Take a photo of a barcode or cover
3.75 AVERAGE
3.75 AVERAGE
not as good as the first one, but still entertaining
It’s been awhile since I’ve read Of Poseidon. I remember liking it okay – not amazing, but amusing. I feel like this one was the same way but with slightly more issues, a little more meh to me. Of Poseidon and Of Triton brings together mythology (which I adore) and modern teenage life which sound intriguing enough, but unfortunately are still falling flat for me as a series.
In Of Triton, we pick up where the last one left off. Emma, after revealing Galen to her mother, has been kidnapped by mommy dearest, who is running from Galen’s older brother, Grom. Of course they find her, and of course Emma’s mother suddenly only wants to be with Grom – who cares that she has a daughter. She can go back to the sea and be rejoined with her true love and her father. I’m not kidding. Her mother is probably the most immature human being in this entire series. She goes from overbearing parental unit to teenage girl with googly eyes in the span of a chapter. Her lack of responsibility for her child’s safety or well-being is really disconcerting. I did not like her character at all.
Speaking of characterizations, it doesn’t really seem as if there was any character growth from the first book to this one. The men are still extremely sexist and swim around with the idea that women should stay in the background and be pretty. Galen spends the whole book declaring that Emma is his mate and everyone needs to stay away. Emma meanwhile pouts and whines about everything, but then at the end is suddenly fine with the way everything turned out.
As for the story itself, I found it to be extremely predictable (can you say Toraf?) and at times ridiculous (Emma and her horde *snicker*). I wanted so much more but felt that everyone was a pushover or willing to not question anything. The book is very short, but it dragged to me. I had no real desire to get to the end and find out what’s going to happen. The writing style was also not one I really liked. The fact that Emma was in first person and Galen was in third didn’t sit well with me and I found that it took me out of the story every time it switched. We go from being completely inside someone’s head to being a spectator, watching on the sidelines.
This is still the only mermaid series I’ve read but I feel like it’s a good segue into the genre. Despite its beautiful cover (come on, it’s so pretty!), it just doesn’t stand out to me.
In Of Triton, we pick up where the last one left off. Emma, after revealing Galen to her mother, has been kidnapped by mommy dearest, who is running from Galen’s older brother, Grom. Of course they find her, and of course Emma’s mother suddenly only wants to be with Grom – who cares that she has a daughter. She can go back to the sea and be rejoined with her true love and her father. I’m not kidding. Her mother is probably the most immature human being in this entire series. She goes from overbearing parental unit to teenage girl with googly eyes in the span of a chapter. Her lack of responsibility for her child’s safety or well-being is really disconcerting. I did not like her character at all.
Speaking of characterizations, it doesn’t really seem as if there was any character growth from the first book to this one. The men are still extremely sexist and swim around with the idea that women should stay in the background and be pretty. Galen spends the whole book declaring that Emma is his mate and everyone needs to stay away. Emma meanwhile pouts and whines about everything, but then at the end is suddenly fine with the way everything turned out.
As for the story itself, I found it to be extremely predictable (can you say Toraf?) and at times ridiculous (Emma and her horde *snicker*). I wanted so much more but felt that everyone was a pushover or willing to not question anything. The book is very short, but it dragged to me. I had no real desire to get to the end and find out what’s going to happen. The writing style was also not one I really liked. The fact that Emma was in first person and Galen was in third didn’t sit well with me and I found that it took me out of the story every time it switched. We go from being completely inside someone’s head to being a spectator, watching on the sidelines.
This is still the only mermaid series I’ve read but I feel like it’s a good segue into the genre. Despite its beautiful cover (come on, it’s so pretty!), it just doesn’t stand out to me.
adventurous
emotional
funny
lighthearted
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
adventurous
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
I believe that this was one of the first series I tackled when I entered the bookish world
When I last wrote in this review box, I wrote "Anna Banks. Michelle Hodkin. I'm ready" as a statement of how I was ready for all the enchanting beauty of Of Triton and The Retribution of Mara Dyer. I was stating how I was ready to be clued in on the mysteries of Nalia, the lost Posiodon monarch. And the death of Noah who my heart still aches for.
But I guess that's the part that gets me the most, is that I wasn't ready. Speaking about Of Triton specifically now, I can honestly say that I wasn't ready. I wasn't ready to be charmed by Anna Banks's writing all over again. I wasn't ready to transition into a love story so prematurely cute, the rarest among our centuries, that is Galen's and Emma's, and I just wasn't ready to continue the story that began with Of Triton. Because that means that I'm more closer to the ending than I was twenty four hours, a few laughs and sobs, and 246 pages ago.
And I'm not ready for that.
I rated this book amazing because I personally love Banks's style of writing-- how she makes it personal between the author and the reader.
Because of how easy it is to get caught up in the writing and the story-- How in the beginning when Anna is recapping what happened in the ending of Of Triton I was becoming swooned by feelings of nostalgia and how while I'm reading, I periodically, and often, forget that I'm laying in my normal bed, swallowed by ugly blue polka dotted sheets. That I forget that I'm not underwater right now or eating Garbage Eggs in the coastal atmosphere of Jersey's shore. And even that I forget that I'm NOT thirsty right now because I'm not outside at the beach, walking along the sands in midday.
Because how loveable the characters are, how Anna Banks has created inhuman beings more human than anyone of us out there. And also how she can easily write up a good antagonist. In books, it's hard for me to really, ACTUALLY, loathe the antagnonist. I usually just think of it as a person who's going to be stopped eventually and someone who brings a platter of entertainment to the book as a whole. But with Jagen. I, whole heartedly and literally, wanted to strangle him. Anna Banks wrote a story so cleverly that I actually FEARED for the Syrena and for Galen and Emma that Jagen would get away with his crimes and that this slime ball of a being should be shot in butt!
Because there are quotes like these:
Thank God for Rayna. People like Rayna get things done. People like me watch people like Rayna get things done. Then people like me roung the corner of the counter as if they helped, as if they didn't stand there and let everyone they love beat the shizzle out of one another.--Page 14
And because the pace is perfect. Because even though this book's length is on the small side, it's like the tents at a Quidditch match; they're just ordinary-small-and dilapidated tents, but inside they're grand with couches, rugs, kitchens, beds, and lamps. And even beyond that, the pace was humble. Until I was halfway through the book was when I finally realized that so much had already happened in such a short time-- yet I hadn't even noticed. EVen though I was reading for a few hours, I felt like I had been encompassed in this story, savoring it, for days. It's like when you're reading, and you stop, and you look all the way up to the beginning pages and you mark everything that's happened from then until the point where you stopped and you think "wow... so much has already happened since then..."
In this book, of course, there were errors. Like a lot of grammatical and editorial errors. But I brushed those aside quickly because I feel like errors such as insignifican't-- but no less, very distracting-- still shouldn't dampen down a book that's utterly adorkable, good humored, and well written and deserving of a good rating.
And in some last few sayings, I'm glad that I took a chance on this series. I remember when I was having mermaid withdrawals and I was like "well this looks good!" but I read just THREE, THREE! reviews and by chance they were reviews that all said the same thing, of how Of Poseidon was terrible because Chloe's character as Emma's best friend was killed off quickly-- but looking back, I've quickly deemed those three people, and anyone who said anything of the like, as psychotically crazy. Chloe wasn't ever a major character and she was never mean't to be a major character. Her purpose was to be the catalyst to the real events of this series, like the heritage of a species beyond our own and how that affects one unlikely teenager, but to judge an entire novel's "obvious" downfall on a character that really didn't matter explicates poor judgement and just dumbass-ness.
I loved Chloe just as much as the next person, but I'm not going to let her death be the reason why I didn't enjoy such an enjoyable read. Especially considering how I didn't know her that much in the first place-- not that anyone was ever mean't to know her.
In Of Triton, I do feel that the ending could have been done differently but no matter, it's all building up to my anxiety of
"what happens next?"
But I guess that's the part that gets me the most, is that I wasn't ready. Speaking about Of Triton specifically now, I can honestly say that I wasn't ready. I wasn't ready to be charmed by Anna Banks's writing all over again. I wasn't ready to transition into a love story so prematurely cute, the rarest among our centuries, that is Galen's and Emma's, and I just wasn't ready to continue the story that began with Of Triton. Because that means that I'm more closer to the ending than I was twenty four hours, a few laughs and sobs, and 246 pages ago.
And I'm not ready for that.
I rated this book amazing because I personally love Banks's style of writing-- how she makes it personal between the author and the reader.
Because of how easy it is to get caught up in the writing and the story-- How in the beginning when Anna is recapping what happened in the ending of Of Triton I was becoming swooned by feelings of nostalgia and how while I'm reading, I periodically, and often, forget that I'm laying in my normal bed, swallowed by ugly blue polka dotted sheets. That I forget that I'm not underwater right now or eating Garbage Eggs in the coastal atmosphere of Jersey's shore. And even that I forget that I'm NOT thirsty right now because I'm not outside at the beach, walking along the sands in midday.
Because how loveable the characters are, how Anna Banks has created inhuman beings more human than anyone of us out there. And also how she can easily write up a good antagonist. In books, it's hard for me to really, ACTUALLY, loathe the antagnonist. I usually just think of it as a person who's going to be stopped eventually and someone who brings a platter of entertainment to the book as a whole. But with Jagen. I, whole heartedly and literally, wanted to strangle him. Anna Banks wrote a story so cleverly that I actually FEARED for the Syrena and for Galen and Emma that Jagen would get away with his crimes and that this slime ball of a being should be shot in butt!
Because there are quotes like these:
Thank God for Rayna. People like Rayna get things done. People like me watch people like Rayna get things done. Then people like me roung the corner of the counter as if they helped, as if they didn't stand there and let everyone they love beat the shizzle out of one another.--Page 14
And because the pace is perfect. Because even though this book's length is on the small side, it's like the tents at a Quidditch match; they're just ordinary-small-and dilapidated tents, but inside they're grand with couches, rugs, kitchens, beds, and lamps. And even beyond that, the pace was humble. Until I was halfway through the book was when I finally realized that so much had already happened in such a short time-- yet I hadn't even noticed. EVen though I was reading for a few hours, I felt like I had been encompassed in this story, savoring it, for days. It's like when you're reading, and you stop, and you look all the way up to the beginning pages and you mark everything that's happened from then until the point where you stopped and you think "wow... so much has already happened since then..."
In this book, of course, there were errors. Like a lot of grammatical and editorial errors. But I brushed those aside quickly because I feel like errors such as insignifican't-- but no less, very distracting-- still shouldn't dampen down a book that's utterly adorkable, good humored, and well written and deserving of a good rating.
And in some last few sayings, I'm glad that I took a chance on this series. I remember when I was having mermaid withdrawals and I was like "well this looks good!" but I read just THREE, THREE! reviews and by chance they were reviews that all said the same thing, of how Of Poseidon was terrible because Chloe's character as Emma's best friend was killed off quickly-- but looking back, I've quickly deemed those three people, and anyone who said anything of the like, as psychotically crazy. Chloe wasn't ever a major character and she was never mean't to be a major character. Her purpose was to be the catalyst to the real events of this series, like the heritage of a species beyond our own and how that affects one unlikely teenager, but to judge an entire novel's "obvious" downfall on a character that really didn't matter explicates poor judgement and just dumbass-ness.
I loved Chloe just as much as the next person, but I'm not going to let her death be the reason why I didn't enjoy such an enjoyable read. Especially considering how I didn't know her that much in the first place-- not that anyone was ever mean't to know her.
In Of Triton, I do feel that the ending could have been done differently but no matter, it's all building up to my anxiety of
"what happens next?"
lighthearted
medium-paced
Of Triton is book 2 in the Syrena Legacy Trilogy and I found this book to be a fun, quick read. It had been a bit since I had read book 1, but the book had just enough of a recap for me to be able to dive right into this series again. I really enjoyed the storyline and the character interactions throughout this book. I also really appreciated the line of events that lead up to the climax in the story. I don’t think I liked this one as much as Of Poseidon, but it was still really good! I can’t wait to read the next book in the series! If you like books about mermaids, you may want to try this trilogy!
Well that had me nearly bawling my eyes out... I really loved it tho!
The first book had such a good cliffhanger that I had to read this one, but it was handled poorly. Despite the fact that her mother lied to her for her entire life and her boyfriend has done nothing to prove untrustworthy, Emma still believes him capable of betrayal -- just as Galen himself does later to his closest friend. They may be terrible people but I guess they're perfect for each other. Unfortunately, the yarn that Nalia weaves is a stupid one, and I had really hoped for a better backstory there. This book was more interesting than the first as it delves into the politics of the mermaid world and you finally see the power of Triton.
I just don't know if I can bring myself to read the third because
I just don't know if I can bring myself to read the third because