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A review by amaldae
Veritaika by Tessa Gratton
2.0
Written in April 2014. Slightly edited April 2016... and I do mean slightly.
There are just a few things I would like to point out after reading this book. In no particular order:
1. Cursing in one's thoughts doesn't make them "cool", "masculine" or "convincingly angsty". The male protagonist, I swear... I couldn't even tell the MCs apart most of the time!
2. I didn't hate Silla so much after, but she never became my favourite character - I couldn't feel for her and felt that rather than a flaw in her characterization, something in the actual narrative kept me from getting involved in the story.
3. Reese's every word only managed to piss me of more. No one is supposed to "get over it" in (a few) months when someone close to them dies. NO ONE. I get that he didn't necessarily mean his words this way but wouldn't he be able to take care of his sister a bit better if he's being the over-protective idiot he pretends to be? I couldn't see past the annoyances at any point in the book.
4. I, like, really have had enough of these curly-haired lipstick bimbo sidekick girls as the main character's empty-headed "best friends". And no, those are mostly not my words.
5. While Judy wasn't one of the characters I loathed, I fail to understand why exactly was she in the book.
6. The Big, Bad, Mysterious Evil in this book is ridiculously simple and unoriginal. And by gods, how I dislike cheap shock/horror elements replacing everything else. (Yep, referring to the ending here.)
7. I loved Philip as well as Nick's mother. Adorably insane, though I doubt this would have worked had they had more pronounced roles in the kids' lives. As side characters, they didn't feel too much like yet another shock factor.
8. To everyone in this book and outside of it: Never, ever cut yourself with a dirty object. Nothing good will follow.
9. The writing wasn't bad but it never grabbed my interest, although that may be partly because I initially disliked the characters so much.
10. I have to say, Gratton managed to create a nice distanced atmosphere at times - I hope it was intentional - but it made everything feel a bit boring and not very well-thought-out, especially since the romance, which of course has quite a big role, has practically no basis and isn't convincing at all.
11. Also the magic, while drawing upon an interesting concept, made me roll my eyes at times. Really, how much does a little cut hurt? etc. etc. - Nothing felt deep. It was a part of the atmosphere, but distracted me fairly much.
I was close to DNF'ing this at page 24 but as I got closer to the end and begun to understand what kind of an YA this is trying to be and learned to appreciate its... grayness more (as well as its characters, after some plot- and other twists), enough to consider giving it a 3 with some reservations. But no, in the end I'm just not sure if it'd have indeed been smarter of me to call it to quits early on and leave this book to people who actually like it more than I did.
I remain unimpressed.
There are just a few things I would like to point out after reading this book. In no particular order:
1. Cursing in one's thoughts doesn't make them "cool", "masculine" or "convincingly angsty". The male protagonist, I swear... I couldn't even tell the MCs apart most of the time!
2. I didn't hate Silla so much after
Spoiler
Reese's death3. Reese's every word only managed to piss me of more. No one is supposed to "get over it" in (a few) months when someone close to them dies. NO ONE. I get that he didn't necessarily mean his words this way but wouldn't he be able to take care of his sister a bit better if he's being the over-protective idiot he pretends to be? I couldn't see past the annoyances at any point in the book.
4. I, like, really have had enough of these curly-haired lipstick bimbo sidekick girls as the main character's empty-headed "best friends". And no, those are mostly not my words.
5. While Judy wasn't one of the characters I loathed, I fail to understand why exactly was she in the book.
6. The Big, Bad, Mysterious Evil in this book is ridiculously simple and unoriginal. And by gods, how I dislike cheap shock/horror elements replacing everything else. (Yep, referring to the ending here.)
7. I loved Philip as well as Nick's mother. Adorably insane, though I doubt this would have worked had they had more pronounced roles in the kids' lives. As side characters, they didn't feel too much like yet another shock factor.
8. To everyone in this book and outside of it: Never, ever cut yourself with a dirty object. Nothing good will follow.
9. The writing wasn't bad but it never grabbed my interest, although that may be partly because I initially disliked the characters so much.
10. I have to say, Gratton managed to create a nice distanced atmosphere at times - I hope it was intentional - but it made everything feel a bit boring and not very well-thought-out, especially since the romance, which of course has quite a big role, has practically no basis and isn't convincing at all.
11. Also the magic, while drawing upon an interesting concept, made me roll my eyes at times. Really, how much does a little cut hurt? etc. etc. - Nothing felt deep. It was a part of the atmosphere, but distracted me fairly much.
I was close to DNF'ing this at page 24 but as I got closer to the end and begun to understand what kind of an YA this is trying to be and learned to appreciate its... grayness more (as well as its characters, after some plot- and other twists), enough to consider giving it a 3 with some reservations. But no, in the end I'm just not sure if it'd have indeed been smarter of me to call it to quits early on and leave this book to people who actually like it more than I did.
I remain unimpressed.