Genre: YA Paranormal
Publication Date: March 4th, 2008
Publisher: Simon Pulse
Format: Hardcover
Pages: 225
Source: Library
For seventeen-year-old Janie, getting sucked into other people's dreams is getting old. Especially the falling dreams, the naked-but-nobody-notices dreams, and the sex-crazed dreams. Janie's seen enough fantasy booty to last her a lifetime.
She can't tell anybody about what she does they'd never believe her, or worse, they'd think she's a freak. So Janie lives on the fringe, cursed with an ability she doesn't want and can’t control.
Then she falls into a gruesome nightmare, one that chills her to the bone. For the first time, Janie is more than a witness to someone else's twisted psyche. She is a participant.
When I write a review, I usually take a lot of notes. The only time I
don't take notes is when I'm to deeply involved in the story or there is
nothing to note. For this book, it's the latter.
What I wanted: A kickass girl who can see and manipulate people's dreams while trying to figure out the origin of her ability.
What I got: A mopey teenager who has the ability to see into people's dreams paired with an agent who's investigating a drug bust. Barely a plot.
This book has so many good reviews and I was anticipating something epic, kick-butt and something that would stick in my brain. What I got instead was this (admittedly) interesting writing style but a flat plot that leaves me trying to remember important details in the actual book. I have a great memory, I think, which is why it's bad that I don't remember much from the book.
The most important (and interesting -good and bad) thing about this book is really the way it's written. It kind of reminds me of a bunch of home movies. You know, with the date on the corner of each clip? This book was told in jumpy bits and time held significance to the story. I didn't actually pay as much attention as I should have and that was why it was such an unappealing book for me. It was also written like a screenplay with "Janie does this and Janie says that." When you've got a third-person and present tense writing style, I think it'll tend to sound very dry.
Don't get me wrong, I appreciate originality, but there's a difference between originality and bad writing. It was quite honestly one of the worst writing styles I've yet encountered. Mind numbing and bland with no similes, barely-there descriptions and characters never having a voice or thoughts makes this to be one of the hardest books I had to get through.
The plot also makes no sense. We've got this girl who enters other people's dreams when they're sleeping in the same room as her. Most dreams are either the falling, sex-crazed or naked people in a public area where no one notices. Before I explain the plot further, I just want to point out that not everybody has such dirty dreams. Half of this book was Janie going into a dream of the sleeping subject having sex with someone else. I don't need to read about that and it did nothing to help the story, plus it got very old and repetitive, very fast.
So. Moving on. We're introduced to a guy named Cabel who is obviously the love interest. I'm not even sure what happened (and I literally finished the book about 2 hours before writing this.) All I know is that the novel ends with Janie becoming a worker for a secret agency. If this info is wrong, my fault.
The plot is so blurry in my mind. It didn't stick and I think I might've skipped halfway or something. I'm that person who doesn't like to DNF so reading this and finishing it was somewhat agonizing. I like books that stick in my head after finishing and this didn't do that. I think it escaped me, to be quite frank because of how simple the plot was.
The characters were also so annoying. Janie, this girl who's been in people's dreams before is just so irritating in the way she acts. She jumps on her emotions and doesn't actually stop to see if what she's doing is right. And besides having her ability, she's completely flat, boring, useless, personality lacking, what other words can I use?
When I hear "ability to go into other people's dreams" I think fantasy, paranormal, supernatural and the theme/mood of the book has a out-of-reality kind of idea. This book was so cut and pasted that if Janie didn't have an ability, there would be no storyline. Period.
I was also left confused in so many parts. What Cabel's job was escapes me. It's told that he works for this top secret "something" and he's investigating a drug bust. He also has to have a cover, fake date a girl and have a rep for being a dealer. It's this false pretense to try to uncover some problem that readers have close to NO insight on.
I really didn't like this book and it did nothing for me. I can't think of anything good about this book besides how easy visualizing was, but that just won't cut it. If I wanted visualizing ops, I'd go read some screenplays.
But please remember: I am the black sheep so you should give it a try! You might think the writing style is interesting and amazing. After all, I'm just another opinion!
No Stars...
What I wanted: A kickass girl who can see and manipulate people's dreams while trying to figure out the origin of her ability.
What I got: A mopey teenager who has the ability to see into people's dreams paired with an agent who's investigating a drug bust. Barely a plot.
This book has so many good reviews and I was anticipating something epic, kick-butt and something that would stick in my brain. What I got instead was this (admittedly) interesting writing style but a flat plot that leaves me trying to remember important details in the actual book. I have a great memory, I think, which is why it's bad that I don't remember much from the book.
The most important (and interesting -good and bad) thing about this book is really the way it's written. It kind of reminds me of a bunch of home movies. You know, with the date on the corner of each clip? This book was told in jumpy bits and time held significance to the story. I didn't actually pay as much attention as I should have and that was why it was such an unappealing book for me. It was also written like a screenplay with "Janie does this and Janie says that." When you've got a third-person and present tense writing style, I think it'll tend to sound very dry.
Don't get me wrong, I appreciate originality, but there's a difference between originality and bad writing. It was quite honestly one of the worst writing styles I've yet encountered. Mind numbing and bland with no similes, barely-there descriptions and characters never having a voice or thoughts makes this to be one of the hardest books I had to get through.
The plot also makes no sense. We've got this girl who enters other people's dreams when they're sleeping in the same room as her. Most dreams are either the falling, sex-crazed or naked people in a public area where no one notices. Before I explain the plot further, I just want to point out that not everybody has such dirty dreams. Half of this book was Janie going into a dream of the sleeping subject having sex with someone else. I don't need to read about that and it did nothing to help the story, plus it got very old and repetitive, very fast.
So. Moving on. We're introduced to a guy named Cabel who is obviously the love interest. I'm not even sure what happened (and I literally finished the book about 2 hours before writing this.) All I know is that the novel ends with Janie becoming a worker for a secret agency. If this info is wrong, my fault.
The plot is so blurry in my mind. It didn't stick and I think I might've skipped halfway or something. I'm that person who doesn't like to DNF so reading this and finishing it was somewhat agonizing. I like books that stick in my head after finishing and this didn't do that. I think it escaped me, to be quite frank because of how simple the plot was.
The characters were also so annoying. Janie, this girl who's been in people's dreams before is just so irritating in the way she acts. She jumps on her emotions and doesn't actually stop to see if what she's doing is right. And besides having her ability, she's completely flat, boring, useless, personality lacking, what other words can I use?
When I hear "ability to go into other people's dreams" I think fantasy, paranormal, supernatural and the theme/mood of the book has a out-of-reality kind of idea. This book was so cut and pasted that if Janie didn't have an ability, there would be no storyline. Period.
I was also left confused in so many parts. What Cabel's job was escapes me. It's told that he works for this top secret "something" and he's investigating a drug bust. He also has to have a cover, fake date a girl and have a rep for being a dealer. It's this false pretense to try to uncover some problem that readers have close to NO insight on.
I really didn't like this book and it did nothing for me. I can't think of anything good about this book besides how easy visualizing was, but that just won't cut it. If I wanted visualizing ops, I'd go read some screenplays.
But please remember: I am the black sheep so you should give it a try! You might think the writing style is interesting and amazing. After all, I'm just another opinion!
No Stars...
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