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A review by book_hoarding_dragon
Geist by Philippa Ballantine
2.0
I came across Geist when it first came out, but when I read the first few pages it wasn't captivating for me. But since then I keep getting recommended this book and I'm constantly running across it. I needed some books to read, so I decided to give it a go.
I found the story interesting and I liked that the mysteries of some of the characters slowly revealed themselves. Parts of the story were intriguing and I found to be original.
But I did have a few problems with this book.
Some previous reviewers have stated that this is a good book, once you get past the first three chapters. I wholeheartedly agree with this. Once I started reading it, at first it was enticing but then I just started dragging my heels with the book. The first chapter wouldn't have been so bad, in my opinion, if it wasn't for all the term dropping. For example Sorcha mentions The Center, Sensitive, Active, Geist, Strop, etc. Some of the terms you kind of have to understand just by reading the book, they are never explained, which made for some frustrating reading.
Sometimes, it felt like the author wasn't sure what she wanted the terms to mean either. For example "Geist" sometimes made me think it was a term for some otherworld entity, other times it was a general term for the "unliving". If the author wasn't going to explain the stuff in the book, I felt like she should have included a glossary at the very least.
Another thing that bothered me in the book was Sorcha's relationship. In the book, Sorcha is married to Kolya. However, she starts a relationship with Raed. Her reasoning for this is her marriage has been dead for years, but THAT makes it okay for her to cheat on her husband :eye rolls:. If her husband was lost at sea, I can understand it, if she separated from him I can understand it. But she made a promise/vow (possibly) to be Kolya's wife (the reason why this bothers me so: My mom taught me if you give your "word", you had better do it. Cause if you don't you'll lose that trust. My dad taught me that the only thing you truly own is your "word". So, don't use it frivolously and mean it). Plus, she doesn't seem to try to make any effort to restore her relationship in the past. Not to mention, how her character inexplicably changes in regard to Kolya. At the beginning, Sorcha uses a dangerous rune when she sees Kolay collapse while he was attacked by a geist; but less than halfway through the book she decides that their relationship is dead and jumps into a new one with Raed. It doesn't make much sense to me.
Sorcha is a strong character. That's it. I've read other series where there are strong female characters, but not here. Which has been done before, you can't spit in a UF genre and not his a book with a strong character who is female, and of course Sorcha is the most powerful Active (like that isn't another over done theme).
I found the story interesting and I liked that the mysteries of some of the characters slowly revealed themselves. Parts of the story were intriguing and I found to be original.
But I did have a few problems with this book.
Some previous reviewers have stated that this is a good book, once you get past the first three chapters. I wholeheartedly agree with this. Once I started reading it, at first it was enticing but then I just started dragging my heels with the book. The first chapter wouldn't have been so bad, in my opinion, if it wasn't for all the term dropping. For example Sorcha mentions The Center, Sensitive, Active, Geist, Strop, etc. Some of the terms you kind of have to understand just by reading the book, they are never explained, which made for some frustrating reading.
Sometimes, it felt like the author wasn't sure what she wanted the terms to mean either. For example "Geist" sometimes made me think it was a term for some otherworld entity, other times it was a general term for the "unliving". If the author wasn't going to explain the stuff in the book, I felt like she should have included a glossary at the very least.
Another thing that bothered me in the book was Sorcha's relationship. In the book, Sorcha is married to Kolya. However, she starts a relationship with Raed. Her reasoning for this is her marriage has been dead for years, but THAT makes it okay for her to cheat on her husband :eye rolls:. If her husband was lost at sea, I can understand it, if she separated from him I can understand it. But she made a promise/vow (possibly) to be Kolya's wife (the reason why this bothers me so: My mom taught me if you give your "word", you had better do it. Cause if you don't you'll lose that trust. My dad taught me that the only thing you truly own is your "word". So, don't use it frivolously and mean it). Plus, she doesn't seem to try to make any effort to restore her relationship in the past. Not to mention, how her character inexplicably changes in regard to Kolya. At the beginning, Sorcha uses a dangerous rune when she sees Kolay collapse while he was attacked by a geist; but less than halfway through the book she decides that their relationship is dead and jumps into a new one with Raed. It doesn't make much sense to me.
Sorcha is a strong character. That's it. I've read other series where there are strong female characters, but not here. Which has been done before, you can't spit in a UF genre and not his a book with a strong character who is female, and of course Sorcha is the most powerful Active (like that isn't another over done theme).