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A review by jubaju
Checkmate by Malorie Blackman
2.0
Slight improvement. I’m generously giving this 2.5 stars.
Again, I have a problem with the characterisation. None of them are relatable, and they’re very one dimensional. Jude goes from 0 to 100 and back to 0 in the same paragraph. Callie Rose is just a typical annoying teenager, and Sephy stills hasn’t grown up.
The majority of this book was fuelled by miscommunication. If Sephy and Callie had talked, we could probably have skipped this entire book and gone straight to the next one. This felt more like an introduction to the characters in Double Cross and less like an actual story with a plot.
We keep jumping between different POVs that just drag the story on and on, most of which could have easily been cut off with no consequences.
Also, the fact that Sephy and Callie keep talking to Callum in 2nd person even though he’s dead felt very embarrassing to me. Sephy is a grown woman, but she doesn’t act like it; her chapters and Callie’s feel interchangeable, and one of them is 9.
The grammar is lacking, some chapters read like they haven’t been edited at all, the tenses are all over the place, and some of the writing is just plain awkward. I feel like I’ve been reading the same book over and over again.
I will be continuing with this series, simply because I only have one book left to go, and I’m interested to see what conclusion this whole mess will have. As of right now, I’m not feeling hopeful.
Again, I have a problem with the characterisation. None of them are relatable, and they’re very one dimensional. Jude goes from 0 to 100 and back to 0 in the same paragraph. Callie Rose is just a typical annoying teenager, and Sephy stills hasn’t grown up.
The majority of this book was fuelled by miscommunication. If Sephy and Callie had talked, we could probably have skipped this entire book and gone straight to the next one. This felt more like an introduction to the characters in Double Cross and less like an actual story with a plot.
We keep jumping between different POVs that just drag the story on and on, most of which could have easily been cut off with no consequences.
Also, the fact that Sephy and Callie keep talking to Callum in 2nd person even though he’s dead felt very embarrassing to me. Sephy is a grown woman, but she doesn’t act like it; her chapters and Callie’s feel interchangeable, and one of them is 9.
The grammar is lacking, some chapters read like they haven’t been edited at all, the tenses are all over the place, and some of the writing is just plain awkward. I feel like I’ve been reading the same book over and over again.
I will be continuing with this series, simply because I only have one book left to go, and I’m interested to see what conclusion this whole mess will have. As of right now, I’m not feeling hopeful.