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livloveslibros 's review for:
The Pledge
by Kimberly Derting
This book disappointed me.
In a slightly creepy way, the cover was pretty.
The concept was intriguing. A totalitarian society in which different classes were separated by the language they spoke? Count me in.
A girl named Charlie (for some reason I really like that name, but that's beside the point) who can understand all these languages even though she's not supposed to? At this point, I'm really looking forward to this book.
I hate to say it, but The Pledge let me down.
For one, I never really connected with the narrator, unless you count admiring her cool tomboy-ish name. Sure, she's got a neat ability, but besides that, she doesn't have much personality to her. Nothing she ever said or did was really memorable. The most we ever got from her was her attraction to Max, which wasn't even that intense, and descriptions of her best friend Brooklynn, who she liked most of the time but not always.
There were several plot holes that were never really filled, and several random plot twists that were absolutely unnecessary and added nothing to the plot. Even though there was never a love triangle, we get a brief mention of her guy best friend, Aron, in the beginning of the book, and then he's never mentioned again until he's suddenly being tortured by the queen for information about Charlie, who he's suddenly asking about passionately. Also, we have the conflict with Brooklynn. Charlie alternates between taking advantage of her willingness to go to the underground clubs and then getting mad when she doesn't want to leave early. And then suddenly, when Charlie is "kind of" being held captive by the resistance (she's never actually forced to do anything, and of course Xander, the leader of the resistance, spills his whole game plan to her and later questions doing that), Brooklynn just bursts in holding a gun and directing her own little battalion of troops. Also, Charlie must be either completely stupid or just absolutely oblivious because she doesn't realize until the end of the book that her love interest, Max, and Xander are brothers. I'm not even going to mention the fact that it took her half the book to realize Max was a prince. It's so random.
But most of all, my main problem with this book was that the characters made some incredibly stupid decisions without any reason at all. It seems like the author didn't really have anything specific in mind while writing; she just wanted to get to the ending and made her characters act in a certain way, whether it was believable or not. At one point in the book, Charlie demands to meet the queen simply because she wants to get her parents and Aron back. The trouble is, she doesn't seem to take into account that the queen will obviously use her captured parents as bargaining chips against her. Duh. 80% of the decisions in this book are totally made without thinking.
These weren't the only problems. The setting is never really explained that well - I get that Ludania is violent and under threat of war, but it completely fails to explain why a queen has to rule (I get that she's the only one who has magic, but really?) except for the fact that apparently other countries won't respect her (speaking of which, apparently there are other countries too? why don't they ever try to help? or take in refugees? or send in their own troops?). Charlie also apparently never wants to be queen, but is easily persuaded and then continues on to rule with relative ease, according to the epilogue. However, the former queen, who is now a wraith-like spirit occasionally whispers in her ear still. I don't even know.
The only bright spot in this story was Charlie's younger sister, Angelina. I never had a reason to hate Charlie, but the only thing I really liked about her was her protectiveness over Angelina. She can't talk for some reason, but she's by far the most kick-ass character in the story. While Charlie's magic is understanding languages, Angelina has the power to heal, which in my opinion is 10 times better. In the end, even though Charlie, Xander, and Max thought they had the situation under control, it's literally Angelina who saves the day by saving her sister's personality (I would say life, but ). She's the only reason this book got two stars instead of one.
In a slightly creepy way, the cover was pretty.
The concept was intriguing. A totalitarian society in which different classes were separated by the language they spoke? Count me in.
A girl named Charlie (for some reason I really like that name, but that's beside the point) who can understand all these languages even though she's not supposed to? At this point, I'm really looking forward to this book.
I hate to say it, but The Pledge let me down.
For one, I never really connected with the narrator, unless you count admiring her cool tomboy-ish name. Sure, she's got a neat ability
Spoiler
and comes from a royal bloodlineThere were several plot holes that were never really filled, and several random plot twists that were absolutely unnecessary and added nothing to the plot. Even though there was never a love triangle, we get a brief mention of her guy best friend, Aron, in the beginning of the book, and then he's never mentioned again until he's suddenly being tortured by the queen for information about Charlie, who he's suddenly asking about passionately. Also, we have the conflict with Brooklynn. Charlie alternates between taking advantage of her willingness to go to the underground clubs and then getting mad when she doesn't want to leave early. And then suddenly, when Charlie is "kind of" being held captive by the resistance (she's never actually forced to do anything, and of course Xander, the leader of the resistance, spills his whole game plan to her and later questions doing that), Brooklynn just bursts in holding a gun and directing her own little battalion of troops. Also, Charlie must be either completely stupid or just absolutely oblivious because she doesn't realize until the end of the book that her love interest, Max, and Xander are brothers. I'm not even going to mention the fact that it took her half the book to realize Max was a prince. It's so random.
But most of all, my main problem with this book was that the characters made some incredibly stupid decisions without any reason at all. It seems like the author didn't really have anything specific in mind while writing; she just wanted to get to the ending and made her characters act in a certain way, whether it was believable or not. At one point in the book, Charlie demands to meet the queen simply because she wants to get her parents and Aron back. The trouble is, she doesn't seem to take into account that the queen will obviously use her captured parents as bargaining chips against her. Duh. 80% of the decisions in this book are totally made without thinking.
These weren't the only problems. The setting is never really explained that well - I get that Ludania is violent and under threat of war, but it completely fails to explain why a queen has to rule (I get that she's the only one who has magic, but really?) except for the fact that apparently other countries won't respect her (speaking of which, apparently there are other countries too? why don't they ever try to help? or take in refugees? or send in their own troops?). Charlie also apparently never wants to be queen, but is easily persuaded and then continues on to rule with relative ease, according to the epilogue. However, the former queen, who is now a wraith-like spirit occasionally whispers in her ear still. I don't even know.
The only bright spot in this story was Charlie's younger sister, Angelina. I never had a reason to hate Charlie, but the only thing I really liked about her was her protectiveness over Angelina. She can't talk for some reason