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A review by saviola
After Eden by Katherine Pine
1.0
First, I'll give you the good: This book is somewhat funny. I found myself laughing outright at some of the scenarios and banter, so that was good. Unfortunately, that isn't what this book is about and it doesn't make this book better overall.
I'm going to agree with some of the other reviewers on this: There is a beginning and an end, but the middle is lacking. Neither the beginning nor end are that spectacular either, and that's why I gave it two stars.
The beginning is okay. At first it seems like a complicated mess of different ideas - it starts off with a vague introduction to the situation with her brother, then cuts into something else with Oz, then goes on to Devi coming home to find Forneus in her living room, and on and on - but soon everything sort of comes together and you become more comfortable with moving on in the story. However, just as soon as it hooks you in, it disappoints. The entire middle is a big fluff of nothing. We end up with a hefty portion of the book dedicated to "padding" a friend's ex-boyfriend's car, which had zero relevance to anything else at all, and A LOT of religious talk.
That, I think, is the difficult thing with these kinds of books. An author may have a great idea or concept of Heaven and Hell for a book, but they have the daunting task of presenting that world to us so the whole rest of the story makes sense. And they have to do it in such a way that we wont be overwhelmed or confused. I'm impressed with Ms. Pine's detail of the "heavenly world" and everything that goes along with it - it's an interesting interpretation - but she unloads it on the readers all at once. You're assaulted with all these theories and stipulations, what an angel is exactly, what's the difference between demons and devils, what does it mean to have no soul.. no spirit, etc. and you just end up bamboozled. I'm glad she explains it all, but it needed to be done carefully and in small doses.
Ms. Pine's style of writing is also very messy. When you're writing something, you know exactly what it means because you know the line of thinking you went through to come up with what you wrote, but not everyone else does. I think she wanted us to draw conclusions and make assumptions about certain situations that only she could understand or make. There seemed to be gaps in conversations and situations, and behavior that didn't make sense. There was also the little editing problem. Not too big a deal for me, it's easy to get over, but when she is constantly spelling Forneus "Forenus" and words like "aliv" are missing letters altogether, I start focusing on those things; especially when the writing hardly makes sense anyway.
I was a little concerned about Devi too. She is a bit bipolar. One second she's all over Oz and wants to kiss him and be his savior, the next, she can't even look at him because she's afraid of him. Their whole relationship goes like that. They'll be laughing and flirting, then all of a sudden Devi is crying and Oz is feeling sorry for himself; or vice versa. She's like that with the angel too. She'll hate him, then pity him, then hate herself for pitying him, then cry about it and want him to feel sorry for her, then hate him again because he doesn't. At one point she even complains about Oz not being there to save her yet. She doesn't even think of trying to get herself out, she just waits and hopes Oz will come for her. Honestly, she needs to get herself together and buck up.
I think more time should have been spent on Kai as well. The very first couple of chapters revolve around his impact on Devi and then all talk of him after that is very meager and unconvincing. I wanted more of a story there.
I'm not going to continue the series. I don't think it's worth the money I'd have to spend or the time I'd have to dedicate. I don't recommend this book to others either.
I'm going to agree with some of the other reviewers on this: There is a beginning and an end, but the middle is lacking. Neither the beginning nor end are that spectacular either, and that's why I gave it two stars.
The beginning is okay. At first it seems like a complicated mess of different ideas - it starts off with a vague introduction to the situation with her brother, then cuts into something else with Oz, then goes on to Devi coming home to find Forneus in her living room, and on and on - but soon everything sort of comes together and you become more comfortable with moving on in the story. However, just as soon as it hooks you in, it disappoints. The entire middle is a big fluff of nothing. We end up with a hefty portion of the book dedicated to "padding" a friend's ex-boyfriend's car, which had zero relevance to anything else at all, and A LOT of religious talk.
That, I think, is the difficult thing with these kinds of books. An author may have a great idea or concept of Heaven and Hell for a book, but they have the daunting task of presenting that world to us so the whole rest of the story makes sense. And they have to do it in such a way that we wont be overwhelmed or confused. I'm impressed with Ms. Pine's detail of the "heavenly world" and everything that goes along with it - it's an interesting interpretation - but she unloads it on the readers all at once. You're assaulted with all these theories and stipulations, what an angel is exactly, what's the difference between demons and devils, what does it mean to have no soul.. no spirit, etc. and you just end up bamboozled. I'm glad she explains it all, but it needed to be done carefully and in small doses.
Ms. Pine's style of writing is also very messy. When you're writing something, you know exactly what it means because you know the line of thinking you went through to come up with what you wrote, but not everyone else does. I think she wanted us to draw conclusions and make assumptions about certain situations that only she could understand or make. There seemed to be gaps in conversations and situations, and behavior that didn't make sense. There was also the little editing problem. Not too big a deal for me, it's easy to get over, but when she is constantly spelling Forneus "Forenus" and words like "aliv" are missing letters altogether, I start focusing on those things; especially when the writing hardly makes sense anyway.
I was a little concerned about Devi too. She is a bit bipolar. One second she's all over Oz and wants to kiss him and be his savior, the next, she can't even look at him because she's afraid of him. Their whole relationship goes like that. They'll be laughing and flirting, then all of a sudden Devi is crying and Oz is feeling sorry for himself; or vice versa. She's like that with the angel too. She'll hate him, then pity him, then hate herself for pitying him, then cry about it and want him to feel sorry for her, then hate him again because he doesn't. At one point she even complains about Oz not being there to save her yet. She doesn't even think of trying to get herself out, she just waits and hopes Oz will come for her. Honestly, she needs to get herself together and buck up.
I think more time should have been spent on Kai as well. The very first couple of chapters revolve around his impact on Devi and then all talk of him after that is very meager and unconvincing. I wanted more of a story there.
I'm not going to continue the series. I don't think it's worth the money I'd have to spend or the time I'd have to dedicate. I don't recommend this book to others either.