very surprising to me as well.
Look out for the second book in this trilogy " The Haunted".
2.5 stars for actual rating..don't know if i want to continue with this trilogy.. but i do want to know more about D,the sleepy hollow legend and other..need a time to process all of thissss..hurmm..
dark
emotional
mysterious
sad
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
I felt like the story didn’t begin until the end of the book. And I’m not even sure there was a story here. I kept reading because I was hoping it’d get better. I was genuinely interested in how her friend died. But no answers there, and I definitely don’t plan on reading two more of the slower paced books I’ve ever read to find out. Might be a nice long read for an eighth grader, there’s just no depth to the story. I should’ve just stopped halfway into this book when I realized it wasn’t worth my time and moved on to another option. Disappointed to say the least. Not sure why I was recommended this book.
Abbey is tortured by her best friend Kirsten's death. She doesn't believe her friend really died and resents having to attend a funeral for a friend she knows in her heart is still alive. It's then that she meets Caspian, a mysterious blond boy with a shock of black hair. She immediately falls under his spell, but the closer she thinks she's getting to him, the further he pulls away. The opening of The Hollow instantly draws you in. Her pain is palpable and the tension ratchets up even further as the natural mood associated with the legendary town of Sleepy Hollow takes over.
Bottom-line: Intriguing, atmospheric setting and unique characters!
Bottom-line: Intriguing, atmospheric setting and unique characters!
Despite Washington Irving references, about 90% of this book focuses only on the lovestruck gazing at a mysterious friendly boy who likes to hang out at a cemetery - Casper CaspIAN. Not a 'friendly ghost' at all, why'd you ask???
Yup, I just gave away the big plot point of this book. Which everyone, except the protagonist, is able to see from a mile away, with all the anvil-sized hints the author drops.
Now, the idea of this story sounded interesting - our teenage protagonist Abbey knows that her best friend's death is likely very NOT accidental, and she just happens to live in the town made famous by Washington Irving's The Legend of Sleepy Hollow. The one with the headless horsemen, yes.
However, the interesting premise goes right out of the window the moment Abbey meets a mysterious strange boy and - of course - immediately and automatically falls in love with him. Because that's how things apparently now work in YA novels - insta-love seems almost a genre requirement. Forget about the dead best friend - there is a boy to swoon about.
But my biggest gripe with this book is this - the story reads pretty much like a young girl's diary.
I just wish Jessica Verday had trusted that her readers can picture what is going on in the story without being spoon-fed every minute detail of everything. We do for the most part have working imaginations, y'know?
Kristen (the dead friend) gets promptly forgotten for the most part. The Legend of Sleepy Hollow is referred to only on occasion. It's all about the friendlyghost mysterious boy for pages and pages and pages and pages. Because CLEARLY the world stops turning once a cute boy shows up. Who, for no good reason at all except the intended romanticism, starts calling her Astrid instead of Abbey. Witness protection program or what?
I wish YA heroines would occasionally actually get to know a guy before deciding to irreversibly tie their destiny to him.
Abbey is not a terrible YA heroine. She actually has goals and aspirations for the future, actually related to her talent - perfume making. She is written to be quirky and independent. Unfortunately, the puppy-love and unnecessary detailing overshadow her potential.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
Verdict: It's a predictable YA paranormal romance that is overly detailed, drags on way too much, mostly lacks character development, and could have benefited from some heavy editing. Nothing special about it. Granted, I am not a target audience and only read this one in support of Jessica Verday's stand on that whole "Wicked Pretty Things" debacle (Verday was asked to change a story for a teen anthology because her characters were gay, and that was not okay with the editor). Still, I expect an exciting story, target audience or not, and this one failed to deliver.
2 stars only because I liked that whole perfume-making bit.
——————
Also posted on my blog.
Yup, I just gave away the big plot point of this book. Which everyone, except the protagonist, is able to see from a mile away, with all the anvil-sized hints the author drops.
Now, the idea of this story sounded interesting - our teenage protagonist Abbey knows that her best friend's death is likely very NOT accidental, and she just happens to live in the town made famous by Washington Irving's The Legend of Sleepy Hollow. The one with the headless horsemen, yes.
However, the interesting premise goes right out of the window the moment Abbey meets a mysterious strange boy and - of course - immediately and automatically falls in love with him. Because that's how things apparently now work in YA novels - insta-love seems almost a genre requirement. Forget about the dead best friend - there is a boy to swoon about.
But my biggest gripe with this book is this - the story reads pretty much like a young girl's diary.
I remember starting one when I was nine (I lasted about a week); it went pretty much like this: "Dear diary, this is what happened today - *cue a long list of mundane things*".Well, this is what this story reads like. It details EVERY SINGLE MOMENT of Abbey's days - her wardrobe choices, her baking cookies, school, Caspian, school activities, cookies, making perfumes, Caspian, baking cookies, school, Caspian, cookies, perfumes (yes, cookies must be an important plot point given how often they are mentioned)... Okay, I'd keep the perfume part in - it is original and interesting, but the rest is just filler that bogs down the book and bloats the story that should have occupied a compact few hundred pages into three way-too-long books (yes, I've read the entire trilogy - only because I wanted to know how this dragged out story ends. Answer - unsatisfyingly, very much so).
I just wish Jessica Verday had trusted that her readers can picture what is going on in the story without being spoon-fed every minute detail of everything. We do for the most part have working imaginations, y'know?
Kristen (the dead friend) gets promptly forgotten for the most part. The Legend of Sleepy Hollow is referred to only on occasion. It's all about the friendly
"At that moment - in that small, concise, perfectly clear moment of time - I knew. It was that moment I fell in love with him. It actually caused me to stop, and time froze for just a second. But that feeling was so right, and so strong, that I knew I wasn't wrong."These sound like famous last words (of a potential victim of a crazy dangerous guy) - "I knew I wasn't wrong."
I wish YA heroines would occasionally actually get to know a guy before deciding to irreversibly tie their destiny to him.
Abbey is not a terrible YA heroine. She actually has goals and aspirations for the future, actually related to her talent - perfume making. She is written to be quirky and independent. Unfortunately, the puppy-love and unnecessary detailing overshadow her potential.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
Verdict: It's a predictable YA paranormal romance that is overly detailed, drags on way too much, mostly lacks character development, and could have benefited from some heavy editing. Nothing special about it. Granted, I am not a target audience and only read this one in support of Jessica Verday's stand on that whole "Wicked Pretty Things" debacle (Verday was asked to change a story for a teen anthology because her characters were gay, and that was not okay with the editor). Still, I expect an exciting story, target audience or not, and this one failed to deliver.
2 stars only because I liked that whole perfume-making bit.
——————
Also posted on my blog.
Overall, I liked this book, till the very end. I enjoyed the setting, the Sleepy Hollow twist was lovely. But it did not really play as big as a part of the plot as I thought, it kind of got lost. I enjoyed the characters, Abbey was great, I really felt a genuineness in her struggle of losing her best friend. Her parents were believable and funny at times. I am still confused as to why Ben's character and Kristen's secrets were brought up. I am assuming these details are important in the next books. Caspian, ah, Caspian, I have to say I was intrigued by his character. It may be because he is like no one I have ever known or met. But the discovery of who he really is just killed it for me. I was disappointed to be presented with another impossible love story. I am sure it is worked out in the others books, but the only outcome to this conflict can not be a happy one. I know there are some readers and authors who enjoy bittersweet. But this was not something I have enjoyed as much as others. I was hooked till the end. Great story, loved the visual it inspired, but it feel short for my taste.