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A review by holly_tree
The Hidden by Jessica Verday
4.0
Aww, I hate that it's finally over! BOOO!
But super, super huge kudoos, Jessica Verday, for sticking to the ever so classy trilogy. In a world full of YA bullcrap series that milk every page they can with crappy wannabe prose, round about story lines, and dramarama, a well done trilogy is so appreciated I could scream.
And so, I will.
JESSICA VERDAY, I LOVE YOU!!!
I love love love love love this story. I'm a sucker for ghost stories, and Ms. Verday had me hooked from the first sentence from the first book, no joke. The setting fit for the most seducively unique and crisp mode that stood out from all the other paranormal books I'd read, and have ever come across. From Abbey's mental breakdowns, her perfume making, her loyal friendships, and, of course, her most delicious love shared with the swoonworthy Shade Caspian, Abbey is a fresh, interesting and decidedly human voice to follow that you can't help but rooting for.
Okay, so... now for the parts I wasn't so in love with. Although I've been in love with this story since the very beginning, this volume wasn't my favorite. I understand that each book needs to stand apart from each other, but this one seemed to have a different tone from the other two. Am I the only one that felt that? While "The Hollow" and "The Haunted" had more mysterious and dangerous untones to the, and gave the feeling of isolation to Abbey and Caspian, it seemed to lose that in "The Hidden," and almost adopted a new tone altogether. I missed it :(
One thing I really loved about "The Hollow," one thing I thought made it so unique was the way that Ms. Verday based the book on basically 3 main characters: Abbey, our narrator; Caspian, the mysterious Shade; and the cemetery. She turned the setting of Abbey's favorite place, her thinking place, the resting place of her dead best friend, the setting of so many of her memories as well as a hisortic part of the town, into practically a character of it's own. Otherwise, there were only a few a small minor characters, but they were either dead, ghosts, or small.
In "The Hidden," however, this changed. We were suddenly overloaded with characters, from friends at school, to the four Revenants, to the random people at the insane asylum... people were EVERYWHERE. For someone who lived such a small, isolated life (she only talked to dead people, if you recall) one year earlier, Abbey seemed to live a crazy social life all of a sudden. I was having social anxiety. For, you know. Abbey.
I liked the way story ended up wrapping up. The way it was written? Eh... sort of? I guess? I don't know how it could have been any better, I suppose... I think I would have liked a BAM! I WAS DEAD.... BAM! I WAS AWAKE.... and it was just me and Capsian... I don't know. Anyways, it was clever, very clever, how it ended up, but it happened so fast! There were so few pages left, and yet things hadn't wrapped up yet, and I was getting anxious, and then it all just happened, and I wanted the very last scene with Abbey and Caspian to last longer. Much longer.
But November 1st? Happy :) I thought he was going to sleep through it! Man, was I scared.
Overall, FANTASTIC series. Love love love love. One of my overall all time FAVORITES.
But super, super huge kudoos, Jessica Verday, for sticking to the ever so classy trilogy. In a world full of YA bullcrap series that milk every page they can with crappy wannabe prose, round about story lines, and dramarama, a well done trilogy is so appreciated I could scream.
And so, I will.
JESSICA VERDAY, I LOVE YOU!!!
I love love love love love this story. I'm a sucker for ghost stories, and Ms. Verday had me hooked from the first sentence from the first book, no joke. The setting fit for the most seducively unique and crisp mode that stood out from all the other paranormal books I'd read, and have ever come across. From Abbey's mental breakdowns, her perfume making, her loyal friendships, and, of course, her most delicious love shared with the swoonworthy Shade Caspian, Abbey is a fresh, interesting and decidedly human voice to follow that you can't help but rooting for.
Okay, so... now for the parts I wasn't so in love with. Although I've been in love with this story since the very beginning, this volume wasn't my favorite. I understand that each book needs to stand apart from each other, but this one seemed to have a different tone from the other two. Am I the only one that felt that? While "The Hollow" and "The Haunted" had more mysterious and dangerous untones to the, and gave the feeling of isolation to Abbey and Caspian, it seemed to lose that in "The Hidden," and almost adopted a new tone altogether. I missed it :(
One thing I really loved about "The Hollow," one thing I thought made it so unique was the way that Ms. Verday based the book on basically 3 main characters: Abbey, our narrator; Caspian, the mysterious Shade; and the cemetery. She turned the setting of Abbey's favorite place, her thinking place, the resting place of her dead best friend, the setting of so many of her memories as well as a hisortic part of the town, into practically a character of it's own. Otherwise, there were only a few a small minor characters, but they were either dead, ghosts, or small.
In "The Hidden," however, this changed. We were suddenly overloaded with characters, from friends at school, to the four Revenants, to the random people at the insane asylum... people were EVERYWHERE. For someone who lived such a small, isolated life (she only talked to dead people, if you recall) one year earlier, Abbey seemed to live a crazy social life all of a sudden. I was having social anxiety. For, you know. Abbey.
I liked the way story ended up wrapping up. The way it was written? Eh... sort of? I guess? I don't know how it could have been any better, I suppose... I think I would have liked a BAM! I WAS DEAD.... BAM! I WAS AWAKE.... and it was just me and Capsian... I don't know. Anyways, it was clever, very clever, how it ended up, but it happened so fast! There were so few pages left, and yet things hadn't wrapped up yet, and I was getting anxious, and then it all just happened, and I wanted the very last scene with Abbey and Caspian to last longer. Much longer.
But November 1st? Happy :) I thought he was going to sleep through it! Man, was I scared.
Overall, FANTASTIC series. Love love love love. One of my overall all time FAVORITES.